Raiderettes improve to 6-2 with wins on back-to-back nights

The Mount Ayr Raiderettes improved to 6-2 in eight games with wins in back-to-back nights last week against POI foe SE Warren and non-conference foe Worth County Missouri.

The Raiderettes will travel to Greenfield on Tuesday, December 19 to face the No. 5 team in Class 2A, Nodaway Valley Wolverines in their last game before Christmas break.  The Raiderettes will start the second half of the season against 1A No. 3 Martensdale-St. Mary’s on January 5 at home.

“I am happy we have won five in a row.  We have two tough games coming up here with two ranked teams,” said Mount Ayr coach Thad Streit.

“We have a tough road game at Nodaway Valley and then when we come back from break, we host Martensdale-St. Mary’s.  We have some things to polish up before then.  We want to play better defensively and be in a better position more consistently.  Some of that is that we are a young team and still learning.  We did some good things both nights.  We are 6-2 and I am looking forward to seeing how we play on Tuesday,” said Streit.

Mount Ayr and SE Warren couldn’t buy a basket early in their POI match-up last Thursday. The game began with neither team scoring until a rebound put back from Jaxy Knight to give Mount Ayr a 2-0 lead with 5:13 left in the opening quarter.  Later, with the game tied at 2-2, buckets from Dannie Stewart on a drive to the basket and a Breya Nickle hoop in transition off of a SE Warren turnover, set the score at 6-2 with 3:44 left in the quarter.  Mount Ayr would hold a 7-4 lead after the first quarter.

Mount Ayr used an 18-4 second-quarter run to take a commanding 25-8 halftime lead.  The Raiders got the basketball inside and came away with eight points in the paint from their second-quarter point total.  The Raideretts started the second quarter on a 7-0 run with buckets from Gilbertson, Nickel and Jaylee Shaffer to get the score to 14-4 two minutes into the quarter.

After halftime, Mount Ayr used a 14-8 run to extend their lead to 39-16 after three quarters.  Late in the quarter back-to-back possessions with a three-pointer from Nickle gave the Raiderettes their biggest lead in the game at 25 points, 39-16.  Mount Ayr would outscore SE Warren 17-13 in the final quarter. Mount Ayr had three players reach double figures led by Izzy Gilbertson with 15 points and nine rebounds.  Dannie Stewart scored 14 points and Breya Nickle had 12 points and 5 steals.  Stewart also had 6 rebounds and 4 assists.

SE Warren was led in scoring by Lexi Clendenen with 12 points and 6 rebounds.  Madison Olsasky had 8 points.  Jessica Lillig had a team-high 11 rebounds.

The next night, Worth County, a small school from Missouri, came to town to play Mount Ayr.  There, the Raiderettes won their sixth game, winning 60-34 over their non-conference opponent.  Mount Ayr used a 25-2 run in the first quarter to take a commanding lead.Mount Ayr scored the first seven points of the game to lead 7-0.  Baskets by Izzy Gilbertson, and Jaxy Knight accounted for the points.  Worth County scored their only basket of the quarter with 4:23 left in the quarter to set the score at 7-2.  The Raiderettes would score 18 more points in the quarter with 11 of those off of Worth County turnovers. Breya Nickle would score 7, Jaxy Knight 5, Dannie Stewart and Gilbertson 4 each to end the quarters.

The Raiderettes followed their first-quarter outburst with a 16-12 run to lead 41-14 at halftime.  The Raiderettes would take a 51-23 lead to the final quarter.  Worth County would outscore Mount Ayr 16-9 in the final quarter.

Mount Ayr was led by Izzy Gilbertson and Jaxy Knight with 19 and 13 points.  Gilbertson completed a double-double with 10 rebounds.  Breya Nickle added nine points.

            1   2    3    4     Final

SEW    4   4   8    13    29

MA    7   8   14  17    56

SEW (29): Kate Logue 3-6 0-0 9, Jessica Lillig 0-11 0-0 0, Kiara Wallace 0-2 0-0 0, Lexi Clendenen 4-10 2-3 12, Madison Olsasky 4-8 0-2 8, Belle Ewing 0-2 0-0 0, Shyan Sonnenburg 0-0 0-0 0, Lillian Ewing 0-0 0-2 0, Hayden Ruble 0-2 0-0 0, Rylee Seuferer 0-2 0-0 0, Olivia Costigan 0-0 0-0 0.  Totals:  11-43 2-7 29.

MOUNT AYR (56): Jaylee Shaffer 1-6 0-0 3, Dannie Stewart 6-9 1-1 14, Breya Nickle 5-15 0-0 12, Jaxy Knight 4-11 1-1 9, Izzy Gilbertson 7-12 1-6 15, Abby Larson 1-1 0-0 3, MaKel Jones 0-1 0-0 0, Koda Henle 0-0 0-0 0, Allison Anderson 0-0 0-0 0, Karly Elwood 0-1 0-0 0.  Totals: 24-56 3-8 56.

3-Pt. FG: 5-20 (Nickle 2-5, Shaffer 1-5, Stewart 1-2, A. Larson 1-1, Knight 0-5, Gilbertson 0-1, Jones 0-1).  Rebounds: 31 (Gilbertson 9, Stewart 6, Knight 4, Jones 4, Nickle 3, Larson 2, Elwood 2, Shaffer 1).  Assists: 19 (Knight 4, Gilbertson 4, Stewart 4, Shaffer 2, Nickle 2, A. Larson 2, Jones 1).  Steals: 18 (Knight 6, Nickle 5, Jones 3, A. Larson 1, Gilbertson 1, Stewart 1, Shaffer 1).  Blocked Shots: 2 (Gilbertson 2).  Total Fouls: 9.  Fouled Out: none.

1    2     3    4     Final

WC 2  12   9   16    34

MA 25 16  10   9     60

MOUNT AYR (60): Jaylee Shaffer 2-7 0-0 6, Dannie Stewart 2-6 0-1 4, Breya Nickle 4-6 0-0 9, Jaxy Knight 5-9 1-2 13, Izzy Gilbertson 9-15 0-1 19, Abby Larson 1-4 0-0 3, MaKel Jones 1-3 0-0 2, Tatum Friedrich 0-0 0-0 0, Adalynn Dredge 0-0 0-0 0, Keely Wasteney 0-0 0-0 0, Kacie Larsen 0-1 0-0 0, Koda Henle 1-1 0-0 2, Allison Anderson 0-0 0-0 0, Karly Elwood 1-2 0-0 2, Kensie Barnes 0-1 0-0 0.  Totals: 27-55 1-4 60.

3-Pt. FG: 5-24 (Knight 2-5, Gilbertson 1-4, Nickle 1-3, A. Larson 1-3, Shaffer 0-4, Stewart 0-2, Jones 0-2, K. Larsen 0-1).  Rebounds: 29 (Gilbertson 10, Stewart 6, Shaffer 3, Knight 3, Jones 2, Nickle 1, A. Larson 1, Wasteney 1, Elwood 1, Barnes 1).  Assists: 23 (Stewart 7, Knight 3, Shaffer 3, Dredge 3, Gilbertson 2, Jones 2, Elwood 1, Anderson 1, A. Larson 1).  Steals: 14 (Nickle 3, Gilbertson 3, Knight 2, Stewart 2, Shaffer 1, Jones 1, K. Larson 1, Barnes 1).  Blocked Shots: 7 (Gilbertson 3, Elwood 2, Barnes 1, Nickle 1).  Total Fouls: 13.  Fouled Out: none.