Creston rolls Denison-Schleswig at home

It was nearly five minutes before the Panthers allowed the visiting Monarchs to score Friday, and the momentum continued in Creston’s favor as they won the conference match 67-37 at home.

The Panthers (4-5, 1-2) came away with a Hawkeye 10 victory, their first official as they will rematch Atlantic and Clarinda later in the season for the conference record.

Denison-Schleswig (0-8, 0-4) is last in the conference as they are still looking for their first win this season.

Senior Jake Hoyt continued his scoring dominance, posting 28 against the Monarchs. Sophomore Rhett Driskell added 14.

Creston coach Bryce Schafer said a lot went well on the court. “That was the best defensive performance we’ve had all year,” he said. “We played all five guys on the floor together as a group. We weren’t taking a bunch of chances. We rebounded the ball really well.”

Nine players scored for the Panthers as guys on the bottom were able to come in later in the game to play varsity time.

Senior Brayden Schoon was sidelined with an ankle injury. Tommy Sand took the starting spot, scoring five.

“They just weren’t selfish,” Schafer said. “The last three games, we have done an excellent job of getting the ball moved around to multiple scorers. It was just really easy looks on one end and made it extremely difficult on the other for them to score.”

Creston allowed only more than 10 points in one quarter, pulling away in the second half with a 22-9 third quarter that ended with a buzzer three by senior Parker Varner.

The starters were pulled with five minutes left to play, giving backup guys a look.

“It’s really hard to come into a game ice cold with five minutes left,” Schafer said. “I thought they did a great job of still bringing energy. Tyler Riley’s got time throughout the year so that helped him, but those bottom guys on the bench, this is what they need so that they can understand what the real speed of the game is. I thought all of them did an excellent job.”

Riley, Eli Schaffer and CT Stalker all made shots from the field to outscore Denison 7-4 with starters out.

Creston is on a three-game winning streak as they head to Red Oak (4-6, 1-2) tonight. Thursday, the Panthers host Lewis Central (7-2, 5-0).

“Every day at practice, we’re taking steps up the ladder,” Schafer said. “Right now we have a lot of energy, and that could have been hard after a 1-4 start, but now here we are sitting at 4-5 and anything’s possible.”

Panther Points:

Jake Hoyt 28, Rhett Driskell 14, Parker Varner 8, Tommy Sand 5, Josh Schaefer 3, Tyler Riley 3, Tanner Ray 2, Eli Schaffer 2, CT Stalker 2.

No other statistics available