×

G-R girls fall to Dunkerton, 67-52

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON • Gladbrook-Reinbeck senior Megan Swanson (11) reaches in to compete for a rebound while Dunkerton’s Kaitlyn Wilder hauls in the ball during the Rebels’ loss to the Raiders in Reinbeck on Thursday.

REINBECK — On the surface, the Gladbrook-Reinbeck girls basketball team’s 67-52 loss to Dunkerton on Thursday night seems like a bad night for the Rebels, but it was genuinely a much more competitive game than the 15-point margin would suggest.

In fact, outside of the Raiders winning the second quarter 19-10, it was a six-point game throughout the rest of the contest, and G-R head coach Bruce Bailey said this might have been the best his girls have looked since returning from winter break.

“This was as good as we’ve played since before Christmas at some point,” Bailey said. “What’s been killing us is our defense, we have been just letting people get to the basket but we did a better job of stopping that tonight by getting some traps on people.”

Given the pressure system the Rebels (4-10) run, teams tend to get out and score quite a bit if they can break the press, but Dunkerton (12-2) definitely had trouble dealing with the constant pressure.

Bailey said that mainly had to do with his girls setting strong traps in the front court and making sure they cover the paint on the opposite end.

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON

“We did a good job of trapping in the full court I thought,” he said. “They did a good job of moving the ball but for the most part we got good traps and we made them work. That caused them to miss some shots that maybe they wouldn’t have missed, so the effort and where we got as far as our traps were better than we have been. We were able to contain people rather than let them dribble out on the inbounds play.”

Only two girls finished in the double digits for the Raiders, as McKayla Boeschen had a game-high 21 points, followed by Hannah Jacobsen with 17.

Offensively for the Rebels, Megan Swanson had the hot hand with 15 points, including three makes from behind the 3-point line, while Haleigh Berendes had 10 and Taylor Gienger eight.

“Offensively we were better early than late, we have to keep finding ways to score and hopefully we can do that off the press, but that’s a pretty good team,” Bailey said. “They are pretty physical and a well coached team.”

Where the Raiders truly won the game was on the rebounding end, as Dunkerton outworked Gladbrook-Reinbeck all night on both the offensive and defensive boards. Bailey said they’ve worked on rebounding all season, but with the reliance the Rebels have on the 3-point shot, he understands it’s a difficult task.

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON

“That’s something that we have emphasized and have been before games, that defense and rebounding would be a big key for us,” he said. “It’s kind of a two-way street because we shoot a lot of threes so we are out away on offense, but also there are lanes to the basket and we just need to go and find those lanes. Rebounding has to be better, we have to do a better job finding some offensive rebounds to get a few more points.”

G-R returns to NICL West Division play after almost a week off tonight when it travels to face off with South Hardin, a team the Rebels defeated in their first matchup. Bailey said a good finish in conference is still in reach, his girls just have to take care of teams like the Tigers, BCLUW and East Marshall.

“We’ve got to beat the other three teams that are in the bottom half of the NICL West,” he said. “We beat two of them the first time through but lost to Conrad, they blew us away and that was not a good night. We have to go back and try to beat those teams and if we can do that then yeah we can finish in fourth place, and that’s kind of what all of us are hoping for.”

That game between the Rebel girls and South Hardin is set for a 6:15 p.m. start tonight in Eldora.

Dunkerton 67,

Gladbrook-Reinbeck 52

At Reinbeck

DUNKERTON (12-2) — Mady Howland 4 0-0 8, Carli Teisinger 2 2-2 6, McKayla Boeschen 9 3-5 21, Hannah Jacobsen 7 3-4 17, Kaitlyn Wilder 1 1-2 3, Ashlynn Shimp 2 3-4 7, Lily Fettkether 2 1-2 5. TOTALS 27 13-19 67.

GLADBROOK-REINBECK (4-10) — Saari Kuehl 3 0-2 7, Megan Swanson 5 2-2 15, Taylor Gienger 3 1-4 8, Rachel Cooley 2 0-0 5, Haleigh Berendes 3 1-2 10, Madison Denny-Weber 1 2-4 4, Brianna Strohbehn 2-2 2, Belen Ellenberger 0 1-2 1. TOTALS 17 9-18 52.

Dunkerton 19 19 14 15 — 67

G-R 14 10 13 15 — 52

3-Point Goals–G-R 9 (Swanson 3, Berendes 3, Kuehl, Gienger, Cooley). Total Fouls–Dunkerton 13, G-R 18. Fouled Out–none.

Newsletter

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
   

Starting at $4.38/week.

Subscribe Today