Baxter girls cruise past North Tama

BAXTER — Baxter’s girls’ basketball team didn’t let a bad shooting night from the floor deter it from having a solid performance on the court Tuesday night.

The Bolts shot just 34 percent from the field and made only 1-of-16 from 3-point range, but a strong defensive performance and an improved night at the free-throw line pushed Baxter to a 56-35 home win over North Tama during Iowa Star Conference South Division play.

Baxter led by two after one quarter but outscored the Redhawks 15-8 in the second and 18-8 in the third to pull away.

“Our defense kept us in the game tonight,” Baxter coach Eric Padget said. “I thought we played a lot better in the game up there, but we scored more points tonight. The first half was weird. There was no flow.”

Three Bolts reached double-figures in the win. All three scored Baxter’s 11 first-quarter points. Caitlyn Bruntz and Sophie Meyer both converted layups to draw even with the Redhawks and then a hoop and the harm from Meyer put the Bolts up 7-4.

Bruntz’s putback made it 9-4, but North Tama rallied to tie the game. Holly Jessen scored inside to put the Bolts (9-5 overall, 6-2 in conference play) in front after one.

Meyer had 16 points and six rebounds in the win, while Bruntz scored 15 points and dished out six assists. Jessen scored a season-high 11 points and grabbed four rebounds.

Jessen and the Bolts took advantage of several back cuts against North Tama’s tight man-to-man defense.

“They played a tight man to man defense so I tried to cut hard to the basket a few times and my team did a good job of finding me,” Jessen said.

Padget said the experience of his team has allowed for in-game adjustments to be made much easier than in previous seasons. The back-cuts against a man defense was a good example of that.

“This is one of the best passing teams I have ever had and they did a really good job of finding the cutters and open players and it led to easy baskets,” Padget said. “I love the experience of this team. They can figure it out as they play.”

Bruntz began the second with her only 3-point make of the game. The lead got as large as 22-13 after Bruntz hit a jumper, Lilie Vansice made a pair of free throws and Meyer got a steal and layup.

The lead was 26-17 at the break following buckets inside the lane by Jessen and Meyer.

Baxter led by nine despite losing second-leading scorer McKenzie Eslinger to foul trouble early in the first quarter.

“We’ve had a lot of different high scorers. Kenzie brings a lot to the court besides just scoring, so when she went out I was a little worried,” Padget said. “Kudos to Sadie Meyer. She blocks out really out and is the key to our defense.”

A 10-2 run by the Bolts to open the third quarter put the game out of reach. Meyer had a pair of layups during that stretch. Sadie Meyer had a putback and Maddie Pierce scored inside to put Baxter in front 44-25 after three quarters.

The closest North Tama (2-11, 1-6) got the rest of the way was 15. But a 7-0 run pushed the Bolts’ lead back to 23.

Baxter was 5-of-6 from the free-throw line in the final three minutes. The Bolts came into the game shooting 44 percent from the line but made 11-of-17 against the Redhawks. Jessen was 5-of-7.

The nine wins for Baxter matches the eight the Bolts won all of last season. The Bolts have won seven of their last nine games, while North Tama has dropped four in a row.

“They were part of a pretty good season last year,” Padget said. “But they put in a lot of work to make sure we were better this season.”

Sadie Meyer finished with four points, nine rebounds and three assists, Pierce had three rebounds and two steals, Vansice scored four points and grabbed three boards and Eslinger grabbed three rebounds.

Baxter plays Meskwaki Settlement School (9-3, 5-1) at 6 p.m. on Friday in Meskwaki Settlement.