Third quarter stretch dooms Panthers

An early adjustment allowed the Creston girls basketball team to get quality looks around the basket early, but quick lapses of focus in the third quarter doomed the Panthers to a 53-43 home loss to Denison-Schleswig Friday.

The Panthers had their bigs screen on opposite blocks and utilized a triangle look early that yielded Kelsey Fields (10 points) and Brielle Baker (17 points) some easy early buckets.

“That was a move I made on the fly," Creston coach Britt Roberts said. "When they kept scouting our set plays, we weren’t getting a lot of looks on our motion. It was a change on the fly.”

Creston (5-8, 0-5 in the Hawkeye 10), played well enough for three quarters to be in contention for its first conference win of the season against the now 9-3 (4-2 in Hawkeye 10 play) Monarchs.

The third quarter did the Panthers in.

Coming out of the halftime break tied 20-20, Denison-Schleswig's Caytlin Lee, previously scoreless, hit two open 3-pointers, the latter in which she walked up the court unguarded and popped a wide open triple, to give the Monarchs a 28-24 lead.

“It was lack of focus," Roberts said. "We forgot who we were trying to get the ball to offensively. We forgot who we were trying to keep the ball away from defensively.”

Lee knocked down all three of her treys in the second half.

The Panthers' Bre Wallace responded with a 3-pointer and Kelsey Fields dropped in a shot off the glass from the left block for two of her 10 points, but the Monarchs had an answer.

A Jazlyn Beeck free throw, followed by a step-out Raegan Anderson 3-pointer in front of the Panther student section stretched the lead to six.

Beeck then finished a layup on a high-spinning shot through contact to give the Monarchs a nine-point lead after three quarters.

Creston's pressure defense in the fourth created scoring chances, with Sam Dunphy taking advantage for six points in the final minutes of play, including two jumpers.

“I hope that gives Sam some confidence," Roberts said. "She’s had a stretch here where she’s played maybe not a ton of minutes, but has played some big minutes.”

Bree Ross took advantage of late minutes off the bench. Roberts inserted her to play the front of the press and follow the gameplan, something the coaching staff knows they can rely on her for.

“She’s always going to do whatever it is that I ask her to do," Roberts said. "When I have people deviating from the gameplan, my thought is to go with her.”

The Panther junior varsity pulled out a hard-fought 42-36 win.

Taylor Buxton and Rylie Driskell each contributed 12 points to the Panther cause. Kesia Stewart added nine, Peyton Rice had four and Megan Haley scored three.

UP NEXT — Creston varsity plays Monday at Clarke at 7:30. JV set for 6 p.m.

Running score by quarter

D-S – 13 20 35 53

Crest – 13 20 26 43

D-S (FG FT PTS) – Totals – 15 18-24 53. Jazlyn Beeck 5 3-5 13, Alex Mohr 2 7-8 11, Caytlin Lee 3 0-0 9, Paige Anderson 3 2-2 9, Raegan Anderson 1 4-7 7, Tori Herrig 1 0-0 2, Sarah Heilesen 0 2-2 2. 3-point goals – 5 (Lee 3, R Andersen 1, P. Andersen 1). Rebounds — 28 (Beeck 7). Assists — 9 (Herrig 3, Mohr 3). Steals — 7 (Mohr 3, Heilesen 2). Team fouls – 14. Fouled out – None.

Crest (FG FT PTS) – Totals – 16 8-15 43. Brielle Baker 5 7-10 21, Kelsey Fields 5 0-2 10, Sam Dunphy 4 1-2 10, Bre Wallace 2 0-0 6. 3-point goals – 3 (Wallace 2, Dunphy 1). Rebounds – 28 (Fields 9, Dunphy 6, Wallace 5, Baker 3, Hartsock 2). Assists – 8 (Wallace 2, Fields 2). Steals – 7 (Baker 2, Wallace 2, Dunphy 2). Blocks – 2 (Wallace 1, Fields 1). Team fouls – 19. Fouled out – Baker, Wallace.