Panthers race to non-conference win

On the 45th anniversary of the death of former Beatle John Lennon, perhaps Murray girls basketball coach Chris Robins should have played the Beatles 1969 hit, “Get Back” prior to Monday’s game at Creston.

After the 55-22 non-conference loss to the Panthers, Robins lamented her team’s inability to retreat on defense against Creston’s relentless fast break attack. Creston’s 1-3-1 trapping defense features senior guard Kadley Bailey at the top, and turnovers resulting from those traps led repeatedly to transition layups.

“We weren’t running our offense right to get where we needed to be, so they were able to trap the passes that went to the corner,” Robins said. “I thought we were playing a little lethargic, not getting back on defense. We usually run like that against teams in our conference, making them try to keep up with us. Tonight, we weren’t running with them.”

Bailey had 19 points as Creston raced to a 32-9 halftime lead in the first youth night game of the season. (Players selected youth basketball participants to wear their away jersey at the game.) Bailey finished with 25 points, with a huge majority as the fast break finisher. Ella Turner added eight points.

Point guard Hollynn Rieck ignited many of those Panther fast breaks off steals or defensive rebounds. Rieck finished with six assists. Turner, Jensan Tussey and Braylee Pokorny each had three.

“Hollynn sees the floor better than any kid I’ve coached, boy or girl,” Creston coach Tony Neubauer said. “Kadley is so athletic that if she doesn’t know exactly where Hollynn is going with it. She can adjust in time to get there. As a team, (transition attack) is our best basketball.”

Bailey opened the game by swishing a 3-pointer, but then it quickly became a feast of layups off the effective half-court defense. Rieck, Ella Turner and Brynn Tussey each advanced defensive rebounds or steals to Bailey for fast break baskets in building a 20-7 lead through one quarter.

After Leah Frederick’s 3-pointer for Murray at the 4:55 mark of the first period, the Mustangs were in a scoreless drought until Maliya Berry’s 2-point basket with 1:37 remaining in the first half. By then, Creston had built a 30-9 lead.

With two conference road games following on Tuesday (St. Albert) and Friday (Atlantic), Creston coach Tony Neubauer said the Monday non-conference game came at a good time for his team.

“You have to remember I haven’t seen some of these girls since last Wednesday because of state dance,” Neubauer said. “Tonight was a good way to work on stuff and play basketball. We thought we could win the basketball game, but it gave us a chance to keep getting better at stuff. I thought we did a good job defensively of taking them out of what they wanted to do on offense, and we rebounded the ball well. We still have to shoot the ball better. At some point that has to go up, because I expect us to be in a lot of dogfights this year in our conference.”

Mutual benefits

Murray also had a key conference game the following night at home against Diagonal. The Creston-Murray matchup may continue at least another year as both coaches saw benefits, despite Monday’s final margin.

“If we come to play our game, I don’t think it would have been quite like that,” Robins said. “I’d rather play good competition, especially when you have big conference games coming up.”

Neubauer said he respects Murray’s tradition as a consistently competitive 1A program.

“In their conference they will be a decent team for sure, they’ll probably win 13 or 14 games,” Neubauer said. “It helps us a little bit. Bound has power rankings, and those are used (in regional pairings and rankings). This will help us in the fact that as an opponent they will have won a lot of games.”

The Panthers fell 75-34 at Class 1A top-ranked St. Albert Tuesday in Council Bluffs. Bailey scored 11 points for the Panthers and Rieck added five points. In this game, Bailey became the first Panther in five-player girls history to record 200 career steals.

Meanwhile, Diagonal edged the Murray girls 37-35. Ashlynn Allee, Claire Grace and Halle White each scored eight points for Diagonal. Klein scored 13 for Murray and Berry totaled 11 points. Diagonal won the boys game 74-41.

The times for Creston games Friday at Atlantic are reversed from the usual format. The boys varsity game will be at 6 p.m., followed by the girls at 7:30.

MURRAY (22) — Totals — (FG FT PTS) 7 6-10 22. Maliya Berry 4 0-0 9, Leah Frederick 2 2-2 7, Keirsten Klein 0 2-04 2, Aylah Miller 0 2-4 2, Ella Mateer 1 0-0 2. 3-point goals — 2 (Berry 1, Frederick 1). Team fouls — 11. Fouled out — Klein.

CRESTON (39) — Totals — (FG FT PTS) 23 5-8 55. Kadley Bailey 12 0-0 25, Ella Turner 4 0-0 8, Brynn Tussey 2 1-2 5, Hollynn Rieck 1 1-2 4, Marlee Stalker 2 0-0 4, Jensan Tussey 1 0-0 3, Bentleigh Collier 1 0-0 3, Braylee Pokorny 0 2-2 2, Payton Veitz 0 1-2 1. FG shooting — 23-52 (44.2 percent). 3-point goals — 4-16 (Bailey 1, Rieck 1, J. Tussey 1, Collier 1). Rebounds — 15 (Rieck 4, Turner 3, Stalker 2). Assists — 17 (Rieck 6, Pokorny 3, Turner 3, J. Tussey 3). Steals — 18 (Bailey 5, Rieck 5, Turner 3, Pokorny 2, J. Tussey 2). Blocked shots — 2 (Rieck 1, J. Tussey 1). Turnovers — 9. Team fouls — 10. Fouled out — None.