Second half separates Clarinda from Panther girls
Jan. 5—After playing most of three quarters with point differences no greater than five, Creston girls were not able to maintain that play of the game as visiting Clarinda pulled away late in the third quarter Wednesday on the way to a 59-45 win.
Creston's Kadley Bailey's 3-point shot with 1:55 left in the third quarter cut Clarinda's lead to 39-37. But Clarinda would do the rest of the scoring that quarter to build a 45-37 lead to start the fourth. Clarinda's Addison Wagoner finished the third quarter with a 3-point shot as well.
"We are getting better," said Creston coach Tony Neubauer. "We are closing the gap. We just ran out of gas. It ended up being 14, but it wasn't 14."
Creston wouldn't add another point until 6:27 in the game when Hollynn Rieck made one of two free throws. A minute later, Panther Brynn Tussey trimmed the deficit to seven at 50-43 with consecutive 2-point and 3-point with 4:47 left.
"I'm extremely happy with our effort. We did a lot of nice things. We made some young mistakes because we are young," he said. Wednesday's action was the first for Creston since Dec. 20 and 21 at Kansas City before the holiday break.
The close game started from the beginning as leads were not greater than four. Panther Ava Adamson's 3-point shot gave Creston a 11-9 lead with less than 3 minutes in the first quarter. She added a filed goal later on to make it 13-9 before Clarinda's Wagoner scored before the end of the quarter to give Creston a 13-11 advantage. She was high score for Clarinda with 18 points from 8-18 shooting.
Second quarter play echoed the first as Bailey extended the lead to 15-11. Two free throws by Clarinda's Carsen Wellhausen tied the game at 17. That would be the start to a short run by Clarinda, but would lead no more than five. Four consecutive free throws by Bailey cut the Cardinal lead to 25-24 with 1:18 left in the half. She gave Creston a 27-26 lead at the break with a 3-point shot with 42 seconds remaining.
Bailey led Creston with 15 points. She was 4-7 shooting including three 3-point shots and made all four of her free throws. Tussey finished with nine points including the 3-point shot. Adamson finished with seven. Ella Turner had a team high nine rebounds for Creston. Clarinda had 18 offensive rebounds to Creston's four. Rieck finished with six assists and Lydia Goins had three steals.
As a team, Creston shot 15-39 from the field including 7-14 from the 3-point line. The Panthers were 8-14 at the free throw line. Creston had 28 turnovers.
Neubauer said the first half was a good assessment for his team.
"We are good against zone defense. We attack it well. We had 27. We cut hard and we got looks," he said about the play on offense. But the team's status shows. "We just make young mistakes. I was happy with the effort. Hawkeye 10 basketball is a grind."
He added the game did have its pros and cons.
"We made progress tonight. We can't have lulls against good teams. We had a two-minute lull the end of the third. It went from a two-point ball game to eight. That makes a big difference," he said.
And if it wasn't the youth, it was the limited number of players. Junior Ady Morrison sprained an ankle in the junior varsity game and did not play in the varsity game. Her status is unknown. Tussey left the game in the fourth quarter with an injury.
Creston (4-6) plays 6 p.m. tonight at Denison (5-4).
