Creek Valley survives ferocious late Peetz rally

CHAPPELL – After controlling most of the game, the Creek Valley High girls' basketball team withstood a fervent fourth quarter comeback attempt by Peetz to win a non-league game on Tuesday, 35-30.

The Lady Storm (5-4, 1-1) took an early lead, ending the first quarter up, 10-3.

In both teams' first game since school resumed after winter break, shots were off the mark most of the night. However, Creek Valley's dominance under the net allowed the Storm multiple opportunities.

"We boxed out much better than we have throughout the season," Storm coach Treavor Korte said.

Lady Bulldog Mikenna Curlee, a senior, scored the only Peetz points in both the second and third quarters, netting all 8 points. Meanwhile, Creek Valley never let up, tallying 21 points during the same time.

Down by 20 to begin the final quarter, Peetz (2-5, 0-2) applied a full court press that led to numerous Storm turnovers. Combined with an explosion on offense, the Lady Bulldogs outscored Creek Valley 19-4, methodically narrowing the deficit.

Peetz junior Cami Thompson initiated the comeback, hitting a 3-pointer with 5:13 remaining in the game. In less than 60 ticks of the game clock, the Bulldogs scored another pair of baskets – courtesy of Curlee and Thompson – after successive Creek Valley inbounds passes were picked off.

The Bulldogs rapidly repeated the sequence twice more with the same results: two stolen inbounds passes and four points.

However, the Lady Storm were able to regain control of the game to finish with a victory.

During a time out following Peetz's swift turnaround, Korte said he told his team the slow down.

"I just told them we need to slow it down and control it – this is our game for the taking, we just need to finish it," he said.

Overall, the coach said he was happy with his team's performance.

"We're settling down into our offense nicely," he explained.

Down a few starters for the game, Korte said younger players stepped up the challenge.

"And they showed they can play at this level," he said.

Korte commended the contributions of junior Jessie Straber on both sides of the ball, classmate Elizabeth Green on rebounding and senior Joey Straber on offense.

Peetz co-head coaches Jessica Schumacher and Morgan Meier said while the team's fourth quarter efforts weren't enough to pull off a victory, they were proud of their players' resilience.

"We put some full court pressure on them, switched up on our defense a bit and picked up our intensity at the end," Meier said.

Schumacher said the matchup helped the players get back into the swing of basketball after the break.

"We have a lot of things to work on still, but we're really proud of coming out and fighting all the way to the end," she said.

Meier added, "That's a great way to come to the next game."