Power of the pack

CLARINDA — The Creston girls basketball team has been back in the lab this week, working on playing without senior star Kadley Bailey.

With four minutes left in Monday’s narrow 50-46 loss at 17-3 Kuemper Catholic at Carroll, Kadley was helped off the court with an ankle injury. X-rays Tuesday showed no fracture, but she has been on crutches this week and is not cleared to play in Saturday’s regional opener at home against Osceola Clarke. Should Creston win, her availability is uncertain for the regional semifinal next Wednesday, most likely at 20-1 PCM.

To avoid any further injury risk, head coach Tony Neubauer rested most of his regular varsity rotation after the Panthers fell behind by 15 points in the third quarter during Tuesday’s non-conference matchup at Clarinda. The result was a 23-0 fourth quarter by the Cardinals on senior night against a freshman-dominated Panther group, which ballooned the final score to 66-28.

Creston will enter regional play with a 10-11 overall record, finishing 4-6 in Hawkeye Ten play for ninth place in the 11-team league, one win behind Shenandoah, Clarinda, Lewis Central and Harlan.

Creston trailed just 12-10 and 29-22 after the first two quarters Tuesday, but Neubauer pulled the plug after the deficit reached 15 points at 43-28 after three periods. Clarinda ended up dominating the second half, 37-6.

“We struggled to get the ball in the basket in the third quarter. The fourth quarter was all about staying healthy,” Neubauer said. “Everybody is 0-0 starting Saturday. This game didn’t mean a hill of beans.”

Creston won the conference game against Clarinda, 52-50, on Jan. 6.

Bailey, the school record-holder for steals in one season (103) and the program’s third-leading career scorer with 1,177 points, is ranked second in scoring in Class 3A this season at 21.4 points per game. The injury occurred during a routine defensive move, according to the athletic 5-7 senior who plays on the top of the team’s 1-3-1 zone defense.

“I was on defense and reached up to the block the (pass) like a volleyball block,” Bailey said. “I tried to pick it from her, but she snagged it real fast and spread her feet out wide in line a jump stop. I came down on her foot. I got an X-ray and they said no break, but it;s a pretty good sprain. I’m on crutches until the end of this week. They said whenever I feel good, I can go after that. But I’m not cleared for Saturday.”

Neubauer and assistants Bryant McCabe and Scott Wagner had no opportunity to lead a practice without Bailey before Clarinda’s game. He said preparations on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday would be valuable for the senior-laden varsity rotation. Sophomores Marlee Stalker and Jensan Tussey have been regular reserves, and junior Hope Henderson saw duty on Tuesday.

Jensan Tussey joined seniors Ella Turner, Hollynn Rieck, Brynn Tussey and Braylee Pokorny in the starting lineup at Clarinda.

“We haven’t had time to practice yet,” Neubauer said Tuesday night at Clarinda High School. “We’ll get after people on defense and try to generate some offense that way. I know our girls don’t want to lose their last game at home. We did some nice things at Kuemper against a very good team.”

Kuemper stands 15-5 overall after a 64-17 loss to conference champion St. Albert Tuesday, falling to 9-1 in league play. The Knights shot only 26.7% from the field Monday and went 7-of-37 from behind the 3-point arc in holding off the Panthers’ upset bid.

“We were up by one with 1:45 left,” Neubuaer said. “They hit a three to go up by two late. Hollynn had the ball with a chance to tie it with 18 seconds left and we had the ball down by two with 10 seconds left and we fumbled the ball. Defensively, we did exactly what we needed to do — make them take a lot of long, contested threes. Their stud (Elsa Tiefenthaler) was 2 for 17 on threes. We ran the floor well. Hollynn had 13, Braylee had 10, Brynn had eight and Kadley had 12 before she went down. We had our chances.”

Tuesday’s game was a different story. Maddie Cole, one of six Clarinda seniors honored before the game, did damage from long range in scoring 15 first-half points. Freshman Aylah Johnson finished with 13 points. Turner led Creston with eight points.

“We lost track of the Cole girl in the first half. She shot it well,” Neubauer said. “We did some good things in the first half. We just weren’t shooting it well enough in the second half to make up the lead they built up. As for the score in the fourth quarter, I don’t care. I wanted us to get out healthy for Saturday.”

Creston avoided a senior-night upset loss to Clarke on Feb. 2, prevailing 64-59 in overtime.

Monday’s game

KUEMPER (50) — Totals — (FG FT PTS) 16 11-22 50. Charlotte Hackfort 4 2-2 14, Alivia Schenkelberg 5 2-6 12, Elsa Tiefenthaler 3 3-4 11, Addy Anthofer 2 2-4 7, Morgan Masching 2 1-4 5, Kaylie Simons 0 1-2 1. FG shooting — 16-60 (26.7 percent). 3-point goals — 7-37 (Hackfort 4, Tiefenthaler 2, Anthofer 1). Steals — 12 (Tiefenthaler 4, Masching 4, Anthofer 3). Rebounds — 41 (Schenkelberg 8, Anthofer 8, Hackfort 7, Masching 4). Assists — 11 (Tiefenthaler 4, Masching 4). Turnovers — 13. Team fouls — 18. Fouled out — None.

CRESTON (46) — Totals — (FG FT PTS) 16 10-19 46. Hollynn Rieck 4 4-6 13, Kadley Bailey 5 1-2 12, Braylee Pokorny 3 3-5 10, Brynn Tussey 3 1-2 8, Ella Turner 1 1-4 3. FG shooting — 16-40 (40.0 percent). 3-point goals — 4-18 (Bailey 1, Rieck 1, Pokorny 1, Tussey 1). Rebounds — 30 (Rieck 8, Turner 7, B. Tussey 5). Assists — 12 (Rieck 5, Pokorny 3). Steals — 11 (Reick 6, Bailey 4). Turnovers — 17. Team fouls — 19. Fouled out — Turner.

Tuesday’s game

CLARINDA (59) — Totals — (FG FT PTS) 24 14-27 66. Maddie Cole 6 0-0 15, Aylah Johnson 5 2-4 13, Miley Wagoner 6 0-0 12, Carsen Wellhausen 2 2-2 6, Kelby Gray 2 1-1 5, Kylie Meier 1 3-6 5, Addison Wagoner 2 1-8 5, Elaina Hesse 0 3-4 3, Ellie Cole 0 2-2 2. FG shooting — 24-62 (38.7 percent). 3-point goals — 4-20 (Cole 3, Johnson 1). Steals — 18 (A. Wagoner 3, Meier 3, Wellhausen 3). Rebounds — 45 (Johnson 10, A. Wagoner 8, Wellhausen 6). Assists — 17 (Wellhausen 4, Cole 4). Turnovers — 13. Team fouls — 17. Fouled out — None.

CRESTON (28) — Totals — (FG FT PTS) 9 9-19 28. Ella Turner 2 4-6 8, Hollynn Rieck 1 3-6 5, Jensan Tussey 2 0-5 4, Brynn Tussey 2 0-0 4, Marlee Stalker 1 0-0 3, Braylee Pokorny 1 0-0 2, Hope Henderson 0 2-2 2. FG shooting — 9-37 (24.3 percent). 3-point goals — 1-4 (Stalker 1). Rebounds — 31 (Turner 8, Pokorny 7, J. Tussey 5). Assists — 6 (Rieck 4, J. Tussey 2). Steals — 7 (Rieck 2, B. Tussey 2). Turnovers — 26. Team fouls — 19. Fouled out — None.