The Newton girls basketball team starts their season tonight at the Lynnville-Sully Varsity Girls Basketball Jamboree. 

The Cardinals will play Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont in the second game of the triple-header. The tip-off is scheduled for 6:45 p.m. Newton head coach Jake Bennett is in his second season leading the Cardinals, and has all eight players who played in over 20 games last season returning, including last year’s leading scorer junior Tori White. The Cardinals record last season was 7-15 overall and 1-7 in the Little Hawkeye Conference. Coach Bennett says he wants to tap into his team’s determination and depth this year, and play intense, fast paced basketball with defensive pressure. 

“We have a real resilient group.  We want to take that strength and use it in games by playing uptempo, aggressive style basketball.”

Limiting turnovers is another big emphasis for the Cardinals, after turning the ball over 484 times in 22 games for an average of 22 turnovers a contest last season.