Northeast Nodaway’s girls broke a three game losing skid Thursday at the South Harrison Tournament, beating Maysville 38-27 in the first round of the tournament. The rest of the games were canceled due to the weather.
Maysville has only won one game, but they have shown a lot of improvement under a new coach, Tyler Zimmerman, who previously turned around the Osborn girls program before it went into a cooperative agreement with Stewartsville. His best year with Osborn was in 2019, when they won the Platte Valley Invitational at Northwest, beating DeKalb 41-33 to do so. They won 17 games that year.
Meanwhile, after their heartbreaking 26-24 loss to North Nodaway, the Bluejays bounced back with a good 36-26 win at DeKalb, always a tough place to play. But then they ran into Gilman City, who got off to a bad 2-4 start with a brutal schedule and had to adjust to life with a new coach. But the Hawks caught fire after that and have won ever since, including a 37-33 win over the Bluejays. They then had to go and play the powerhouse Nodaway Valley Thunder. They played a good game, but they lost again 55-47. They were hoping for a good start to the new year, but Rock Port, like Gilman City, got off to a bad 0-3 start, only to catch fire and win their next eight games. It became nine after they got off to a hot start and hung on for a 40-30 win.
Northeast looked every bit like a team that was in a slump, giving up offensive boards right and left in the early going along with a pair of turnovers that led to easy Maysville scores. The Bluejays trailed 5-1 at one point in the first quarter before Baylie Busby got a pass from Jill Boswell and split three defenders and Dalanie Auffert, who recently signed to play basketball at Southwest Iowa Community College in Creston, scored from inside to knot it up at 5-5 after one.
Hadley DeFreece shot the Bluejays into the lead to start the second quarter, but the unforced errors continued on offense, and Maysville hung around for the remainder of the quarter, closing to within 13-11 at the half.
Northeast was trying everything to get themselves going, but back to back jacks from the red shirts put Maysville in front 17-14 to start the second half. They got the ball back with a chance to make it five or six, but then Baylie Busby got a steal and fed Hadley DeFreece to cut it to one. Busby then got another steal, bot it to Jill Boswell, who gave it back to Busby who split two defenders to give the Bluejays the lead at 18-17.
It was then that Brianna Meyer started sparking the Bluejays on defense. Her one-man press led to a steal and a layup to make it 20-17. Maysville cut it to one, but then Brianna Meyer threw a bullet pass into Dalanie Auffert that she somehow hung on to and finished to make it 22-19 after three.
The rebounding for Northeast was much better after the first half, with the Bluejays giving up four offensive rebounds in the second half after giving up nine in the first half. And for the first part of the fourth quarter, they played the kind of basketball that got them their 6-3 start, not committing a single turnover or giving up a single offensive board for the first 5:47, when the Bluejays had built up a nine point lead.
After a defensive standoff that lasted almost two minutes, Baylie Busby split three Maysville defenders after getting a pass from Sasha Deardorff, just like her aunt Natalie Busby (now Yaple) did back in her playing days. That opened the floodgates as Busby got a tip, Jill Boswell stole it, and threw it back to Busby to make it 26-19. Dalanie Auffert got a third chance putback and then Busby went coast to coast and made one of two from the line to make it 29-19.
Maysville hit a guarded three to cut it to seven, but Northeast inbounded from the sideline and Dalanie Auffert handed it off to Busby, who finished to make it 33-22 with 1:50 left.
There was a heartstopping moment when, after Maysville hit a 3-pointer to make it 33-25 with 55 seconds left, Northeast tried to air it out against their press and threw it too far, which would have given Maysville a chance to cut it to five or six. But the officials ruled that one of the Maysville players had fouled Busby trying to get to the ball before it had gone out of bounds, and the Bluejays kept the ball.
Busby subsequently made one of two to make it 34-25, and then Maysville missed a shot and traveled on its next two possessions. Busby finally hit two of two with 41 seconds to make it 36-25, and then Blair Nelson got a defensive board, got it to Busby, and then Mylee Wilmes sneaked down the court with nobody realizing she was there except for Busby, who threw it out of pressure. Wilmes fed Sasha Deardorff for the dagger before Maysville hit a shot at the buzzer.
For Northeast, Baylie Busby had 22, including 12 in the fourth quarter. Dalanie Auffert had 7, Hadley DeFreece 5, and Brianna Meyer and Sasha Deardorff 2.
Dalanie Auffert had 3 blocks and Jill Boswell 1.
Baylie Busby had 11 boards. Jill Boswell and Dalanie Auffert had 7, Blair Nelson 5, Brianna Meyer and Sasha Deardorff 3, Hadley DeFreece 2, and Hayley Yost and Mylee Wilmes 1.
Jill Boswell and Baylie Busby had 3 assists. Brianna Meyer, Dalanie Auffert, and Sasha Deardorff had 2, and Mylee Wilmes and Hayley Yost had 1.
Baylie Busby had 10 tips to complete the triple double to go with her 22 points and 11 boards. Most importantly, she stayed out of foul trouble, as did Dalanie Auffert. Blair Nelson had 2 and Sasha Deardorff, Hadley DeFreece, Dalanie Auffert, and Mylee Wilmes all had 1.
Baylie Busby had 5 steals. Jill Boswell had 3, Dalanie Auffert 2, and Mylee Wilmes, Brianna Meyer, and Blair Nelson had 1.
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