Balanced scoring leads Newton girls to season-opening win over Chariton

A fast start and a strong finish was all the Newton girls basketball team needed against Chariton on Tuesday night.

The Cardinals opened their season against the 3A Chargers, scored the first 14 points in the game and cruised to a 57-30 non-conference victory.

Nine players scored for Newton but no one reached double digits. And the 57 points by the Cardinals would have been the second-highest output last season.

“Getting these kind of wins are good for momentum and confidence boosts,” Newton head girls basketball coach Jake Bennett said. “We are not going to take any team for granted. But we played at a better pace and played our speed tonight. It’s good to see it translate to a win and show the girls we are on the right track and it will come with time.”

Chariton fell behind PCM 21-7 in the first quarter of its season opener on Friday.

The Cardinals also jumped out to an early advantage in front of their home crowd. Alex Riney, Tori White and Hailey Dickerson all scored four points during the opening 14-0 run and the Cardinals led 16-5 after one.

An 8-0 run that featured two free throws and a baseline jumper by Brooke Garvis pushed the advantage to 24-7 and Sophia Coady drained an open 3-pointer to give the hosts a 27-10 lead at halftime.

“We brought the energy at the beginning and had a good finish, but we did let down some in the middle,” Riney said. “We have some younger players who are helping, and it’s going to take all of us.”

Newton went the first 5 minutes of the second quarter without a point but got going late and outscored the Chargers 11-5 in the frame.

Both teams scored 14 points in the third. Newton put in the first five of the frame, but an 11-0 run by Chariton got the visitors within 32-20.

The Cardinals scored nine of the final 13 though to go up 41-24 after 24 minutes. That stretch featured 3-pointers from Payton Carkhuff, Coady and Camryn Klein.

“I think once we start to drive more, teams will sag off and we can let it fly,” Riney said about the 3-point shooting. “Or the other way around. We need to make more from outside to force them to come out and then we can drive around them.”

Newton outscored the Chargers 16-6 in the fourth. The Cardinals (1-0) used a 16-0 run to finish off the victory.

The spurt included back-to-back layups by Carkhuff, a bucket inside and a 3 from Klein and a free throw and basket inside by Dickerson.

The Cardinals made five 3s in the game but struggled from outside in the first half.

Bennett said there’s a balance between being confident enough to take deep shots and finding better shots closer to the basket.

“We are still trying to figure out what the best shot is,” Bennett said. “Just because it’s an open shot doesn’t mean it’s the best shot to take at that time. But we also want to have confident shooters who want to take those shots so it’s a little bit of both. The shots didn’t go our way in the second and third, but it was better in the fourth. Getting the ball inside helped, too.”

Riney led the Cardinals with nine points, while White added eight and Carkhuff scored seven.

Coady and Klein both put in eight points off the bench in their varsity debuts. They each buried a pair of triples.

Dickerson produced seven bench points, Garvis scored four off the bench and Evie Main also tallied four points.

The Cardinals had a 23-10 advantage in field goals and were 6-of-9 from the free-throw line.

All 12 players on the Newton bench saw action in the game. White and Alex Garvis battled through foul trouble, too.

“We did have some girls in foul trouble, and we’d like to have those girls out on the floor, but other players stepped in and made some shots, gave our team energy and they stayed out there because they were doing a great job. It really comes down to who’s playing well and who’s right for the situation.”

Brynli Smyser led Chariton (0-2) with 10 points. The Chargers made two treys and were 8-of-16 from the foul line.

Notes: Rebounds, assists and steals were not available for Newton due to an early holiday deadline. … Chariton’s 1-2-2 zone gave Newton some trouble in the middle two quarters. The Cardinals used full court pressure defense to get easy buckets in transition in the first before draining four 3s in the second half. “We have a couple of things we can do against the 1-2-2, but we haven’t worked on them that much yet,” Bennett said. “It was good to see it. The girls adjusted well to it. Once they figured it out, the ball started to go into the hoop.” … Newton is now 7-4 against Chariton since 2008. The Chargers came into the game winners of three of the past four.