Glenwood pulls away in second half for 59-45 victory

The Glenwood girls out-scored Denison 30-19 in the second half to pull away from Denison in a 59-45 Hawkeye 10 Conference girls basketball victory Friday.

Molly Dean led the way for the Rams (10-11 overall, 4-6 in the conference) with 22 points. Halie Darrow added 12 and Danika Lucy 13.

Shenandoah 55,
Glenwood 53

Glenwood rallied back from being down 14 points in the second half to cut the lead to two but that’s where the comeback would end as Shenandoah escaped with a 55-53 Hawkeye 10 Conference girls basketball victory last Tuesday.

The Rams (9-11 overall, 4-6 in the conference) grabbed a steal and had a chance to trim the lead to just one inside of 20 seconds but a three-pointer clanged off.    

“Yeah you never know,” said Glenwood coach Barry Loeffelbein of whether he should have called a time out to set up a play following the steal. “I figured we’re in transition and sometimes you get a better look in transition and it looked like we had some spacing. We just couldn’t make one when we needed it. But it was a good game and I’m proud of the girls for battling all the way to the end.”

After a defensive-minded, low scoring first half in which the two teams traded the lead several times, the Fillies led 20-18 at intermission.

But in the third quarter, Shenandoah opened the half on an 18-6 run to take their biggest lead of the game to that point on Serena Parker’s layup with 3:02 to go in the frame at 38-26. The Rams managed to bite into the lead the final three minutes and trailed 38-30 at the end of three.

Shenandoah hit their first four shots of the fourth quarter to put the lead back to 47-35 but Glenwood wouldn’t go away, twice cutting the Fillie lead to single digits.

Following back-to-back layups by Sydney Nielsen that put the lead back to 12 at 51-39, the Rams’ “real” comeback began.

A three pointer by Jana King and a runner by Halie Darrow trimmed it to 51-44 with 1:28 to go. After Nielsen hit one of two at the line, King followed with two free throws to make it 52-46 with 54.7 to go. Jaime Runyon then missed the front end of a one-and-one leading to a King layup on the other end. With 39.2 to go, the Rams led 52-48.

The Fillies’ Parker responded with a layup and was fouled. But the senior center missed the layup to give Glenwood life. After a timeout, Glenwood’s Myranda Starner banked in a layup on a set play to make the score 54-50. The Rams then stole the inbounds pass leading to a great look from three but the shot clanged off.

“We didn’t make any shots for a while and we were shooting some tough shots. We forced ourselves into tough ones and they gained a gap we couldn’t quite make up,” Loeffelbein said.

The Fillies snagged the rebound and Logan Ehlers made 1-of-2 at the line but Shenandoah led 55-50 with just 6.3 seconds to go. Danika Lucy’s first career three-pointer at the buzzer made it 55-53.
All night the Fillies length on defense – three starters stand six feet or taller – gave the Rams fits.

“We had some opportunities to attack the basket and they blocked them,” said Glenwood coach Barry Loeffelbein. “We had four or five shots at it in close with baskets we could have used and they just blocked them.”

Glenwood out-scored the Class 3A, No. 10 ranked Fillies 16-6 over the final 2:50 of the game but it was just not enough to make up for the first three-and-a-half quarters.

“That’s a good team and we played them right to the end. And we’re a good team. We just have to get rid of some of the mistakes we made. We had two run outs late and we just threw it away. Those are game changers.”

King led four Rams in double-figures with 16 points. Molly Dean added 12, Lucy 11 and Darrow 10.

Kylee Connell led Shenandoah with 26 points.