Girls basketball: Newman jumps out to lead, holds off Bureau Valley charge

STERLING – After Newman built the lead, it held on for dear life despite Bureau Valley’s best efforts down the stretch Thursday night.

The Comets led by as many as 14 in the fourth quarter before the Storm charged back to make things interesting. But Newman had enough in the tank to pull out a 56-52 Three Rivers East win.

[ Photos from Newman vs. Bureau Valley girls basketball ]

Patience was the key for the Comets (3-4, 2-0 TRAC East), as they ran the offense more consistently in the second half and were rewarded with open shots.

“I think the key was just working through our plays and waiting for options to open up, instead of just trying to force it and tossing up the first shot we had,” senior forward Jess Johns said. “We actually went out and we weren’t allowed to shoot it a couple of times, just so we could be patient, because we hadn’t been running the play through and waiting for the options to open up.

“Once we started doing that, there were just natural chances. The defense was cheating out front, so we made some back cuts and were able to make things happen. We had a lot of looks when we ran the offense.”

BV (4-3, 1-1) took a 15-13 lead in the first minute of the second quarter when junior Izabella Birkey corralled a loose ball under the basket and scored a layup. But it was all Comets for the next few minutes.

Johns scored on a putback, then freshman point guard Elaina Allen found sophomore guard Lucy Oetting wide open under the basket for a 17-15 lead. Johns then banked home a shot in the lane and senior Madison Duhon hit a pair of free throws for a 21-15 edge.

Duhon hit a 3, then back-to-back Johns buckets answered jumpers from BV freshman Libby Endress and senior Lynzie Cady for a 28-21 lead going into halftime.

The Storm struggled from the field early, and it carried over to the second half. They finished 18-for-63 (28.6%) from the field for the game, including 5-for-25 from 3-point range.

“Our shooting was ice cold in the first three quarters, and we wouldn’t take the ball to the hole. We weren’t aggressive enough, and they came out and they were aggressive and they took it to us,” BV coach Matt Wasilewski said. “They got some shots to fall – I think they banked a couple in – but when you’re aggressive and willing to shoot, that’s going to happen. We were not willing to shoot, and when we did, we took some hurried shots.”

Freshman Brooklyn Smith buried a 3 to open the fourth quarter, then Oetting scored on an in-bounds play before hitting a putback a couple of minutes later. Johns converted a loose ball under the basket for a layup to push the Comets lead to 53-39 with 3:19 left.

“It was really big that we were patient. We tried to run our offense ‘Continuity,’ and we tried to go left more, because they were all on the right side. Eventually, we got it going in the second half,” Oetting said. “We had to box out a lot more, and we started doing that better in the second half. That’s what got us those big rebounds, and we didn’t give them more chances to score.

“It feels like we played really together as a team. We could’ve done better, but it’s always good to win.”

Things got tight in the final minutes, as BV went to a full-court press and also hit its free throws, while Newman didn’t (2-for-10 over the final four minutes). Cady went coast-to-coast for a layup, then senior Kate Salisbury scored on a putback before hitting to free throws to make it 55-50 with 50.4 seconds to go.

But Oetting split a pair of free throws, and time ran out on the Storm’s comeback.

“We really executed our offense in fourth quarter. We finally put it together and made it work,” Salisbury said. “We also came out with great intensity. I think in the fourth quarter we realized, ‘We gotta go,’ and we picked it up and came out a lot more intense.

“I feel like as a team, once one person gets hot, we all carry on from that and we get hot. But we were really cold at the beginning and couldn’t get our shots to fall tonight.”

Johns led Newman with 18 points, nine rebounds and two steals, and Oetting added 13 points and seven boards. Duhon had eight points, eight rebounds, four assists and two steals, Allen finished with seven points, five assists, four rebounds and two steals, and Smith hit a pair of 3s and also nabbed three steals. Helen Papoccia chipped in four points and three rebounds.

Salisbury led BV with 20 points and seven rebounds, and Cady added 11 points, four steals, three rebounds and two assists. Stoller finished with seven points, eight rebounds and three steals, junior Taylor Neuhalfen scored six points, and Endress and Birkey each finished with four points; Endress had seven rebounds, and Birkey chipped in four rebounds, three assists and two steals.

“There in the fourth quarter, that’s the team we need to be – and we need to do it without being in full-court [defense] the whole time,” Wasilewski said. “We’re going to have to improve upon that. I don’t want to have to go into a full-court press just to make our girls decide that they want to play with the intensity that they should have in the half-court. We have to play with urgency throughout the game, not just at the end. We gave up 56 points; we scored 52, and we can’t get beat when we do that.”