Comets tower over Redhawks

T-R PHOTO BY JAKE RYDER - BCLUW junior post Grace Farnsworth (43) shoots over North Tama defender Lily Sell (22) during Tuesday’s Iowa Star Conference South Division basketball game in Conrad. Farnsworth scored a game-high 19 points in the Comets’ 57-34 victory over the visiting Redhawks.
CONRAD — BCLUW girls basketball’s post players delivered on Tuesday night in Conrad.
Grace Farnsworth, Savannah Moeller and Morgan Bergman combined for 34 points in BCLUW’s 57-34 win over North Tama in an Iowa Star South Division matchup at BCLUW High School.
The Comets improved to 13-5 overall and are now 11-0 in South play; North Tama dropped to 8-11 and 7-5, respectively.
Farnsworth led all scorers with 19 points; Klayre Gallentine added 14 points and Moeller and Bergman finished with nine and six points.
Tuesday was BCLUW’s first game since clinching the South Division title in a 60-9 thrashing of Colo-NESCO last Friday — the Comets can complete an undefeated conference title with a win at GMG this Friday.

“This means a lot to us seniors,” Gallentine said. “One of our senior goals was to win conference championships in all four sports that we all play. We’ve got volleyball, we’ve got basketball in the bag, so we really wanted that.”
The Redhawks started on the right foot in the game, using their pressure defense to speed up the Comets into turnovers and making the shots to capitalize on those turnovers for an early 8-4 lead.
BCLUW responded with a 13-0 run, which included 10 points from the Comet bigs underneath the basket as their teammates consistently fed the ball up and over the North Tama defense.
“I thought our press was holding for the most part,” North Tama coach Harold Youngblut said. “The Comets are just well-coached and they adapted to it, they’ve got good post players that have improved so much since last year, Savannah has improved dramatically.”
BCLUW’s own defensive pressure bottled up North Tama in the second quarter, and the Comet lead expanded to 29-13 at the halftime horn.

“We just really needed to shut down Ava Breakenridge,” Gallentine said. “They had Kruiz Ewoldt back, and she scored some tonight too, but we were just trying to play as tough as defense as we could.
Breakenridge nailed a 3-pointer in the third quarter to get North Tama back within 13, but the Comets answered with an 8-0 run that extinguished the Redhawks’ hopes of a comeback.
Ewoldt finished with 14 points to lead North Tama and Breakenridge added 11.
This season, Farnsworth and Moeller average 15.5 points and 12.6 points and are also grabbing 10.4 and 8.5 rebounds on average for the Comets, and Bergman provides a spell for either or as needed.
“I think our turning point of the season was playing against GMG here earlier this year when we lost a couple games we shouldn’t have after Christmas break and couldn’t throw the basketball into the ocean against GMG,” BCLUW head coach Joel Johnson said. “We were talking about it at halftime and Grace told the girls ‘Just keep shooting from outside, I have faith in you,’ and Savannah and Morgan both chimed in as well and the girls started shooting better from outside. There’s no jealousy on this team. It’s a true team in every aspect of the word.”

The Comets completed the season sweep of the Redhawks after a 78-23 rout on Dec. 20 in Traer.
BCLUW heads to Garwin on Friday and both the Comets and North Tama will play inter-division games for the Iowa Star Conference Basketball Challenge on Saturday.
BCLUW 57, North Tama 34
NORTH TAMA (8-11, 7-5) — Kruiz Ewoldt 5 3-3 14, Ava Breakenridge 4 2-4 11, Gabriella Seda 1 0-0 2, Lily Sell 1 0-2 2, Gabby Velasco 1 2-2 5, Shawna Cibula 0 0-0 0, Kahlia Even 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 12 7-11 34.
BCLUW (13-5, 11-0) — Brinna Benson 1 1-2 4, Raegan Crawford 0 2-4 2, Kalia Stover 1 0-0 3, Klayre Gallentine 5 0-0 14, Grace Farnsworth 9 1-4 19, Layla Follet 0 0-0 0, Abby Kemp 0 0-0 0, Addison Moeller 0 0-0 0, Savannah Moeller 3 3-3 9, Morgan Bergman 3 0-2 6. TOTALS 22 7-15 57.

N. TAMA 8 5 12 9 — 34
BCLUW 17 12 12 16 — 57
3-Point Goals–NT 3 (Ewoldt, Breakenridge, Velasco), BCLUW 6 (Gallentine 4, Benson, Stover). Team Fouls–NT 14, BCLUW 12. Fouled Out–none.
- T-R PHOTO BY JAKE RYDER – BCLUW junior post Grace Farnsworth (43) shoots over North Tama defender Lily Sell (22) during Tuesday’s Iowa Star Conference South Division basketball game in Conrad. Farnsworth scored a game-high 19 points in the Comets’ 57-34 victory over the visiting Redhawks.