Northeast Nodaway girls played a swarming defense which created 36 Union Star turnovers as they won their opening matchup 76-21 last Tuesday. The Bluejays were a totally different team with Hallie Oelze back at full strength from ACL surgery as the team went from a solid team able to score 50 points a night to a team able to create turnovers, run up and down the floor, and go 11 deep if needed. The scary thing about it was that Oelze did not even start against the Trojans. Jacqueline Schulte led the scoring for Northeast, scoring 21 points in three quarters of work, matching the entire Trojan point total. Everything else was spread out, with eight different people scoring between 4 and 10 points for Northeast. Post player Blair Schmitz only had five points, but drew a tough assignment, that of guarding 5'11" Jerika Wilkerson. She succeeded in that role, holding her to four points in almost three quarters of work; most of Wilkerson's points came after Schmitz came out along with the rest of the starters late in the third and early in the fourth.
Jacqueline Schulte opened the scoring with a shot from the top of the key at the seven minute mark. From there, Northeast denied the ball all over the court and Union Star could not even get the ball inbounds. Michelle Schulte scored off an Emily Bryant steal; Jacqueline got a steal and layup after a tip from Blair Schmitz, and Kristin Sherry got another layup after Jacqueline got a steal and lobbed it to her for the easy layup. Emily Bryant leaped high in the air and got a big rejection during the run.
Hillary Todd connected from the left wing to stop the 8-0 run, but Coach Ryan Davis began putting in some fresh legs to start another. Rachel Runde connected from the left baseline, Jacqueline Schulte hit a free throw after Emily Bryant knocked a ball loose and was able to deflect it to her, Schulte scored again after a Hallie Oelze steal, and Oelze picked up another steal and drive to make it 15-2 with 3:25 left. Michelle Schulte hit from the baseline and then scored off a steal, Jacqueline Schulte hit a driving layup as she flipped it in over three defenders, and Northeast used perfect timing to end the frame as Rachel Runde threw a high-low pass to Jessica Redden for a layup at the buzzer to make it 23-6.
Hallie Oelze opened the scoring in the second quarter with a steal and drive with 6:01 left to open the scoring for Northeast. Wilkerson got loose for one of the few times on the evening for Union Star, but then Oelze dropped a three-pointer from the right wing. Jacqueline Schulte cut backdoor for a layup and Blair Schmitz hit a free throw to make it 31-10 with 2:51 left. Hannah Todd scored from the top of the key with 1:56 left, but Jacqueline Schulte hit two free throws, Emily Bryant scored from the left wing, and Taylor Dougan got a steal and drive to make it 37-10 at the break.
Northeast's most productive quarter was the third. Blair Schmitz, who had been missing almost everything up to that point, finally got untracked as she scored a layup off an Emily Bryant steal. Jacqueline Schulte scored from the left wing, Emily Bryant scored off a steal, Schulte connected from the left wing, and then Jacqueline Schulte and Kristin Sherry made the highlight play of the night. Sherry got behind the Trojan defense in transition and then Jacqueline Schulte, on the dribble, led her perfectly with a long bounce pass that threaded the needle past two defenders to the wide-open Sherry, who got the easy layup.
Even when Hannah McGinnis hit a pair of free throws to stop the ten-point Northeast run, that didn't help matters; Northeast pushed the ball right back down the floor after the made free throws and Kristin Sherry got open in transition for a shot from the top of the key to start another run. Jacqueline Schulte followed with a pair of free throws, Michelle Schulte scored a transition three after Kristan Judd swung the ball over to her, and Jacqueline Schulte scored off a steal to make it 56-12. The Union Star coach burned the last of his timeouts, but that did not help matters. Jessica Redden tipped an errant pass and Blair Schmitz collected the steal and layup, Emily Bryant got consecutive steals, and Taylor Dougan hit a 3-pointer from the right wing to cap the 18-0 run, leaving Northeast up 65-12.
Wilkerson finally started getting loose at the end of the third quarter, scoring off a pair of lob passes, hitting a pair of free throws, and picking up an errant carom for a layup as part of an 8-3 Trojan run that made it 68-20. But Northeast made an adjustment as Rachel Runde began helping out perfectly on Wilkerson in the post and Northeast closed out on an 8-1 run. Runde cut through on a backdoor layup, Emily Bryant scored from the right wing after Runde got a steal, Jessica Redden cleaned up after a missed shot in transition, and Runde drove the middle of the paint and did a perfect jump stop from 15 feet out to account for the points.
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