Northeast Nodaway girls score first 15, beat Stewartsville

Northeast Nodaway's girls scored the first 15 points of the game and went on to beat Stewartsville 49-15 in Platte Valley Conference action Friday. It was the final tuneup for Northeast before the South Harrison Tournament. The Bluejays struggled to get shots to fall, but did a lot of things right as they forced a season-high 36 turnovers in the win. Michelle Schulte, as usual, led with six steals; Kristin Sherry and Emily Bryant had five each.

Northeast opened with a long 10-pass possession and finally, Kristin Sherry kicked it out to Blair Schmitz (14 points) for the opening basket. Rachel Runde (5 assists) reversed it to Emily Bryant for a 3-pointer and then Michelle Schulte (10 points) followed with a steal and drive. Northeast went into a 2:40 scoring lull, but Stewartsville could not get anything going either. Finally, Emily Bryant got a steal and Kristin Sherry made a Tim Duncan-style bank shot from the left wing. In the blink of an eye, Emily Bryant got another steal and laid it in; Kristin Sherry got another steal off the press and fed it to Blair Schmitz; Northeast scored six points in just a 16 second span. Kristin Sherry jumped a pass and there was nobody within 20 or 30 feet of her as she went in for the ensuing layup to cap the opening run.

Stewartsville began to work the offensive glass behind the play of freshman post player Ashley Schultz and cut it to 15-4 after one quarter, but Taylor Dougan hit from the right wing off a pass from Michelle Schulte to make it 18-4. Adrian Cary hit from the left wing for Stewartsville, but the tiny but deadly Schulte girl turned an offensive board into two free throws and then Rachel Runde turned a steal into a three point play to make it 23-6 with 4:24 left. But the lid closed on the rim as they only managed a single free throw in the last 4:24 and Stewartsville closed to within 24-10 on a banked baseline shot from Kaylea Routh with 1:20 left.

With Stewartsville hanging around, it was time for Michelle Schulte to do her thing and the tiny but deadly Schulte girl did it well as she cut inside for a layup and then scored two free throws off a steal to jump start Northeast's offense again. Kristin Sherry took a charge on defense and then Big Bad Blair, who had been stymied by Schultz in the first half, got untracked starting with a perfect give and go with Rachel Runde. Schmitz scored over Schultz and then got a kickout from Michelle and scored from the left wing. Michelle Schulte scored from the right baseline off a pass from Runde and then the tiny but deadly Schulte girl struck again as she made a leaping defensive board, threw a baseball pass to Rachel Runde who had beaten the defense down the floor, who threw it to Kristin Sherry for the two free throws. Rachel Runde then fed Big Bad Blair two more times to make it 42-10 after three as Northeast held Stewartsville scoreless and triggered the running clock.

In mopup time in the fourth, Rachel Runde scored off a carom and off a Taylor Dougan drive and Runde found Dougan open for a 30-foot 3-pointer from the top of the key for Northeast. Taryn Farnan came off the bench to take a charge in the closing seconds.