Val T.
- Nov 25, 2020
- 4 min read

It’s just that Zimple: Freshmen combine for 40 points vs. Frontier

Caston girls equal win total from last year

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

FULTON –- Addison Zimpleman scored a career-high 21 points, and fellow freshman Isabel Scales added 13 to lead the Caston girls basketball team to a 50-36 win over visiting Frontier Monday.

A third freshman, reserve guard Annie Harsh, hit a pair of 3-pointers off the bench and scored six.

That meant that the three freshmen combined to score 80 percent of the Lady Comets’ points.

Caston played without four players who were cited in coronavirus contact tracing: Jordan Clingler, Maddi Smith, Abby Williamson and Brianna Yarber. All four are expected back for Caston’s next game against Pioneer in the first round of the Cass County Invitational at Logansport on Dec. 2.

Caston is 5-1 overall and 3-1 since the quarantining began, which affected Smith, Williamson and Yarber initially and later ensnared Clingler, the team’s most experienced post player and top returning scorer from last year. All five wins have come against teams that beat them last year. The five wins equal their win total from last year.

Harsh, Mikayla Kinser and Emma Kay were the three bench players coach Josh Douglass used against Frontier.

“Lots of girls getting great experience,” Douglass said.

Emma Blissett scored 14 points for Frontier, who dropped to 1-4. The Lady Falcons hit seven 3-pointers in the first three quarters but none in the fourth. They also committed 29 turnovers.

Still, Douglass was uneasy about the defensive effort.

“I wouldn’t say it was a defensive adjustment,” Douglass said. “I would say we finally started finding their shooters that we talked about all week that we did not want to guard in the first three quarters. Finally, we started talking on defense and locating them, and when you start to do that on defense, you tend to not get 3-pointers. ... That was just us not communicating in the first three quarters and then finally communicating.”

The 14-point final margin represented Caston’s biggest lead. Caston made five of six free throws in the fourth quarter and 10 of 12 for the game to help salt it away.

Caston led 20-14 at halftime and still clung to a 37-31 lead after an Olivia Newcom layup for Frontier with seven minutes left.

But Zimpleman answered with a 3 from just off the left corner to get the lead to nine. Another 3 from the left corner against Frontier’s 1-3-1 zone later in the quarter made it 44-32. Layne Oliver hit two free throws, and Scales zipped a pass to Zimpleman on a press breaker for a layup and later added two free throws to complete the scoring in the final minute.

Zimpleman outscored the entire Frontier team 10-7 in the fourth quarter.

“There’s a lot of ball movement, which is key,” Zimpleman said when asked what the key was on offense against the Frontier 1-3-1. “And then the opposite blocks can help kick out to a good shot. We had trouble more so on our defense tonight, but I know when Pioneer comes we will be ready.”

Scales also had six steals. Of her three second-half field goals, two of them came directly off steals, including one on an inbounds pass.

“She’s just a gamer,” Douglass said. “She just keeps playing, no matter what. Defensively, she affected the game. That’s what I talked about last game. She had only three (points) against Rossville, but I told her you can affect the game in so many ways – rebounding, defensively, other things like that. So you’ve got to stay locked in.”

Zimpleman said it’s been “nerve-wracking” to be without so many teammates. Still, the 5-1 record is Caston’s best record after six games in at least 20 years.

“It feels very good,” Zimpleman said of the 5-1 record. “Words can’t describe it, to be honest. It’s crazy.”

Caston also won the JV game 31-25 in two overtimes. Kinser had nine points, Macee Hinderlider had eight, Harsh had six, Kinzie Mollenkopf had four, Emma Kay had three, and Alexa Finke had one point and a team-high six rebounds.

Coach Samantha Schanlaub also credited Haley Logan with “two big defensive stops to help seal the game.”

Caston held a moment of silence in honor of the late Don King before the game. The “Voice of the Comets” and the Caston girls basketball coach from 2003-06, King died last week.

Caston 50, Frontier 36

FRONTIER (36) (1-4)

Courtney Gutwein 2 2-6 7, Emma Blissett 4 3-4 14, Schelby Clothier 1 0-0 2, Lauren LaOrange 0 0-0 0, Olivia Newcom 1 0-0 2, Emma Sorenson 2 0-0 5, Daisy Christopher 2 0-0 6

TEAM: 12 5-10 36

CASTON (50) (5-1)

Isabel Scales 5 3-4 13, Addison Zimpleman 8 3-4 21, Kinzie Mollenkopf 2 0-0 4, Bailey Harness 0 0-0 0, Layne Oliver 1 2-2 4, Mikayla Kinser 0 2-2 2, Annie Harsh 2 0-0 6, Emma Kay 0 0-0 0

TEAM: 18 10-12 50

Three-point field goals:

Frontier 7 (Blissett 3, Christopher 2, Gutwein, Sorenson),

Caston 4 (Zimpleman 2, Harsh 2)

Total fouls: Frontier 14, Caston 18

Turnovers: Frontier 29, Caston 21

Score by quarters

Frontier 9 5 15 7 – 36