Defense guides Baxter girls past Collins-Maxwell

Dec. 6—BAXTER — A tough shooting night didn't prevent the Baxter girls basketball team from winning its Iowa Star Conference South Division matchup with Collins-Maxwell on Friday.

The Bolts shot 33 percent from the floor, made just 4-of-13 from 3-point range and committed 25 turnovers against the Spartans.

But a sound defensive strategy helped Baxter overcome its offensive woes during a 43-25 home win over Collins-Maxwell.

"The girls give great effort. They play extremely hard," Baxter head girls basketball coach Kyle Krampe said. "We'll need to have to win games like that. We'll press a lot. That's who we are."

The press slowed down the Spartans enough to force them into a half-court offense. Then, the Bolts allowed Collins-Maxwell to mostly take outside shots.

The Spartans weren't up to the challenge though. They shot 20 percent from the floor and went 0-of-18 from 3. Collins-Maxwell is shooting only 16.3 percent from long range so far this season.

Erica Houge and Chloe Wierson are averaging around 20 points each per game. The next-best Spartan scores only four points per game so the Bolts forced someone else to beat them and Collins-Maxwell struggled to make shots.

"We knew we had to stop Chloe and Erica on defense. We had to have good help-side defense," Baxter senior Mandee Selover said. "Our goal was once Erica gave up the ball to not let her get it back. We played in front and back of Chloe. We wanted to make others beat us."

A fast start propelled the defending conference champion Bolts (2-0 overall, 2-0 in the conference) to a key early-season win. Baxter jumped out to a 16-2 lead and led 18-5 after one quarter.

Emie Tuhn buried a pair of treys in the period, Abbie Meyer scored twice from inside and back-to-back buckets by Bree Buswell pushed the Bolts' lead to 14.

Baxter outscored Collins-Maxwell 7-6 in the second and the Spartans (2-2, 1-1) reversed that in the third.

Buswell scored 10 points in the game and four of those came in the third.

Selover opened the fourth with back-to-back baskets and Tuhn capped the victory with a pair of triples.

Selover finished with 12 points and 13 rebounds, Tuhn added 12 points, seven rebounds, three assists and four steals and Buswell chipped in 10 points, six rebounds, six assists and four steals.

"We are running a different offense. I feel like we flowed into well because we knew him," Selover said. "He's a good motivational coach.

"Our biggest thing tonight was effort and hustle. We wanted to keep pushing through even if we made mistakes."

There were plenty of mistakes on both ends. But Tuhn's defensive effort on Houge and the Bolts' overall intensity at that end of the floor was too much for the Spartans to handle.

Houge is averaging 20 points per game so far this season but was held to six by Tuhn. She did have 11 rebounds, five steals and four assists.

Chloe Wierson added a game-high 15 points, seven rebounds and four steals.

"That's a good team. They have two great players and to be honest, that's who we have to beat to do what we want to do," Krampe said. "Erica and Chloe are really good players. Emie did a great job on Erica. She's one of the best defensive players in our league and probably in Central Iowa.

"She struggled to score tonight but hit a few big 3s in the second half."

Baxter's offensive struggles may have been in line with playing on back-to-back nights. The defensive effort likely forced tired legs at the other end.

"We just have to keep working on it in practice," Krampe said of the offensive woes. "We played yesterday so it was tough. We got tired. We need to get our legs back. We just have to get into game shape."

Meyer finished with eight points and five boards for the Bolts, while Emma Ziesman and Kendyl Stevenson grabbed three and two rebounds, respectively.

Baxter 82, Colo-NESCO 20

COLO — Tuhn put in a career-high 30 points and four Bolts scored in double-figures as Baxter cruised past host Colo-NESCO to open the season on Thursday.

The Bolts led 26-6 after one and outscored the Royals 26-0 in the second.

Turn added five assists and eight steals to go with her 30 points. Selover registered 16 points, nine rebounds, four assists and two steals, while Ziesman collected her first career double-double with 11 points, 10 rebounds and two steals.

Buswell finished with 10 points, five steals and two assists, Meyer collected nine points, four rebounds and three steals and Stevenson chipped in four points, four assists and seven steals. Adison Bonney grabbed three boards.

Baxter shot 57 percent from the floor despite making only 3-of-13 from 3-point range. The Bolts were 13-of-20 from the line, committed 12 turnovers and out-rebounded the Royals 27-17.

Colo-NESCO (0-3, 0-1) committed 40 turnovers and no Royal scored more than four points.