Top-ranked DCG uses fast start to down Newton girls

Newton head girls basketball coach Jake Bennett has preached patience with his squad this winter.

The Cardinals have not had a winning season 2015-16. Newton has won just 25 games the past seven seasons and Bennett knows the turnaround will not come overnight.

Taking positive steps also becomes harder when the Cardinals are facing some of the best teams in the state every time they hit the competitive floor.

Newton faced the defending Class 4A state champion Dallas Center-Grimes Mustangs on Friday, fell behind 24-1 after one quarter and couldn’t keep pace during a 57-24 home loss.

“We talked day one about how this wasn’t going to be an overnight turnaround,” Bennett said. “We are trying to build a legacy here. We know we have to get better every day and we’ll continue to work on the fundamentals. And I think we showed more confidence tonight than we did against Indianola.

“I think this builds over time and we will keep working. We need to have trust in what we are doing.”

Kayla Reis was the catalyst early for the Mustangs during the Little Hawkeye Conference game.

Reis opened the game with a 3-point play and then buried four straight 3-pointers to put DCG in front 15-1. Newton’s lone point in the period was a free throw by Hailey Dickerson early in the game.

Things did get better for the Cardinals as the game went on. They were outscored 13-8 in the second, 13-9 in the third and 7-6 in the fourth.

Newton scored six of the first eight points of the second as Alex Riney connected on a runner, Evie Main buried a jumper and Tori White turned her own steal into a layup at the other end.

DCG countered with a 6-0 run before Dickerson made a jumper. The Cardinals trailed 37-9 at halftime.

Bennett took a couple of timeouts early in the game to let his team know they weren’t playing their style of basketball.

“We needed to play our game and have confidence in what we do,” Bennett said. “We were reacting too much to what DCG did. They’re a really good team. We let them do what they wanted to do, and we didn’t do enough to be us.”

Reis opened the second half the same way she started the game — with a 3-point play. She added a layup later in the frame and began the fourth with another triple.

Her 26 points led DCG (6-0, 1-0 in the LHC) to its first conference win of the season.

Six of Newton’s nine points in the third came on 3s by Main and Riney and Riney also added a nifty hook shot in the lane.

Dickerson made a free throw in both the third and fourth, Main hit another triple and Brooke Garvis scored inside in the final minute to cap the Cardinals’ scoring.

“I think things got better as the game went along,” Bennett said. “We eventually started to attack. The ball moved a lot better after the first quarter, and we were able to find some open shots. The shots just aren’t falling enough consistently at the moment.”

Main led the Cardinals with eight points and two rebounds. Riney tallied seven points and three boards, Dickerson chipped in five points and four rebounds and White registered five rebounds and four steals.

Payton Carkhuff grabbed five rebounds, Alex Garvis had three rebounds and Brooke Garvis grabbed two. Riley Plowman contributed two assists and three steals.

The Cardinals (1-4, 0-2) shot 24 percent from the floor, made 3-of-17 from 3 and hit 3-of-6 from the free-throw line. Newton turned the ball over 22 times.

“We are going to be a team that has to build at both ends as we go,” Bennett said. “Defensively, we have to make sure we know how to play and get to the right spots. We are working on that constantly. And it’s really the same thing on offense. We have to know where we are supposed to be and just have confidence in our shots.”