Pushing the pace

The Creston girls basketball team will have a new look in Tony Neubauer’s sixth season as head coach.

For the first time, he won’t have an all-state post player to build around. His program has produced four post standouts, including three that are playing collegiately on varsity teams this winter — Kelsey Fields at Northwest Missouri State University, Brianna Fields at Grand View University and Doryn Paup at Simpson College. Sam Dunphy was also an all-state post player for the Panthers during that time.

Paup was one of five seniors who all held primary varsity roles last season. She averaged 21.7 points and 11.7 rebounds. That scoring average ranks first all-time in Creston five-player basketball. Paup finished third all-time in Creston history in scoring (1,054 points), second in steals (181) and sixth in rebounds (476).

Other seniors on last year’s team were Jacy Kralik, Nevaeh Randall, Aleah Calvin and Keely Coen. Those seniors made up the top five of Creston’s scoring in a 6-15 season that included a 3-7 mark and tied for seventh in the Hawkeye Ten Conference.

“We started out 0-6 against just a buzzsaw of an early schedule against ranked teams, then we went to 4-7 but lost some kids for awhile and we had some growing pains,” Neubauer said. “We threw some freshmen into varsity Hawkeye Ten competition and that’s a tough transition from eighth grade basketball.”

Sophomores Ella Turner and Kadley Bailey return with the most experience. Turner was sixth on the team at 3.7 points per game and is the leading returning rebounder at 4.6 per game. Bailey and sophomore Hollyn Rieck also played some varsity minutes at perimeter positions and Rieck is slated for point guard duty this year, with good ball distribution skills in transition.

That will be the focus of this year’s team that lacks the size of previous Panther teams.

“We have Brynn Tussey and Braylee Pokorny at 5-8, and then most of our other players are in the 5-6 and 5-7 range,” Neubauer said. “We have to create more opportunities in transition and attack the basket. We’ve really been pushing the pace in practice. We’re playing a lot more man-to-man defense and we’ll do some pressure to speed teams up.”

Lydia Goins, making the move from JV point guard to varsity wing, is the lone senior on the roster. Juniors Alyssa Gerdes, Ava Adamson, Ady Morrison and Averi Culbertson are also on varsity along with sophomore Jaycee Hanson. One true post player is 6-2 sophomore Kaylynn Smolk, currently slated for JV duty early in the season.

Sophomores Sidney Staver and Avery Staver are transfers from East Union but unless an earlier release is granted, they are ineligible to appear in varsity games until 90 days after their first day of enrollment, which was Oct. 30.

“We have some experience, but we’re still pretty young,” Neubauer said. “We’ve always looked to get into transition, but now there’s more of an emphasis to get out and go and try to steal some points. We want to win games this year, but the good thing is we know we’ll have a lot of kids back next year with more experience.”

The Panthers open the season at home Friday against Des Moines Hoover with JV at 5:30 p.m. and varsity at 6 p.m. They have 10 days off until the Nov 27 game, also at home, against Winterset.

Last year Creston was near the bottom of the state in 3-point shooting at 18.6% and the Panthers shot 56.9% at the free throw line. Both of those need to improve for success on the court, Neubauer said.

“We’ve had some kids in putting up a lot of shots over the summer,” Neubauer said. “Like the old (Iowa and Drake coach) Tom Davis theory, we want to make more free throws than our opponents take, so we’re emphasizing attacking the basket. But we have to make them. Our goal is to be playing our best basketball at tournament time and I think we were doing that last year.”

Regarding free throws, there’s a rule change in Iowa high school basketball this winter. Teams will shoot two free throws for common fouls when in the “bonus,” which is reached on the fifth foul of each quarter. This eliminates the one-and-one scenario that was awarded on the seventh foul of each half in the past. The rule also sets the new foul limits each quarter for awarding the bonus free throw.

“I’m not sure yet how I feel about it,” Neubauer said. “I will kind of miss the pressure of the one-and-one situation, but I think it’s good to align up with the rules of the college game, too.”

Last year’s trip to Kansas City for holiday games was cancelled by bad weather, but the Panthers are scheduled again this year for two games in the 12 Courts of Christmas event. Creston will face Hogan Prep on Dec. 20 and Odessa on Dec. 21, with game times to be announced. Both are Missouri schools.

Last year the Hawkeye Ten had a logjam at the top with Atlantic, Glenwood and Lewis Central all tied for first at 8-2, with Harlan and St. Albert next at 7-3. Glenwood advanced to state after beating Creston in the regional opener, 60-52.

“I think people think it’s LC’s to lose this year, but Harlan is good,” Neubauer said. “Jenna Hopp was such a big part of Glenwood’s success, they will be different but they return some players. St. Albert is well-coached. Atlantic has one of their main players back. Shenandoah has about the same team back. We have to keep getting better.”

Neubauer, assisted by Bryant McCabe and Scott Wagner, said this may be the last year of Creston competing in Class 4A. Creston is near the bottom of the 4A grouping this year in enrollment.

“Last year Harlan made a 3A regional final and we played them close,” Neubauer said. “It would be good for us if we go to 3A in the next two years.”

While there isn’t a dominant force inside this year, the Panther coach said Tussey has been improving and gained a lot of valuable JV experience last year. She’ll be inside when the Panthers use a four-out, one-in system and the versatility of the athletes on this year’s squad also allows some five-out schemes to flourish.

“This is my 12th year as a head coach and I’ve had big post players in nine of the 11 years, so nobody will feel sorry for us that we aren’t as big this year,” Neubauer said. “We’ll do some different things and try to play to our strengths. Hopefully it will be a style of basketball that’s fun to watch and fun to play.”

Roster

(* — Letterwinner)

Seniors — Lydia Goins* (5-3).

Juniors — Ava Adamson* (5-6), Ady Morrison* (5-7), Alyssa Gerdes* (5-1), Averi Culbertson* (5-6), Taylor Smith (5-3).

Sophomores — Hollyn Rieck* (5-6), Braylee Pokorny* (5-8), Ella Turner* (5-6), Kadley Bailey* (5-5), Jaycee Hanson* (5-8), Brynn Tussey* (5-8), Sidney Staver (5-6), Abby Freeman (5-4), Avery Staver (5-4), Kaylynn Smolk (6-2).

Freshmen — Hope Henderson (5-7), Kinzley Downing (5-8), Sidney McDonald (5-3), Taylor Rohrig (5-6), Reese Strunk (5-7), Gretchen Hoepker (5-7), Kennedy Strider (5-6).