Bluejay Girls Shut Down Trojans at King City

Northeast Nodaway's girls shut down Union Star in the opening round of the King City Tournament, beating them 51-17 to advance to the second round with North Andrew. The Bluejays had four players scoring eight or more points as they used a balanced attack to pull away from the overmatched Union Star squad, who only has seven players out and who has nobody over 5'6".

Michelle Schulte (14 points) opened the scoring with a putback and 3-point play with 7:24 left and then Emily Bryant (8 points) found Blair Schmitz (13 points) open on the left wing against Union Star's soft zone to make it 5-0. The tiny but deadly Schulte girl added a steal just 12 seconds later and then Rachel Runde hit Big Bad Blair on the right wing to make it 9-0 as they got out to a much faster start than they did the first time against Union Star. Kristin Sherry then capped the game-opening scoring run as Michelle Schulte found her open on the right side at the 5:02 mark as Northeast forced a ton of Union Star turnovers.

Sherry went out with two fouls and Northeast went scoreless for the next two minutes before they increased their lead to 16-4 after one quarter. Northeast held Star scoreless in the second quarter; Rachel Runde hit Michelle Schulte on the right wing and then the tiny but deadly Schulte girl got a defensive board and a quick outlet to Emily Bryant, who threw it to Blair for a driving layup to make it 20-4. Michelle then knocked the ball off a defender's legs and came up with a loose ball and then found Emily Bryant open for a layup. Kristin Sherry then found Blair open on a high-low inside for a free throw to make it 23-4.

Northeast then got a four point play set up by a steal from Big Bad Blair. Kristin Sherry scored off an inbounds play and scored; she missed the ensuing free throw but the tiny Schulte girl struck again, coming out of nowhere to leap high in the air and snatch the offensive board and put it back in to make it 27-4. Coach Eric Fairchild began to use his second string at that point but Northeast continued to pull away as Michelle Schulte turned a steal into a free throw and then Blair had consecutive plays in which she stole the ball and found Kristin Sherry wide open for a layup to make it 32-4.

Emily Bryant hit a 3-pointer from Michelle from the top of the key, Schulte found Rachel Runde on the left baseline for a jumper, and Big Bad Blair struck on a give and go in transition with Runde to make it 39-6. Union Star made a mild rally against Northeast's second string, getting some production from Kaylee Barnett and Hannah Todd to make it 39-12 with 3:04 left but Claudia Wiederholt scored from the right side off a Kristan Judd kickout. Kerrigan Adwell found Big Bad Blair open for a driving layup and then the tiny but deadly Schulte girl cut inside and got a pass from Schmitz and converted it to free throws to make it 45-12 and trigger the running clock for the 4th quarter. Kristin Sherry jumped a pass and had an uncontested layup for Northeast in the fourth quarter while Michelle Schulte took a jumper, missed it, but followed her own shot to the other side of the court and chased it down and drew the foul and hit both free throws. Kristan Judd got in the scoring column with an inside shot to round out the scoring for Northeast.