Raiderette comeback falls short against No. 1 Turkey Valley

DES MOINES — Mount Ayr gave top-ranked and undefeated Turkey Valley all it could handle here Monday morning in the Class 1A quarterfinals of the Girls State Basketball Tournament at Wells Fargo Arena.

The unranked Raiderettes steadily chiseled away at a 10-point second-half deficit. Turkey Valley led by seven points with less than two minutes left to play in the game.

In the end, however, Turkey Valley escaped with a 55-51 win to advance to Thursday’s Class 1A semifinals.

“It’s better to be the underdog,” Mount Ayr head coach Thad Streit said. “There’s no pressure on you. Our girls did a great job of handling the pressure and making it close at the end and putting them in a position (to win). They’re No. 1 and we gave them a run.”

Comeback

Turkey Valley took a 10-point lead to start the second half when Delaney Lensing made the first basket of the half with 5:55 left in the third quarter.

Mount Ayr quickly cut it to a six-point game after four straight points by Kelcie Shields, but Turkey Valley rallied for another 10-point lead at 39-29 when Shelby Reicks got a steal and a layup.

The Trojans led 40-33 at the end of the third quarter, but Tess Shields dished to senior Kirsten Dolecheck for a layup to make it a 40-35 game.

Megan Warin’s drive to the basket made it 42-39 with just under five minutes to play. After one Turkey Valley free throw, Kelcie Shields got a basket to cut the lead to 43-41.

Shields missed the front end of a one-and-one opportunity with Mount Ayr trailing by four, but Macy Larsen sank two free throws to make it a 45-43 game.

The Raiderettes had a chance to tie the game, but Warin’s layup in traffic just rimmed out. Instead, Reicks scored five straight points to give Turkey Valley a 50-43 lead with less than two minutes remaining.

Mount Ayr didn’t go away, however. Warin’s drive to the basket made it 50-45 with 1:11 remaining. After two Reicks free throws, Kelcie Shields got a basket to make it 52-47.

Kelcie Shields, a 6-1 junior, finished the game with 25 points and 10 rebounds for a double-double, while Warin added 11 points and seven rebounds.

A 5-second violation on Turkey Valley with :44.2 left led to two Warin free throws. After a defensive rebound, Warin dished to Kelcie Shields for a basket with :23.2 left, making the score 52-51.

“That was huge!” Streit said. “That was a quick five, but I’ll take it.”

Reaching for a steal, Mount Ayr fouled Reicks and she made both free throws with 22.6 seconds left to reach 17 points and give the Trojans a 54-51 lead.

Mount Ayr tried for a quick basket inside by Shields to make it a one-point game, but the entry pass was tipped away and Kayla Schaufenbuel came up with the steal and made one of two free throws for the final 55-51 margin with 14.6 seconds left.

“We were trying to go with our bread and butter and hopefully get a five-count or a steal,” Streit said. “If we fouled, that’s what we wanted anyway. They made their free throws. That’s basketball. That’s the way it goes.”

“We knew in the fourth quarter we were going to have to come back or it was going to be over, so we just ran through our offense like normal,” Warin said. “We looked for fast break layups and made sure we looked for Kelcie on the inside, because she had an advantage.”

Streit said his team stayed calm late, despite the deficit and Turkey Valley’s defensive pressure.

In the end, however, 21 total turnovers proved lethal for Mount Ayr’s upset bid.

“We didn’t get rattled against their press. We just maybe made some bad decisions,” he said. “Back in December, we would have got rattled and spazzed and just threw it and hoped like heck somebody else would have caught it.

“We were poised. We just threw some floaters, some passes we needed to put some more zip on the ball.”

Reicks, who came into the game averaging 15.8 points per game, eclipsed her season average, but scored nine of her 17 points in the fourth quarter — seven of which came in transition or at the free throw line.”

Mount Ayr junior Blair Glendenning spent the majority of the game shadowing her on defense.

“You talk about somebody who knows their role and does their job,” Streit said. “She (Glendenning) goes in there and she plays defense. She’s going to stop people. She knows what she’s got to do and I thought she rebounded well. She did a good job on that girl.”

Hot start

The Raiderettes prepared for Turkey Valley’s lockdown fullcourt man-to-man press and found success early in getting easy looks in transition out of the pressbreaker.

Warin scored 11 first-half points for the Raiderettes, with six of those points coming off layups in transition off the pressbreaker.

“Their pressure on the backcourt was pretty good, but we knew how to break it because we’d been practicing it all week,” Warin said. “The other thing was they were No. 1, so we were a little nervous coming in, but we persevered and just came back and tried to get them.”

Kelcie Shields also netted 11 first-half points and her basket off a dish from Blair Glendenning with 1:13 left in the first quarter gave Mount Ayr a 14-13 lead.

“We knew they had a good post payer and a couple of girls who could drive well to the basket,” Turkey Valley co-coach Carletta Nymeyer said. “They did that today. We had some trouble with it. Definitely they were our focus — 31 (Warin) and 53 (Shields) were the two girls we really wanted to focus on.”

Turkey Valley outscored Mount Ayr 20-11 over the remainder of the first half, however, taking a 33-25 lead into halftime. Four straight points to end the half turned a four-point (29-25) lead into an eight-point lead for the Trojans.

Mount Ayr shot 10-of-15 (66.7 percent) from the field in the first half compared to 14-26 (53.8 percent) for Turkey Valley. Warin and Kelcie Shields combined to score all but three of Mount Ayr’s first half points. Tess Shields scored the other three points.

The biggest difference for the Raiderettes was 14 first-half turnovers — several of which were costly turnovers in the halfcourt set.

“We knew it was coming and we practiced 5-on-8 the last four or five days,” Streit said. “It seemed to help a little bit, but just a couple too many (turnovers).”

Mount Ayr bows out at 18-8 for the season. The Raiderettes lose just one senior — Dolecheck — with their entire starting five returning next year.

“Success breeds success and hopefully they get a taste of it and want to be back,” Streit said. “Kirsten is a great kid. She’s got a great personality. She’s a great teammate and a great leader and she’s fun to be around.”

Turkey Valley improved to 25-0 and advances to Thursday’s 10 a.m. Class 1A semifinal against Burlington Notre Dame (24-1), which was a 56-44 winner over Kee, Lansing.

TURKEY VALLEY (55) — Shelby Reicks 4-12 6-7 17, Kayla Schaufenbuel 5-9 1-3 11, Morgan Kuennen 4-11 0-0 9, Emily Busta 3-7 0-1 7, Sadie Nymeyer 1-8 2-4 5, Macie Njus 2-3 0-0 4, Delaney Lensing 1-3 0-0 2. Totals — 21-54 9-15 55. FG shooting — 21-54 (38.9 percent). 3-point goals — 4-9 (Reicks 1, Nymeyer 1, Kuennen 1, Busta 1). Assists — Reicks 7, Kuennen 3. Steals — Reicks 2, Kuennen 2, Schaufenbuel 2. Rebounds — Busta 6, Nymeyer 4, Schaufenbuel 4. Turnovers — 10. Team fouls — 15. Fouled out — none.

MOUNT AYR (51) — Kelcie Shields 11-18 3-6 25, Megan Warin 7-16 2-4 17, Tess Shields 0-2 3-4 3, Macy Larsen 0-2 2-2 2, Kirsten Dolecheck 1-1 0-0 2, Sara Winemiller 1-3 0-0 2. Totals — 20-42 10-16 51. FG shooting — 20-42 (47.6 percent). 3-point goals — 1-5 (Warin 1). Rebounds — 38 (K. Shields 10, Warin 7, T. Shields 7, Blair Glendenning 6, Larsen 3). Assists — 10 (T. Shields 4, Larsen 3, Glendenning 2). Steals — 4 (Winemiller 2, T. Shields 1, K. Shields 1). Blocked shots — 2 (K. Shields 2). Turnovers — 21. Team fouls — 16. Fouled out — none.

TV — 18 33 40 55

MA — 14 25 33 51