The Newton girls and boys basketball teams hosted Norwalk Tuesday night, and were swept in the Little Hawkeye Conference doubleheader heard live on the KRLS3 stream at KNIAKRLS.com. Meanwhile, the Cardinals girls wrestling team traveled to Pella for a quadrangular and went 2-1 on the night.

In the girls basketball game, Norwalk used fullcourt pressure early to force Newton turnovers and get easy baskets en route to a 71-24 victory. The Cardinals trailed 21-6 at the end of the first quarter, and the Warriors’ lead grew to 44-16 at halftime and 61-20 at the end of the third quarter. Alex Riney led Newton in scoring with six points and Tori White added five, as the team dropped to 8-4 overall and 2-4 in conference games. Cardinals head coach Jake Bennett felt his team played hard, but couldn’t match Norwalk’s athleticism. 

“The depth they have and the athleticism they have, we can’t replicate that in practice. So they can put more people on the court and we don’t have that sort of depth or athleticism they do”

The Cardinal boys led Norwalk 31-29 going into the fourth quarter, but were outscored 16-9 in the final eight minutes of play and lost 45-38. With 4:45 left in the game, the Warriors hit a 3-point basket to break a 33-33 tie and pulled away from there. Landon Bozarth was the only Cardinal in double figures with 12 points, as they fell to 5-5 on the year and 2-4 against conference opponents. Newton head coach Jason Carter felt the team played hard and just missed too many shots.

“I thought tonight, even though we came out on the wrong end, we played with a lot more intensity, especially on the defensive end. We just have to see a few more shots go through the hoop.”

In Pella, the Newton girls wrestling team defeated English Valleys 48-9 and Norwalk 30-25, but fell to the Dutch 46-28. The Cardinals had three wrestlers that went 3-0 on Tuesday.  Stella Cupples won her three matches at 115 pounds, and Johana Cerna at 135 pounds and Ashlyn VanManen at 190 pounds were also unbeaten on the evening.

The Newton girls and boys basketball teams return to action Thursday night to host Albia, while the Cardinals girls wrestling team is off until Thursday, January 23rd at Dallas Center-Grimes.