Creston girls fall in tourney opener

WINTERSET — Periodic scoring lulls plagued the Creston girls basketball team throughout the season, and again proved costly in a 52-39 loss to Winterset to open Class 4A Region 2 play Wednesday night.

The Panther defense had an emphasis on containing Winterset 3-point shooting threat Makenna Olson, who went 5-of-9 from behind the arc while scoring 17 points in the Huskies’ 57-34 win over Creston early in the season.

That strategy proved effective as Olson was limited to one point Wednesday, but Brynn Acton and Natalie Smith were effective inside in combining for 30 of the team’s 52 points.

Creston opened with a 4-0 lead on a drive by Ella Turner and a steal leading to a layup by season scoring leader Kadley Bailey. Hollynn Rieck slipped an assist to Bailey for a 6-4 Panther lead midway through the period, but that proved to be the Panthers’ last advantage.

Creston went cold from the field late in the first quarter that ended with Winterset in front, 17-12, followed by a scoreless drought lasting six minutes in the second period. Braylee Pokorny hit two free throws with 2:06 remaining in the half. Brynn Tussey hit the team’s first shot from the field in the second quarter with only 37 seconds left, leaving Winterset in front 23-16 at halftime.

“We battled hard and Ady (Morrison) and Jensan (Tussey) did a phenomenal job on Olson,” Creston coach Tony Neubauer said. “Our biggest deficiency is that we have to be more consistent scoring. We go through these long lulls and that makes it tough. It happened again early in the third quarter. We didn’t get bad looks, we just didn’t put the ball in the basket. The effort was there.”

Smith and reserve Maci Olson, who sank three 3-pointers, hit successive triples to open the fourth quarter to extend Winterset’s lead to 14 points at 44-30. Creston fought back to cut it to 10 at 46-36 with 4:34 to play with some sharp transition passing for scoring finishes. Smith and Acton each scored inside to stretch it to a 14-point margin again and hold off the Panther comeback.

Morrison and Ava Adamson, who missed the last portion of the season with a quadriceps injury, are the lone graduation losses from Creston’s 7-15 team. With the bulk of the team’s production returning from this year’s junior class and the emergence of Jensan Tussey as a contributor in her freshman season, along with a successful JV campaign, Neubauer looks forward to the possibliities next season. The Panthers will likely fall to Class 3A after several recent seasons in 4A.

“Declining enrollment isn’t a great thing, but it will give us an opportunity,” Neubauer said. “We talked in the lockerroom after the game that we have the potential to do a lot of special things. We need to get a ton of shots up in the offseason.”

Shooting percentage is the key to improving, the Panther coach said. He noted that Creston has had seven winning seasons in girls five-player basketball, and all of them shot above 40% from the field. Last year Creston shot only 30%, lifting it slightly to 35% this season in finishing sixth in the Hawkeye Ten at 4-6 after finishing 10th a year ago.

“We’ve closed the gap,” Neubauer said. “The only two games where we really got boat-raced this year were against Harlan and St. Albert, two very good teams. I know we have an extremely motivated group of kids returning.”

Winterset, now 8-14, advances to Saturday’s regional semifinal at No. 2-ranked North Polk. The Comets defeated the Huskies twice this season in Raccoon River Conference play, 69-39 and 66-34.

WINTERSET (52) — Totals — (FG FT PTS) 22 3-7 52. Brynn Acton 8 1-2 17, Natalie Smith 6 0-1 13, Maci Olson 3 0-0 9, Ashlynn Devine 3 0-0 7, Alyvia Young 2 1-2 5, Makenna Olson 0 1-2 1. 3-point goals — 5 (Maci Olson 3, Smith 1, Devine 1). Team fouls — 18. Fouled out — none.

CRESTON (39) — Totals — (FG FT PTS) 12 11-19 39. Kadley Bailey 5 2-5 14, Brynn Tussey 3 2-4 8, Jensan Tussey 1 2-2 5, Ella Turner 2 0-0 4, Hollynn Rieck 0 3-6 3, Cora Smith 1 0-0 3, Braylee Pokorny 0 2-2 2. 3-point goals — 4 (Bailey 2, J. Tussey 1, Snmith 1). Team fouls — 11. Fouled out — Turner.