Jenkins, Cruise dominate boards, but Leyton falls short v.s. Peetz

The Leyton High girls' basketball team got the shots it wanted almost the entire game. They just didn't fall – or at least not as often as they did for the visiting Peetz' shooters on Tuesday night.

Leyton isn't known as a great shooting team from the outside, but credit much of its poor night from the field to Peetz' hustle defense, which led the way to the Lady Bulldogs' 37-29 road win. Peetz improved to 2-1, while Leyton slipped to 1-2.

"I expected them to shut down our inside game," Leyton head coach Nick Newkirk said. "I wasn't surprised a bit that they were going to make us beat them from the outside."

Besides a swarming Peetz defense, Newkirk was also facing a lack of depth. He only had seven players available to him, as the rest of his roster was off in Bayard playing a JV game. Against a full Peetz roster, changing up looks and creating new matchup problems was practically impossible for Newkirk.

Newkirk – in an effort to keep his short roster out of foul trouble – opted to open the game with a zone defense. He said that's something you'll never see again from his normally man defense-based squad.

Sloppy offensive play characterized the first quarter as both teams piled up turnovers from careless passes and ball handling. Both squads struggled to shoot the ball, but the end of the first quarter saw Peetz nursing a 9-7 lead.

Peetz started out the second quarter a bit warmer and sank a pair of three-pointers early out of the hands of guard Jennifer Gutierrez and forward Jodie Schumacher. Leyton got down by 10 by the middle of the quarter, but senior Shaela Jenkins began to find her game for Leyton – dominating the boards and going back up strong for easy baskets, even against bigger Peetz forwards like Schumacher and Mallori Bjerke.

At halftime, Peetz led Leyton, 18-13.

"I just have to try and get open and if I do try to rebound, it's likely that I could get it over back (a put back) or get fouled and drop off the easy basket," said Jenkins, who had eight points and 13 rebounds to pace Leyton.

In the third quarter, the Lady Warriors pounded the ball inside. Jenkins and junior forward Natalie Cruise got several looks and converted on most of their attempts. Together, they totaled 25 rebounds and helped pull Leyton to within 24-21 by the end of the third.

But all those early missed shots and turnovers finally started to catch up with the Lady Warriors in the fourth. Leyton had become a one-dimensional offense in the post and its inability to knock down an outside shot made it predictable as the game progressed.

Meanwhile, Schumacher connected on another pair of threes – she went 3-for-10 from behind the arc in the game and scored 13 points – and Peetz put its lead out of the reach of the Lady Warriors. Leyton made a final push in the last couple of minutes, but ultimately fell short.

Senior guard Kaitlyn Berner chipped in seven points and three rebounds for Leyton. Gutierrez and junior forward Mikenna Curlee both added eight points to Peetz' winning effort.

"Many of our shots were halfway down and out," Newkirk said. "I told the girls to keep their heads up high. There's going to be many bumps in the road, whether it's in a basketball game or in life, and you have to find a way to get over it and move on to the next."

Leyton will redirect its focus to its first conference game of the season, when it hosts South Platte, on Friday at 6:30 p.m. Peetz will travel to Pawnee for a game at 3 p.m. Friday.