Meskwaki sweeps Bolts

BAXTER — Turnovers and missed free throws plagued Baxter’s girls’ basketball team on Tuesday.

The Bolts led by six after the first quarter, but Baxter missed 11 free throws and turned it over around 30 times during a 55-49 loss to Meskwaki Settlement School during Iowa Star Conference South Division play.

“Turnovers and free throws were the difference,” Baxter coach Eric Padget said. “That’s what it came down to. In the first half, we gave up too many fastbreak points. In the second half, we had way too many empty possessions. We probably turned it over 30 times tonight.”

The loss overshadowed a career night from junior McKenzie Eslinger. She finished with 24 points and 15 rebounds in a losing effort. Eslinger was 5-of-6 from the free-throw line in the first half but finished 6-of-13.

Unfortunately, that’s all Eslinger cares about after what ended up being a record-setting night.

“She was tremendous. But the way she is, she was upset after the game because of the missed free throws,” Padget said. “She had 24 points and 15 rebounds and is probably more upset than anyone at the loss.”

The 24 points is a new single-game scoring record at Baxter. She was two points better than Holly Jessen’s 22 points from two seasons ago.

The Warriors (5-1 overall, 1-0 in the conference) scored the first four points of the game but a 13-0 run by Baxter triggered a timeout from Meskwaki. The run included four points from Eslinger and back-to-back treys by senior Caitlyn Bruntz.

The Bolts’ lead was six points after one quarter, but Meskwaki scored seven of the next nine points to get within 17-16. The Bolts remained in front following a layup by junior Sophie Meyer.

The two teams traded buckets for awhile until a 6-0 run to end the half gave the Warriors a 30-28 halftime lead.

Eslinger scored the first bucket of the second half to tie the game, but the Warriors went on a 10-0 run to take a 40-30 lead. Eslinger followed with back-to-back buckets and then three straight points by Eslinger cut the Warriors’ advantage to 42-39.

The Warriors once again went up by eight early in the fourth quarter. The lead remained at eight with 2:19 to play. A putback by Eslinger and a 3-pointer by Jessen trimmed the deficit to 51-48. It was Jessen’s only bucket of the game, but it was the closest the Bolts (2-3, 2-1) got the rest of the way. Senior Sadie Meyer hit a putback as time expired.

“There are a lot of games that we’ll play this year where the only team that can beat us is right there in the room,” Padget said. “We have some winnable games coming up before the break that we need to take care of. We need to get some confidence back.”

Bruntz finished with eight points, seven steals and six assists, Sophie Meyer had seven points and five rebounds, Sadie Meyer grabbed six boards and dished out five assists and Jessen corralled six boards and delivered four assists.

The Bolts were 19-of-54 from the floor, 4-of-14 from long range and 7-of-18 from the free-throw line.

Baxter faces Madrid in a girl-boy varsity doubleheader starting at 6 p.m. on Thursday in Madrid.

BOYS

Meskwaki Settlement 71, Baxter 41

Baxter’s boys’ basketball team came into Tuesday’s game with Meskwaki Settlement 3-0 and none of the games were close. Opponents were only scoring 39 points per game against them.

But the Bolts ran into a buzz saw against the Warriors.

Baxter weathered the first storm, but Meskwaki made more than half of its shot attempts from the floor and connected on 9-of-18 from long range during a 71-41 win over the Bolts.

“They probably made more shots than we were prepared for them to hit and even more than they’ve shown this year,” Baxter coach Zach Hasselbrink said. “So it was a combination of our really bad shooting night with their really good shooting night. That doesn’t add up well for us.”

The Warriors scored the game’s first 10 points and led 14-4 before Baxter rallied to get within 16-13 following a 9-2 run. All nine points were scored by sophomore Rory Heer and he put in all 11 of his points in the first half.

Meskwaki (3-1, 1-0) led 22-15 after one quarter and outscored the Bolts (3-1, 2-1) 19-6 in the second and 17-6 in the third. Four Warriors scored in double-figures, led by Victor Balderas’ 20 points.

“They are an extremely athletic team. They make matchups hard,” Hasselbrink said. “We tried to switch defenses and do whatever we could to handle them, but they have a lot of answers. We have played some really good defense early. But this team was tough on us tonight. They have so many guys who can score.”

All six points in the second quarter were scored by senior Cole Damman, who finished with 20 points on 7-of-22 shooting. Damman came into the game averaging 27.7 points per game.

The Bolts were only 16-of-58 from the floor and 4-of-22 from 3-point range.

“When you shot that bad and don’t have answers at the other end, it gets ugly in a hurry. And that’s what happened,” Hasselbrink said. “I thought we did well against their press. We got some easy ones early off it and did a nice job. Once we broke it, we had troubles running offense. We got good looks. We just missed a ton of wide open 3s.”

Damman added five rebounds and three steals to his game-high 20 points. Freshman Cody Damman chipped in three points, five rebounds and two assists and senior Carter Nelsen grabbed four boards and delivered two assists.

Heer collected three rebounds, two assists and two steals to go with his 11 points. Freshman Carson Scroggins put in four points off the bench as the team’s second leading scorer.

“You want it to sting a little bit. It’s a humbling experience,” Hasselbrink said. “We have to realize that if we shoot like that, we won’t win many games at all.”