Bluejay Girls Use Balanced Attack to Claim Consolation

Northeast Nodaway's girls used a balanced attack to beat Stewartsville 36-23 and claim the consolation trophy of the Platte Valley Conference Tournament Thursday night. Rachel Runde led the scoring with 12 points, followed by Michelle Schulte with 11 and Claudia Wiederholt with 8. Coach Vance Proffitt said that he was pleased with the effort except for the start of the third quarter, when he said that they lowered themselves to the other team's level. However, Northeast recovered from that bad stretch and raised their lead into double digits once again as they pulled away for the win in the fourth quarter.

Northeast shut out an opponent for the second straight game as they led Stewartsville 9-0 after one quarter. Rachel Runde connected from the right baseline to start out with, followed by a 3-pointer from Michelle Schulte. Michelle followed with a putback as the tiny but deadly Schulte girl rebounded well for the night -- six offensive rebounds as she used her tiny frame to her advantage as Stewartsville routinely lost track of her on the boards. Claudia Wiederholt followed with a shot to make it 9-0 after one.

There was a scare at the start of the second quarter as Michelle hurt her knee as she got tangled up with a Stewartsville player and came out of the game. Claudia hit another shot, but then Stewartsville began to came back as they started to lob the ball at will into Ashley Schultz, their big post player. She scored consecutive shots to make it 11-4, but then Michelle came back in and scored off a Claudia steal. Kerrigan Adwell followed with a shot from the right wing off a pass from Michelle and then Claudia Wiederholt got a putback following a steal to make it 17-4 before Schultz scored again to make it 17-6 at the break.

But the difference between Thursday night's game and the DeKalb loss was the fact that Rachel Runde was on the floor for most of the game Thursday night as she avoided the foul trouble that forced her to sit down for long stretches in Monday's loss. Stewartsville rebounded at will and lobbed the ball into the paint at will for the first six minutes of the third quarter as they got to within 21-15. But then Rachel sparked Northeast as she hit a shot from the right wing and then followed with a pair of free throws and a score off a steal and Northeast was never ahead by less than double digits for the rest of the game. Michelle Schulte followed with a steal as Northeast led 29-15 after three quarters. Northeast led by as much as 36-17 in the fourth as Michelle scored off another steal for Northeast.

"We're not going to score 70 points every night, but our defense stepped up and played real well," said Proffitt. "It was fun to watch and we made some great plays when we had to."