Slow start plagues Newton girls in scrimmage loss to Bondurant-Farrar

A slow start and a poor second quarter was too much for the Newton girls basketball team to overcome on Thursday.

The Cardinals hosted Bondurant-Farrar for an Achieve Challenge scrimmage and the Bluejays jumped out to a 9-2 lead and outscored Newton 15-5 in the second during a 41-36 road win.

The host Cardinals dominated the fourth quarter, but it wasn’t enough. Newton had a 12-point advantage from the free-throw line and made one more 3-pointer, but Bondurant-Farrar connected on 17 shots from the floor.

“We started to settle down and play our style of basketball,” Newton head girls basketball coach Jake Bennett said about the final frame. “We needed to match their intensity level and be aggressive, and when we do that, things go well for us. When the intensity level is risen up, the girls feel more comfortable.”

Payton Carkhuff kept the Cardinals in the game with a six-point first frame. She buried four straight from the foul line to close the gap to 9-6 late in the period, but a 12-4 run that extended into the second put the visitors in front 21-10 and B-F led 26-11 at halftime.

Newton is still trying to figure out its rotation. State swimmers Tori White and Alex Riney continue to get acclimated to the team, but 11 of the 12 players on the bench appeared in at least three quarters.

Bennett and his coaching staff had three freshmen, one sophomore and one senior on the floor multiple times in the game and the starting lineup featured two sophomores and one freshman.

“We are trying to figure out who works well together it what situations,” Bennett said. “I feel like we are still trying to figure out what our identity is and when someone else is on the floor, what does that mean for me?

“It comes down to having more options and more girls who can step up.”

Riney buried a 3 as part of Newton’s five-point second quarter.

Both teams scored nine points in the third. Four different players scored for Newton as Carkhuff and White each connected on drives to the hoop, Sophia Coady made a trey and Alex Garvis buried two free throws.

The Cardinals outscored Bondurant-Farrar 16-6 in the fourth. They got as close as four after Riney made two free throws with 22.3 seconds on the clock. Riney added another free throw with 11.8 left, but that’s as close as Newton would get.

“We might go deeper into the bench, but it will be dictated on who’s playing well at the time and how practices go,” Bennett said.

Garvis scored five of her seven points in the fourth, while Carkhuff put in eight of her team-best nine points in the first three frames. She was 5-of-8 from the foul line.

All four of Hailey Dickerson’s points came from the charity stripe, Riney was 3-of-4 from the line in the fourth and Newton made 17-of-28 in the contest.

Riney scored six points and White added five. Coady joined Dickerson with four points.

Bondurant-Farrar’s Addison Brown led all scorers with 15 points, while Aubrie Haynes added 10 points and made the Bluejays’ only two 3-pointers.

The visitors were plagued by a 5-of-20 performance from the foul line.

Notes: The two teams combined for 45 fouls. There were a plethora of jump ball calls, too. … The Cardinals’ starting lineup featured Garvis, Carkhuff, Evie Main, Camryn Klein and Brooke Garvis. “We have girls who came into the program who have done a good job playing intense basketball and doing things they need to do to be on the court,” Bennett said. “That allows us to be more rested and be more intense on defense. We don’t have to play hard for as long right now with our rotations.”