North Tama senior Ava Breakenridge (4) shoots for two of her game-high 17 points in front of GMG’s Makayla Pendleton (44) during Friday’s Iowa Star Conference basketball game in Garwin. PHOTO BY JAKE RYDER

GARWIN — North Tama girls basketball’s pressure defense crunched GMG in a 51-28 win for the Redhawks at GMG High School last Friday, Jan. 24.

The Redhawks (7-7, 6-3 Iowa Star South) forced numerous turnovers in a lopsided first quarter, leading GMG 16-2 after eight minutes.

“This team has to press,” North Tama coach Harold Youngblut said. “If we don’t, we get very lethargic for whatever reason, so we pressed longer today than most games we ever do, because we figured that’s what it takes to keep them mentally into the game. So we’re going to become a pressing team.”

Ava Breakenridge had a game-high 17 points for the Redhawks; Gabby Seda added 10 points, Shawna Cibula added eight points and Gabby Velasco chipped in seven points.

North Tama’s lead spread to 29-11 at halftime and stayed around that range for most of the second half.

PHOTO BY JAKE RYDER

“We passed the ball a little bit better tonight,” Youngblut said. “We’re kind of a two-player offense right now, and [GMG’s] triangle-and-two was causing us problems here for a bit, until we started passing the ball better, and some of our other kids got some shots.

“Our defense was the difference in the game. We shut down [Makayla Pendleton] from doing a lot of the good stuff she wants to do in the post and I thought our two guards at the top really dogged the ball well.”

Brooklyn Jones and Arianna Pierce scored eight points each for GMG (5-11, 2-6); Skyler Murty added six points.

“It’s hard to replicate their length in practice,” GMG head coach Devon Diederichs said. “We’re really young in our guard spots right now, so we’re learning how to get the ball across and things like that. Credit to North Tama, they’re a really good basketball team and they have two scorers that really took over the game that we had to give our attention to; their role players did a phenomenal job tonight.

“Once we were able to get into the halfcourt, we were moving the ball around and getting some good shots,” Diederichs continued. “We just have to learn how to finish so it will keep going that way.”

As of this past Monday, North Tama was tied for second in the Iowa Star South with Baxter following BCLUW’s win over the Bolts also on Friday. After facing non-conference Tripoli on the road Monday, the Redhawks hosted Collins-Maxwell (last in the conference) on Tuesday.

Tonight, Friday, Jan. 31, North Tama hosts Meskwaki Settlement (third in the conference) for Senior Night with tipoff set for 6:30 p.m. The boys follow at 7:45 p.m.

North Tama 51, GMG 28

NORTH TAMA (7-7, 6-3) — Kruiz Ewoldt 1 0-0 2, Ava Breakenridge 5 7-10 17, Gabriella Seda 4 2-2 10, Lily Sell 2 1-4 5, Gabby Velasco 3 0-0 7, Isla Breakenridge 0 0-0 0, Adi Fuller 0 0-0, Shawna Cibula 4 0-0 8, Brynley Seda 0 0-0 0, Kahlia Even 1 0-0 2, Violet Seda 0 0-0 0. TOTALS .

GMG (5-11, 2-6) — Skyler Murty 2 2-6 6, Olivia Maddux 0 0-0 0, Rhianna Murty 0 1-2 1, Brooklyn Jones 4 0-0 8, Makayla Pendleton 1 1-2 3, Bryleigh Bartel 0 0-0 0, Madison Bryant 0 0-0 0, Landry August 1 0-0 2, Ava Maddux 0 0-0 0, Arianna Pierce 3 2-2 8. TOTALS .

N. TAMA 16 13 8 14 — 51

GMG 2 9 6 11 — 28

3-Point Goals-NT 1 (Velasco). Team Fouls-NT 13, GMG 16. Fouled Out-Pendleton.