Newton girls basketball coach Jake Bennett believes his young team showed a lot of growth this season. After losing five seniors to graduation, Bennett had one returning senior and two juniors with varsity experience. He says there were growing pains early, while the team became familiar with the varsity level’s physicality and fast pace. But by the end of the season, the team with three sophomore starters was able to play Pella to an eight-point game and Indianola to a ten-point game. 

“It would have been really easy to look at the team we had coming back this year and think maybe we should lower our expectations a little bit due to having some younger players. But we didn’t. We just stayed strong, and the girls knew we were going to put our heads down and fight and be competitive. I really saw the growth there. So it was really fun to coach and be a part of that process.”

The Cardinals finished the regular season 11-10 and won a home playoff game before ending the season with a loss at Carlisle, who will play for the Class 4A State Championship today against Dallas Center-Grimes.