Newton girls close late to earn 5A berth by beating Valley Center

Stifled by Valley Center’s 2-3 zone, points were hard to come by for Newton’s girls basketball team on Friday night.

But the Railers settled down late in the game and outscored the Hornets 8-1 in the final 3:04 for a 32-25 victory and earned their third straight trip to the Class 5A tournament next week in Topeka.

Newton (17-5) sputtered in the first half, committing nine turnovers and scoring 13 points.

But six second-half points from junior guard Savannah Simmons and 3 of 4 free throws by senior post Abby Schmidt gave the Railers some breathing room – even if it was slight.

Railers coach Randy Jordan said his team just needed to relax.

“When we settled down and started attacking the gaps, and making them collapse, we got some open looks,” he said. “I think our defense helped us turn into offense as well.

“This team, they’re resilient.”

Jordan said one of the keys was Simmons’ basket in the final seconds of the third quarter.

“That shot she hit to tie us at 22, (after Simmons hit it) I turned to my assistant and said, ‘We’re going to win this game.’ That was the turning point.”

Simmons agreed that calming down was a key to beating Valley Center (16-8).

“Then we came out, came together and we just rallied after we got that shot,” she said. “We needed to calm down a lot, because we were just getting up and nervous.”

Simmons hit 1 of 2 free throws to put Newton ahead 25-24 with 2:55 left, then Schmidt was fouled and hit both foul shots for a 27-24 lead with 2:28 to play. The 6-foot-3 Schmidt scored just the three points, but the timing was critical. She said it was crucial to turn things around.

“It didn’t seem like things were going my way,” she said. “They were playing a lot of zone, so it was up to our guards to drive the gaps. But I practice free throws every day after practice for like 20 minutes, so I knew when it came to it, that I could just put them in.”

Jordan said getting to state felt good after the tumult of a five-loss season.

“We were close to a season on the brink,” he said. “We had five losses. These kids could have quit. I’ve just got to give them credit. They just would not quit.”

This story was originally published March 3, 2017 at 9:27 PM with the headline "Newton girls close late to earn 5A berth by beating Valley Center."