Girls force 40 turnovers in home rout of Irrigators

It was an amount of turnovers that would have made a bakery proud.
The Custer High School girls basketball team was at peak pestering last Thursday evening at the Armory, as the Wildcats—subbing in fresh waves of players liberally—trapped, poked, pressed and prodded the visiting Newell Irrigators into 40 turnovers during a 69-47 win. The 40 ’Gator turnovers led to 31 Wildcat points.
“We wanted to get the pace where we needed it to be,” Custer head coach Tayton Vincent said. “Watching film, Newell likes to slow it down a little more with their 2-3 zone. They didn’t want to get into a running match, so we thought we could really tire them out.”
Custer had 35 deflections of Newell passes in the game, 11 of which came from Jojo Larsen, who also stacked up eight assists as the Wildcats had a season-high 21 assists on 28 made baskets.
“The pressure defense led to easy basket opportunities, uncontested layups,” Vincent said. “It’s good to see that sharing the ball.”
Custer took the lead earlier and continued to build it throughout the game, starting with a Lauryn Robb three-pointer that put Custer up 10-5. Larsen followed that by hitting a pull-up jumper from 10 feet to give Custer a 14-9 lead, but Newell cut it to a two-point lead when Mary Mahaffy hit a three-pointer.
Custer led 19-14 after the first period, and led 23-16 after a Kylee Ellerton basket off some nice ball movement, which Ellerton, who had a game-high 14 points on an efficient 7-11 from the field, followed with another long two to put Custer up 26-16.
Larsen followed that with a three-pointer, and moments later Kylee Pulscher hit a basket to put Custer up 35-20. The Wildcats eventually took a 17-point lead into the half.
The Wildcats picked up right where they left off in the second half, starting with an Emily Borkowski offensive rebound and basket that was part of her 12 points, followed by another Ellerton basket off a Larsen assist that put Custer up 20 at 45-25.
From there the Wildcat bench got into the act, as Keira Nelson rebounded her own miss for a basket and Rylan Lowe hit a three-pointer and Custer was up 25 at 56-31.
The Wildcats also had a strong game on the boards, something that has been a trouble spot for them, as they won the rebounding battle 47-35.
“When you have a game like that where you’re experiencing some success, the rebounding comes a little easier because shots are falling on the other end,” Vincent said. “Those games where shots might not be falling, it gets a little harder to go after those rebounds because (the misses) start to get deflating.”
The shots weren’t falling and the rebounds weren’t coming at nearly as fast a clip last Saturday in Wall. The Eagles, ranked No. 4 in Class B, held Custer to 21 percent shooting and won the rebounding battle by 17 on the way to a 72-47 win.
The game was also exceptionally physical, as the teams combined for 52 fouls and 62 free throws while seeing two Eagles and one Wildcat foul out of the game.
“We did capitalize on the free throws (Custer was 26 of 36 from the line). We made as many as they attempted. A lot of the time when that happens, you’re going to be in the game,” Vincent said. “But Wall did a good job rebounding. That was a killer and it’s hard to make that up.”
The Custer defense again swarmed its way into forcing 35 Eagle turnovers, but missed many of the shots created by those turnovers and gave up too many second and third shots to the Eagles when on defense.
“We had some good looks we couldn’t get to stick over the course of the game,” Vincent said. “When it continues over the course of the game and you start to fall behind, it can take a toll on the players. It’s contagious a little bit.”
Vincent said the lopsided loss wasn’t due to a lack of effort, saying the girls continue to play hard.
“It’s one of those nights shots didn’t fall. You played a lot better game than the scoreboard indicated,” he said.
Ellerton was the only Wildcat to hit double digits, scoring 21 points, including going 12-14 at the free throw line. Larsen had seven steals for the Wildcats.
Friday the Wildcats, 5-7, head north for a 6 p.m. matchup against Hill City before returning to the Armory next Tuesday evening to host Douglas at 6:30 p.m.
The Rangers enter Firday’s game at 10-2, riding a six-game win streak.
The Rangers feature 6-3 Maggie Taylor, who will play Division I basketball at Drake next year.
“They have some guards who are real quick and solid. They play extremely hard,” Vincent said.
Vincent said Taylor changes the game on both ends of the floor, but ultimately when the two rivals separated by only 12 miles get together the game will usually be close and come down to which team wants it more.
“If we are all bought in together, it can be a fun experience,” he said. “If we can come up with some of the rebounding, it should be a fun game.”
As for Douglas, the Patriots are scuffling at 1-10, but Vincent said the Patriots didn’t have a strong record when the teams played last year but proved to be a physical team that battled.
“We have to stay true to ourselves. We have been going in the right direction,” he said. “We have to get the game at our speed and create easy scoring opportunities.”
Custer    8    12    13    14    —47
Wall    18    14    22    18    —72
Custer—Lauryn Robb 1-4 0-0 2, Jordyn Larsen 1-12 5-10 7, Shayleigh Forgey 0-1 0-0 0, Kylee Ellerton 4-14 12-14 21, Bailey Cass 0-3 0-0 0, Maya Tennyson 1-3 0-0 2, Jordyn Uphoff 0-2 0-0 0, Emily Borkowski 2-7 5-6 9, Katelyn Nelson 1-1 0-0 2, Kylee Pulscher 0-0 3-4 3, Taylor Bland 0-1 1-2 1. Totals: 10-48 26-36 47.
Wall—Nora Dinger 2-10 2-2 8, Paige Kjerstad 7-10 7-9 21, Rhea Tucker 7-14 1-5 15, Bailey Cerney 1-2 3-6 5, Emmy Moon 3-6 0-2 6, Allie Kjerstad 4-7 0-0 9, Alexis Stephan 3-12 0-0 8, Brooke Diedrichs 0-0 0-2 0. Totals: 27-61 13-26 72.
Three-point goals: Custer 1 (Ellerton), Wall 5 (Dinger 2, Stephan 2, A. Kjerstad). Rebounding: Custer 29 (Ellerton 7), Wall 46 (P. Kjerstad 15, Tucker 12). Steals: Custer 17 (Larsen 7), Wall 16. Assists: Custer 8, Wall 19 (Dinger 7). Turnovers: Custer 31, Wall 35. Total fouls: Custer 23, Wall 29. Fouled out: P. Kjerstad, Faith Frink, Larsen.
Custer    19    20    17    13    —69
Newell    14    8    9    16    —47
Custer—Lauryn Robb 3-4 0-0 7, Jordyn Larsen 4-10 0-0 9, Shayleigh Forgey 3-4 0-0 7, Kylee Ellerton 7-11 0-1 14, Bailey Cass 1-3 0-0 2, Maya Tennyson 0-10 3-4 3, Rylan Lowe 1-3 0-0 3, Keira Nelson 1-5 0-2 2, Jordyn Uphoff 1-5 4-6 6, Emily Borkowski 5-9 2-4 12, Katelyn Nelson 0-2 0-2 0, Kylee Pulscher 2-4 0-0 4, Taylor Bland 0-2 0-0 0. Three-point goals: 22-72 9-19 69.
Newell—Rachel Erk 0-4 0-0 0, Hailey McCann 1-7 0-2 2, Rachel Stranberg 2-7 3-4 7, Braylee Freytag 4-12 0-0 9, Mary Mahaffy 4-5 0-0 12, Tayla Neely 0-1 0-0 0, Kim Johnson 2-9 2-2 6, Kendra Johnson 3-8 4-5 11. Totals: 16-53 9-13 47.
Three-point goals: Custer 4 (Robb, Larsen, Forgey, Lowe), Newell 6 (Mahaffey 4, Freytag, Ke. Johnson). Rebounding: Custer 47 (Borkowski  7), Newell 35 (McCann 8). Steals: Custer 27 (Uphoff 5), Newell 15. Assists: Custer 21 (Larsen 8), Newell 9. Turnovers: Custer 27, Newell 40. Total fouls: Custer 16, Newell 14. Fouled out: Ki. Johnson.