Creston clinches fifth winning season

MARTENSDALE – Creston girls basketball edged out a 62-60 victory over a tough Martensdale-St. Marys team in a rescheduled game Monday night.

With the victory, Creston clinched its fifth winning season in 27 years and the second time in program history with back-to-back winning seasons.

“We’ll take it, but we have more things that we want to get done,” said Creston head coach Tony Neubauer.

The Panthers bounced back from a tough loss to Harlan Friday, playing a similar game.

“It was kind of a little similar to Harlan, in the fact that, we were up by nine at half and had to battle,” said Neubauer. “I’m really proud of our kids’ moxie tonight.”

Creston jumped out early with a 20-10 first quarter lead, but Martensdale-St. Marys cut into the lead with a 15 point second quarter.

After holding a 31-25 lead at halftime, the game came down to the final minute of the fourth quarter.

The Panthers were down by one point with 48 seconds left. Sam Dunphy knocked down a shot off the glass for a 61-60 lead and then stopped the Blue Devils’ strong offensive attack – one that has three scorers averaging double-digit points per game – to seal the game.

Neubauer was happy with the way the defense stopped the offensive trio, specifically the Blue Devils’ leading scorer Jensen Archibald.

“Their guard, (Jensen) Archibald, is a really good guard, averaging 17.9 points per game, so we decided to face guard her and make other kids score,” said Neubauer. “I think we did pretty good. She had (23), but she had to work for them. Sydney (Hartsock) and Braelyn (Baker) did a really good job on that.”

Stopping the Blue Devils’ offense, the Panthers didn’t have a bad day themselves, with three scorers in double-digits. Kelsey Fields put up 25 points to lead the team. Brianna Fields and Sam Dunphy scored 10 each.

With another close game, the Panthers continue to grow as a unit, figuring out what they need to do to finish out games.

“They battled. It’s part of basketball,” said Neubauer. “There’s ebbs and flows on stuff, and we didn’t do some things. We’ve got to get rid of the panic mode sometimes, but we did a little better of that. We got Kelsey and Sam some good touches, our guards hit shots and just being strong with the basketball, knowing what to do with that.”

UP NEXT – Creston plays back-to-back days, facing Denison-Schleswig Tuesday (today) in a rescheduled game from Jan. 10. Game time begins at 6 p.m.

Junior Varsity

The Creston girls junior varsity fell to Martensdale-St. Marys 17-11 Monday night.

The Panthers trailed 9-4 in the first half, before rallying to seven points in the second.

Doryn Paup scored all 11 points for the Panthers.

Creston 62, Martensdale-St. Marys 60

CRES (62) — 20 14 13 15

MSM (60) — 10 15 18 17

CRES (FG FT PTS) — Totals —25 8-18 62. Kelsey Fields 11 3-7 25, Sam Dunphy 5 0-0 10, Brianna Fields 4 2-3 10, Rylie Driskell 3 1-4 9, Braelyn Baker 1 2-2 5. 3-point goals — (Driskell 2, Hartsock 1, Baker 1). Team fouls — 12. Fouled out — None.

MSM (FG FT PTS) — Totals — 25 4-8 60. Jensen Archibald 9 3+6 23, Skylar Stewart 7 0-0 17, Anna Parrott 3 0-0 6, Maddy Stott 3 0-0 6,Grace Hart 2 1-2 6, Jackie Kleve 1 0-0 2. 3-point goals — 6 (Stewart 3, Archibald 2, Hart 1). Team fouls — 18. Fouled out — Stott, Parrott.