With Jacqueline Schulte averaging over 20 points a game early on in the season, West Nodaway tried the box and one against her, trying to make someone else beat them. Not only did the box and one fail to stop Schulte, who had 20 points in a 61-29 rout of West Nodaway, it opened scoring opportunities for Blair Schmitz, who had a season-high 17 points. Northeast continued to look sharp, running the floor and making good transition passes. "The only thing I didn't like was the slow start," said Coach Ryan Davis. "We like to get out to faster starts against teams than what we did." He said that Blair Schmitz and West Nodaway's Kassie Jones were good friends off the court and that Schmitz wanted to do well against the West Nodaway post player. She did so as Jacqueline Schulte ran the baseline against the box and one, drawing the attention of the defense and opening up scoring opportunites for Schmitz despite giving up four inches to Jones. Defensively, Northeast forced 38 Rocket turnovers. They did not get the kind of steals and quick layups that they did earlier, but the press still worked as designed -- it sped up the Rockets, forced them into making quicker decisions, and creating assorted violations.
Northeast started off slowly as the only score for the first 1 1/2 minutes was a backdoor layup by Claire Young for West Nodaway. But one defensive lapse was all it took to kick the Bluejay juggernaut into high gear as somebody left Blair Schmitz all alone for an easy basket and open the floodgates. Jacqueline Schulte followed with an inside shot, Kristin Sherry added a fast break basket and a shot from the right baseline, and Jacqueline Schulte grabbed a putback with 3:15 left to make it 10-2. Kassie Jones finally got loose for a putback to break the run, but Emily Bryant scored from the right baseline and Blair Schmitz hit a free throw to push the Northeast lead to 13-4 after one quarter.
The box and one couldn't stop Jacqueline Schulte from finding other ways of scoring. On the initial play of the second quarter, Northeast got the ball into Blair Schmitz in the high post and drew the attention of the defense; Schmitz fed Schulte for a backdoor layup. Then, Rachel Runde, who came off the bench, stole the ball and pushed it to Kristin Sherry, whose long outlet pass to Jacqueline Schulte resulted in a foul and two free throws. Bryant followed with another fast break following a quick shot on the other end by West Nodaway and Northeast led 19-4 at that point. Tessa Lightner got a steal and layup for West Nodaway to break the run, but Jacqueline Schulte got a fast break layup after getting a feed from Taylor Dougan and Rachel Runde got a steal and played a nifty game of back and forth with Blair Schmitz before connecting to make it 23-6. The two teams traded buckets for the rest of the half and Northeast led 29-12 at the break.
Northeast jumped out to a fast start in the third quarter as Blair Schmitz and Jacqueline Schulte worked the high-low on consecutive occasions to beat the box and one to make it 33-12. Then Schmitz got rewarded for sharing the ball as Jacqueline Schulte fed her on a backdoor cut to make it 35-12. Schmitz continued to have the hot hand as Emily Bryant fed her twice to push the lead to 39-12. Lightner scored off a drive and Clarie Young scored from the left baseline to counter for West Nodaway and the teams traded buckets until the midpoint of the fourth quarter. Hallie Oelze scored off a steal, Jessica Redden scored from the top of the key on a shot similar to the clutch shot she made last year against the same team, Jacqueline Schulte scored off a pair of drives and a free throw, and Michelle Schulte scored off a fast break during the stretch for Northeast.
With Northeast leading 51-28, Blair Schmitz got a steal and drive to trigger a 10-1 game-ending run. Rachel Runde scored off a fast break following a miss and Blair Schmitz scored from inside for Northeast. Kassie Jones countered with a free throw for West Nodaway, but Kristin Sherry scored from the top of the key and Emily Bryant hit a pair of free throws to round out the scoring for Northeast.
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