Thursday, March 4, 2010

Bluejay Girls Advance to Finals Behind Schulte's Defense

Northeast Nodaway's girls beat Rock Port 65-40 Wednesday night behind the defense of Jacqueline Schulte, who held Rock Port standout Makayla Vette scoreless in the first half while getting 18 points and 4 steals herself on the night. All of Vette's 18 points came in the second half, after the game had already been decided. Rock Port had shown some life down the stretch, beating Tarkio down the stretch and then handing West Nodaway a 47-26 pasting behind Vette's 22 points in the opening round of districts. But Northeast's press worked as well as it had all year as Rock Port could not even get across halfcourt in the first minute and a half and were struggling against the press all night. Northeast came into the game knowing they had to stop Vette from going wild against them and they accomplished that task as Jacqueline Schulte did not allow Vette a single open look in the first half while stealing the ball from her twice and going in for layups. Blair Schmitz took some turns on Vette while Schulte was on the bench and was effective against her as well.

As Rock Port was unable to break the press and get into their offense, Northeast jumped out to a quick 6-0 lead in the first 1:08 as Hallie Oelze got a steal, Jacqueline Schulte stole the ball from Vette and went in for a layup, and Michelle Schulte (9 points, 6 steals) got another steal. Rock Port finally got on the board as Abbey and Allison Lawrence each scored to cut Northeast's lead to 6-4 at the 5:54 mark. But then Blair Schmitz (12 points, 4 assists) worked a perfect high-low with Schulte and then added a couple of free throws to make it 10-4.

Abbey Lawrence got loose against the press for a layup to make it 10-6 but then Alex Garst and Emily Graham went to the bench with foul trouble for Rock Port, which seemed to hurt them badly on the floor. Hallie Oelze hit a free throw, Rachel Runde found Blair Schmitz open in the post, and then Jacqueline Schulte hit a pair of free throws to make it 15-6. Hallie Oelze then threw a long outlet to Michelle Schulte, Kristen Sherry threw a long outlet to Jacqueline Schulte, and then Jessica Redden got a steal off the press, threw it to Hallie, who threw it back to Jessica for the layup to make it 21-6 after one quarter of play.

In the first quarter, Rock Port had 14 turnovers including two five-second violations as they could not get the ball inbounds against the press, one ten-second violation, and five traveling and carrying violations as they could not get around Northeast's defenders.

Northeast continued their run in the second quarter as Jacqueline Schulte found Blair Schmitz inside, Kristin Sherry got a third chance putback after a steal, and then Blair Schmitz then found Jacqueline Schulte open on a high-low to cap the 17-0 run that left Northeast up 27-6.

Abbey Lawrence hit from the right side for Rock Port, but then Blair Schmitz found Emily Bryant (11 points, three 3-pointers) open on the top of the key. Following a rejection by Jacqueline Schulte on the other end, Bryant added a driving layup and Jacqueline Schulte added a steal to make it 34-8. Emily Graham and Alex Garst got fast breaks to cut Rock Port's deficit to 34-12, but then Blair Schmitz found Jacqueline Schulte open on a backdoor layup, Hallie Oelze found Kristen Sherry open in transition, Jacqueline Schulte stripped Vette for the second time in the game and went in for the layup, and Michelle Schulte followed with a steal to make it 42-12 before Allison Lawrence's drive made it 42-14 at the half.

Jacqueline Schulte found Blair Schmitz open on a high-low play and Kristen Sherry went to the rack in transition to make it 46-14 before the teams traded buckets for the rest of the period. Michelle Schulte had a coast to coast fast break, Jacqueline Schulte hit two free throws after a drive, Jessica Redden found Blair Schmitz open on the right wing, and then Blair Schmitz added a steal as Northeast led 55-23 after three quarters. Makayla Vette finally got untracked in the period, scoring four points in the quarter before scoring 14 in the fourth period against Northeast's second string. For Northeast, Bryant hit two 3-pointers in the fourth quarter; Kristan Judd threw a long outlet to Hallie Oelze for a breakaway, and Bryant found Taylor Dougan open on the right side.

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