Everybody scored in an 82-21 rout of the Nodaway-Holt Trojans as Northeast Nodaway's girls won their opening round matchup of the Northwest Missouri Basketball Tournament. It was the most points Northeast had scored in recent memory, in contrast to the Claude Samson years, when putting that many points on the board was routine for the Bluejay girls. They survived an injury scare and forced 53 turnovers on the hapless Trojans, who had developed some offensive firepower to go with their size, but could not bring the ball up the floor against the Bluejay pressure.
Jacqueline Schulte came out on fire against the Trojans as she scored eight points in the first minute of the game. She grabbed a pair of putbacks and scored off a Kristin Sherry steal and a Hallie Oelze steal as Northeast led 8-0 at the 7:06 mark. Following a free throw from Kristin Sherry and a putback from Hallie Oelze, Jacqueline Schulte connected again, this time hitting a 3-pointer from the right wing to make it 14-0 at the 6:20 mark.
Nodaway-Holt made a bid to get back in the game as Amanda O'Riley scored after a carom rolled right at her; Hailey Poppa followed with a basket and Whitney Keith followed with a free throw to make it 14-5 at the 5:03 mark. But Hallie Oelze got a steal which led to a pair of Bryant free throws, and Northeast was off to the races again. Jacqueline Schulte followed by driving the lane, drawing the defense, and kicking out to Oelze for a 3-pointer; Schulte then followed with a steal. Alycia Keith's 3-pointer cut Northeast's lead to 21-8, but Kristin Sherry scored from the right side and then Michelle Schulte got in on the act as she connected from the right wing and then scored off a Kristin Sherry steal. Hallie Oelze hit a pair of free throws and then Jacqueline Schulte got a steal and drive, scored another inside shot off a Jessica Redden pass, and then fed the ball to Kristin Sherry at the buzzer; her shot from the top of the key, with a taller defender all over her, went down to put Northeast up 36-8 after one quarter.
Jacqueline Schulte had 17 points at that point. But just when it looked like she would be able to make an assault on the all-time single game scoring records of 48 points by Linda (Schmitz) Mattson and 47 points by Shelly Wilmes, she came up limping following a collision with a Trojan player, causing everyone in the whole gym to hold their breaths. Following an early basket by Nodaway-Holt, Blair Schmitz hit a pair of free throws, Kristin Sherry scored from the left baseline, and Taylor Dougan got a putback to make it 42-10. But as the shock of the injury set in, Nodaway-Holt made a 6-0 run as Hailey Poppa scored from inside and Amanda O'Riley scored off a drive and a shot from the top of the key to cut Northeast's lead to 42-16. But as it turned out that the injury was to Jacqueline's shin and not her knee as initially feared and as it was not serious -- coach Ryan Davis said he could have put her back in two minutes later if he had needed her -- the Bluejays turned it into a learning experience as they were able to successfully play together without Jacqueline for the rest of the game. Schulte came back in briefly at the start of the second half; Coach Davis kept her out the rest of the time as a precautionary measure.
Northeast was able to use balanced scoring to pick up the slack as four different players picked up the scoring load. Hallie Oelze and Michelle Schulte had 13 points for the night, Kristin Sherry followed with 11 points, and Emily Bryant had 9. Hallie Oelze played lights-out on the ball defense as she got eight steals and four assists for the night; Kristin Sherry had five assists. Oelze picked up three steals in the last three minutes of the second quarter right when Northeast needed to right the ship; her first led to a four-point play. She was fouled on the drive and made the layup, but missed the free throw; however, Kristin Sherry grabbed the putback and put it in against two players five inches taller than her to make it 46-16. Following a free throw by Holmes for Nodaway-Holt, Michelle Schulte scored off a Kristin Sherry steal and then scored off a Hallie Oelze steal. Emily Bryant followed with a steal and drive and a pair of free throws and then Hallie Oelze collected her third steal and got a layup at the buzzer to put Northeast up 56-17.
Jacqueline Schulte came back in at the start of the second half and showed no ill effects from the injury as she scored off a nifty play; Blair Schmitz got a steal, fed Michelle Schulte, who got the ball to Jacqueline Schulte for the layup. After Jacqueline came out after a minute and a half, Michelle picked up the slack as she hit a 3-pointer off an inbounds play and beat the Trojan defense down the floor and made a pair of free throws. Hailey Poppa countered with a tough shot from the right wing with a defender in her face to cut it to 65-19, but Rachel Runde hit a pair of free throws, Blair Schmitz drove down the lane and hit a rare right-handed layup, Hallie Oelze scored off a steal, Jessica Redden scored from inside off a Kristan Judd steal, and Emily Bryant scored off a Hallie Oelze steal to make it 75-19 at the end of the third quarter.
The running clock ensured that there would be no assault on 100 points like there would have been during the old days, when the challenge was to see if the Bluejays could eclipse the century mark. But they were able to get everyone into the scoring column as Kristan Judd hit from the left wing with 4:40 left and Kenzie Waldeier scored a pair of free throws and got a back door layup. Emily Bryant's free throw following a quick outlet and a drive down the right side of the floor rounded out the scoring for Northeast.
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