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Down by four points with less than a minute to go in the third quarter, Newton High’s girls went on a 6-1 run on back-to-back 3-pointers to lead the Class 4A ninth-ranked Dallas Center-Grimes’ Fillies, 36-35.
A basket by senior post player Ellie Horn at the 3:09 mark pulled the Cardinals to within four, 34-30. Senior Ryanne Rausch’s 3-pointer with 46.9 seconds left made it 34-33. Trailing 35-33, senior Courtney Jacobsen drained a trey to give Newton its first lead since late in the first quarter.
The Fillies turned their defensive pressure up and took advantage of Cardinal turnovers for a 15-0 run in the fourth quarter to salt away a 58-46 win Tuesday against their hosts. The loss dropped the Cardinals to 2-7 in Little Hawkeye Conference play while the Fillies improved to 7-2 in conference action.
“We’re much improved from the first time we played DCG, but our decision-making is still something we need to improve on,” Newton head coach Brandon Sharp said. “People could see how well we execute and compete when we don’t turn the ball over. In the fourth quarter, we just got rushed and didn’t take care of the ball.”
Sharp said the Cardinals lose by 12 points after turning the ball over 29 times against DCG.
“To lead a team like DCG after three quarters and stay with them with that many turnovers, you did something right,” Sharp said. “We have a lot of work to do on decision-making. We learn from this and move on.”
Newton junior guard Randi Walters opened the game with a 3-pointer to give the Cardinals a 3-0 lead. Dallas Center-Grimes had baskets by Brooke Kramer and Hannah Wuebker to go in front.
The Cardinals got the ball inside to Horn, who responded with two straight baskets.
Newton was up 7-4 at the 2:06 mark of the first quarter, but DCG pushed out to a 12-7 lead by the end of the period.
Mallory Vroegh and Newton senior Taylor Shipley traded a pair of free throws in the opening minutes of the second quarter. Junior Ali Bestell answered a Fillies’ basket for Newton. Trailing 18-11, Jacobsen hit a 3-pointer.
Newton cut the gap to four points on baskets by Horn and Rausch with 1:35 remaining in the first half. The Cardinals couldn’t take advantage and Kramer hit a 3-pointer with 23 seconds on the clock to lift the Fillies to a 27-20 halftime lead.
The Cardinals came out in the third with two straight baskets from Horn in the lane. Newton outscored DCG 16-8 in the third period to gain its lead.
“We had a handful of turnovers to start the fourth quarter. Once DCG got their lead back, they started running their delay game and spreading us out,” Sharp said. “Anytime we have to pull our bigs away from the basket, it makes us very thin.”
It was a basket by Horn at the 2:43 mark to break the Fillies’ run in the final eight minutes. Sharp said his players kept working and competing right to the final buzzer.
Horn led the Cardinals with 17 points, six rebounds and four blocked shots. Rausch came up three assists shy of having a triple-double against DCG. She fired in 11 points, controlled 13 rebounds and had seven assists. Rausch also made three steals.
Jacobsen hit three 3-pointers for nine points. Shipley had four rebounds.
“We outrebounded them, 38-20. I thought Randi Walters did a great job defensively on Jenna Borchers tonight. Borchers only had four points in the first half and finished with 10. We had several others helping guard Borchers tonight, as we wanted to make someone else to beat us,” Sharp said.
Borchers was 4-of-5 at the free-throw line on her way to 10 points. Kramer, who hit three treys on the night, led the Fillies (10-6) with 17 points. They were 14-of-24 from the line to Newton’s 7-of-13.
Newton (5-10) plays at 6:15 p.m. Friday at Class 4A fourth-ranked Grinnell in LHC action.
DCG won the junior varsity game, 58-25. Abbie Barr led Newton with 14 points. In the freshman game, Newton lost 43-24 with Liv Whitten scoring seven points and Jenna Smith tossing in five points.
DCG 12-15-8-23—58
Newton 7-13-16-10—46
Newton (FG/3-pt): Rausch 3/1-2-4-11, Forsyth 0-0-1-0, Walters 0/1-1-5-4, Shipley 0-3-3-3, Jacobsen 0/3-0-3-9, Horn 8-1-0-17, Bestell 1-0-1-2. TOTALS: 12/5-7-17-46.
DCG (FG/3-pt): Kramer 3/3-2-1-17, Jorgensen 0-2-0-2, Borchers 3-4-1-10, Vroegh 1/1-3-3-8, Nolte 0-0-1-0, Wuebker 2/1-0-5-7, Lowery 3-3-09, Cunningham 1/1-0-1-5. TOTALS: 13/6-14-12-58.
Contact Jocelyn Sheets at
641-792-3121 ext. 6535 or jsheets@newtondailynews.com