Northeast Nodaway's girls played their best game of the year last Thursday, a 40-32 win over Tarkio. The Indians had beaten CFX, the team that hung 73 on Northeast, by 5, and they are a 2A powerhouse. Seemingly, the Bluejays stretched themselves to their limits with the win; Jaqueline Schulte came down with a nasty case of the flu which did not go down until just before gametime. Kristin Sherry injured her right foot and was wearing it in a cast; Taylor Dougan was also out with an injury. But Coach Ryan Davis said before the game that the team would be just fine in their opening-round district matchup with North Nodaway, and the 50-33 score bore him out.
North Nodaway figured to put up a better fight than the last time the two teams met; they were putting points on the board. They had played Tarkio tough, losing by only 10; they had also scored 47 against CFX even though they lost. With the addition of freshman Ali Ramsey, they suddenly developed several different scoring options. But Northeast started off the game strong and never allowed the Mustangs to get going until it was too late. Schulte, although under the weather, was still a factor and the rest of her teammates all picked up the slack, with five different players getting between six and ten points on the night. That made Northeast an extremely difficult team to stop. Defensively, the Bluejays played lights-out, shutting down their shooters until it was too late for the Mustangs to make up the difference.
The Mustangs tried to keep up with Northeast's offense and the two teams traded buckets. But then Northeast began attacking the middle successfully against North Nodaway's man to man and began to pull away. Emily Bryant had four points in the period while Kristin Sherry, showing no ill effects from her bad foot, had six in the period and playing as physical as she had all year. They managed to jump out to an 18-9 lead after one quarter despite getting only one point in the period from Jacqueline Schulte.
Northeast started the second quarter off strongly as Emily Bryant drove to the basket and hit a floater and Kristen Sherry posted up inside and got a pass from Blair Schmitz to make it 22-9. But a steal and 3-point play from Ramsey seemed to put the brakes on Northeast and the game slowed down to a prolonged crawl for the next several minutes. Northeast led 25-14 at the break.
The Mustangs went to a 2-3 zone to start the third quarter, hoping to force Northeast to miss their outside shots and hoping to capitalize on the resultant fast break opportunities on the other end. For the first four minutes of the third period, the strategy worked as North Nodaway crept closer, at 27-18. But then, Northeast began getting the ball into Blair Schmitz, who then kicked it out to the open person; Coach Ryan Davis said that his players shot much more confidently when the ball was kicked out to them. Schmitz would go on to lead with six assists, mostly when kicking the ball out to open players. Michelle Schulte hit a pair of open shots, and Jacqueline Schulte added a 3-pointer from the top of the key.
With the Northeast lead back up to 15, North Nodaway tried to extend their pressure out of the zone, but that simply created more opportunities for dribble penetration and offensive rebounding opportunities. Blair Schmitz got a putback and a shot from the high post in transition after a steal and Jacqueline Schulte added a shot from the top of the key and Kenzie Waldeier rounded out the Northeast scoring in the third with a putback with 8 seconds left that left the Bluejays up 42-19.
The Mustangs went to their bench to try and provide a spark, and they went on a brief 4-0 run in the first minute of the fourth quarter as Coach Ashley (Pride) Yount put in Karie Ogle, Paige Baker, and Sarah Workman. Baker hit a pair of free throws and a freshman, Nikki Larabee, posted up and scored inside. But Northeast reestablished control as Rachel Runde came off the bench to hit a pair of left baseline jumpers against the zone and Kristin Sherry hit another one. Michelle Schulte scored off an Emily Bryant steal as they ganged up on and trapped a Mustang player and stripped her of the ball to cap the scoring on the night for Northeast and give them a 50-25 lead. Coach Ryan Davis then turned it over to his bench, and North Nodaway never got the deficit under 20 until the closing seconds.
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