NEW SHARON – North Mahaska’s high school basketball teams opened the 2023-24 campaign with a pair of wins over South Iowa Cedar League foe BGM. The girls won 66-23 while the boys took an 88-35 win.
North Mahaska, seventh ranked by the Iowa Girls’ High School Athletic Union in Class 2A, used a crushing defense forcing 13 first quarter turnovers and held the visiting Bears to a single bucket jumping out to a 30-2 lead and 45-14 at halftime.
“They could not handle our pressure defense,” said NM coach L.E. Moore. “We are fortunate to be able to run different defenses and we were able to do that tonight. It was a great opening win for us.”
If there was a downside to the game, it was North Mahaska’s 6-for-15 effort from the foul line. BGM was slightly better at 8-for-16.
North Mahaska dominated the boards pulling down 36 and recording 21 steals and forcing more than 25 turnovers. Junior Breckyn Schilling had an impressive night with 16 points, 10 rebounds, six steals and three assists. NM was credited with 16 assists.
Two others were in double figures scoring including junior Sydney Andersen with 14 and freshman Nataliya Linder with 11. Juniors Regan Grewe, Kayla Readshaw and Peyton Sanders each scored six. Grewe finished with six rebounds, five steals and three assists, Readshaw had five steals and Andersen grabbed seven rebounds.
Karagyn Minnaert led BGM in scoring with 13.
It was raining 3-pointers when the boys played. North Mahaska poured in 14 trifectas and broke away from a 19-9 lead after one period. The Warhawks took good advantage of 29 Bear turnovers and made a 32-9 run in the third period. All five starters finished in double figures.
Seniors Nolan Andersen had 20 points, Brayden Veiseth scored 18, and Nate Sampson chipped in 15. Juniors Gabe Hora and Asher DeBoef scored 14 and 13 respectively.
NM coach Seth Streebin said he has full confidence in his top seven to hit the long range shot.
“Those seven have the green light to shoot the three anytime, “ said Streebin. “I don’t have a problem with that. Our multi-faceted defense was working tonight.”
Unofficially, North Mahaska had just eight turnovers in the contest. Midway through the third quarter NM reached the 35-point mark which allowed a continuous clock. The large point difference allowed Streebin to have his reserves see plenty of playing time.
“Anytime you are able to get your other guys into a game situation is beneficial later in the season, “said Streebin. “It’s nice to get a game under our belts against another team instead of ourselves. We have a lot of new faces with limited varsity experience.
Beau Burns led the scoring for BGM with 15 points and five rebounds. Keaton Kriegel had eight points. BGM recorded 32 rebounds in the contest.
North Mahaska will host Montezuma Friday in a key SICL doubleheader. Montezuma’s boys and girls both lost to Lynnville-Sully in their season openers Tuesday.
