’Cats catch a glimpse of Waukee
Madi Finch put back an offensive rebound, Erica Johnson popped a 3-pointer and Finch finished at the rim again, taking a pass in stride while cutting off a teammate’s screen at the elbow.
For a brief moment, the Marshalltown girls’ basketball team was playing in stride with Class 5A No. 5 Waukee. Unfortunately, that sequence of events transpired after the CIML Iowa Conference frontrunners from Waukee had already racked up a 40-2 advantage.
The Warriors scored the game’s first 19 points while forcing turnovers on each of Marshalltown’s first 10 possessions, running away with a 74-14 triumph in Monday’s make-up game at the Roundhouse.
The Bobcats (3-15, 0-8) finished the first quarter with 18 turnovers and ended the game with 43 miscues in all, suffering their third-worst setback of the season.
Fifth-ranked Waukee (14-2, 8-0) remained unbeaten in CIML Iowa action behind a smothering defense that challenged every dribble, every pass and every shot attempt the Bobcats made, and an up-tempo style of offense that got layup after layup on the other end of the court.
“When you’ve got a team like Waukee, they’re physical, there’s no easy pass, every dribble and every pass is contested, and it takes a while to adjust to that,” said MHS head coach Brian Murphy. “I thought we got there, but then we either forgot or just didn’t get ourselves back up in the second half and we never got back to that intensity we had in the second quarter.”
Marshalltown only got 21 shot attempts in the game because of Waukee’s pressure. The Warriors led 27-2 with 1:42 left in the first quarter before backing their full-court defense into the half court.
The Bobcats’ first points came when Finch put back her own miss at the 4:10 mark of the first quarter. Those were also the team’s first two shot attempts.
The score was 40-2 before Finch found the bottom of the net again with 5:07 left to play in the second quarter. It started a shortlived series of back-and-forth basketball that Murphy beamed about after the game while also calling out his team’s lack of consistency.
“We showed flashes of what we needed to do,” he said. “One of the things we talked about at halftime is there was a stretch for about two or three minutes where that was about as good as our offense has looked all year and it came against one of the best defenses we’ll see all year. That was really our focus at halftime, and obviously we never got back to that point in the second half.”
He’s right. The Bobcats actually outscored Waukee 9-8 over the final 5:07 of the first half, but the Warriors responded in kind with an 18-0 third-quarter statement of their own.
“Waukee’s biggest asset aside from their physicality is their speed,” Murphy said. “We knew that coming in that they were going to be one of the fastest teams we were going to see all year and that is one of the hardest things to prep for, just understanding that this pass that might be there most of the season is no longer open. It might seem like the correct pass but you have to anticipate that their closing speed is going to close the gap pretty quickly.”
Avygail Smith scored a layup on a back-door pass from Emma Younkin to get the Bobcats on the board in the fourth quarter, and Priscila Vergara converted a three-point play with 4.2 seconds left in the game.
The running clock mercy rule was in effect for the entire second half.
Finch finished with team-highs of six points and five rebounds, while Johnson had three points and four rebounds.
“Madi was down there among the trees, she got a couple shots that I told her I don’t know how she got them off,” said Murphy, “but honestly I think sometimes she just wills herself to score. Certainly she was very aggressive, I thought she played a real good game.
“We had a number of girls who got in there and scrapped defensively and that’s what we were asking them to do — just get after it, leave everything on the floor, just work as hard as you can and see what happens.”
Taryn Reitsma led Waukee with 17 points, Katie Dinnebier finished with 13 points and Megan Earney added 12.
The Bobcats won’t get to apply any of their new lessons in practice before getting on the bus tonight for a cross-CIML game at Ankeny. Marshalltown also hosts 4A No. 12 Mason City in a makeup game scheduled for Saturday night.
Waukee 74, Marshalltown 14
At Marshalltown
WAUKEE (14-2, 8-0) — Lindsey Kelderman 3 0-0 7, Katie Dinnebier 6 1-1 13, Peyton Kelderman 3 1-2 8, Megan Earney 5 0-0 12, Taryn Reitsma 7 3-4 17, Bailie Kroll 0 0-0 0, Lily Lampe 0 0-0 0, Kiana Carnes 0 0-0 0, Addison Steffy 0 0-0 0, Abigail Jones 1 2-2 5, Reagan Bartholomew 2 3-4 8, Camryn Weers 1 0-0 2, Ashley Smith 0 0-0 0, Natalie Gallagher 0 0-0 0, Megan Lanz 1 0-0 2, Nire Barnes 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 29 10-13 74.
MARSHALLTOWN (3-15, 0-8) — Erica Johnson 1 0-0 3, Lily Roberts 0 0-0 0, Madi Finch 3 0-0 6, Priscila Vergara 1 1-1 3, Gabby Himes 0 0-0 0, Aida Almanza 0 0-0 0, Emma Younkin 0 0-0 0, Avygail Smith 1 0-0 2, Olivia Brintnall 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 6 1-1 14.
WAUKEE 32 16 18 8 — 74
MHS 2 7 0 5 — 14
3-Point Goals–Waukee 6 (Earney 2, L. Kelderman, P. Kelderman, Jones, Bartholomew), MHS 1 (Johnson). Total Fouls–Waukee 6, MHS 11. Fouled Out–none.