March 28, 2024

Cardinal girls net victory over visiting Chariton

Finding their perimeter shooting touch early, Newton High’s Cardinal girls drilled four of their seven 3-pointers of the night in the first quarter.

Leading 16-8 over visiting Chariton, Brooklyn Cupples opened the second quarter with a trey. Newton never looked back in a 55-38 win over the Chargers.

The Cardinals improve to 2-1 on the season.

“As always, we had great effort again tonight. We play for the Newton Cardinals not individually,” Newton head coach Eric Vander Velden said. “This was a scrappy win and we have things we have to work on to get ready for DCG on Friday.”

Newton begins Little Hawkeye Conference play at 6:15 p.m. Friday at Class 4A No. 9 Dallas Center-Grimes (3-0).

The Cardinals pushed their lead to 23-9 by the 5:40 mark of the second quarter. They led the Chargers 30-17 at the break.

Newton outscored Chariton 16-9 in the third period. It tallied the final five points.

In the fourth quarter, the Cardinals added nine points, going 7-of-14 at the free-throw line and having one basket.

Chariton had 12 points and 11 came from Emma Rector. Rector led the Chargers with 19 points.

Post player Avery Hall added 15 points.

“The two players we focused on in preparing for Chariton scored 34 of their 38 points,” Vander Velden said. “We work on free throws every day and we hit those down the stretch tonight.”

Cupples finished with a team-high 14 points and six rebounds. Chassidy Henwood, who battled foul trouble and fouled out, had 10 points, six rebounds and three steals.

Mackenzie Baker and Aurora Nehring each had nine points. Baker grabbed 11 rebounds. Nehring had two steals and two blocked shots.

Victoria Reynolds had five points and Jerrica McGuire had four points. Liv Whitten scored three and Audrey Rausch had one point.

Newton was 18-of-34 at the free-throw line. Chariton went 14-of-30 at the line.

“Different people stepped into different roles for us tonight because of foul trouble,” Vander Velden said. “As Liv Whitten said in the locker room ‘we’re 2-1’ and now we get better.”

Newton’s JV 1 won 45-20 led by Alyssa Shannon with 12 points and Madi Altemeier with 11.

The Newton JV 2 won 44-18. Emily Wermager scored 10 points.

Contact Jocelyn Sheets at
641-792-3121 ext. 6535 or jsheets@newtondailynews.com