The Newton County High School Steelworkers finished a successful Martin Luther King Holiday Classic basketball tournament in Ritztown with a split of games on Monday.
Facing the Squaws of Nipperton in the morning game, the team almost literally handed their opponents the lead with ten turnovers in the first quarter alone. Most of the miscues were errant passes that turned into fast break points for Nipperton.
"My favorite was the pass on the fast break that sailed over the backboard," assistant coach Joe McDonald quipped.
Satellites aside, the sophomores got their game under control. After falling behind by as many at 15, they made an impressive fourth quarter rally to trim the lead to seven with three and a half minutes left before rediscovering their flair for miscues down the stretch.
"We're averaging about 18 turnovers a game," said the head coach afterward. "If we convert six of those into points, we'd be winning games going away. It gives us room for improvement, which is what we want in the second half of the season."
Nonetheless, NCHS did continue to shoot impressively from the free throw line overall, finishing around 70% for the tournament.
The second game was a matchup with the Jartmouth Screaming Mooses, a scraggly-haired bunch from the Chicago suburbs. The Steelworkers' point guard Manny Duzwell had his best game of the event, unloading 15 points on an assortment of driving layups and free throws. They dominated the glass, giving up nearly zero offensive rebounds, and held them to just 19 first half points. In the second half they were far more generous, allowing over thirty points and clinging to a dwindling ten point lead in the final minutes. When at last a desperation game-winning three pointer missed the mark, Newton County could embark on the long snowy bus ride home with high heads and a 12-2 record on the season.
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