Life is full of moral victories. The New Hampton girls have had their share of them this season, with their last one coming on Wednesday as they were defeated by 10th-ranked Crestwood 55-39.
    Teams always aspire to keep improving to the end, which the Chickasaws did. “I think we played our best game this season,” said coach Chad Pemble. “We gave them all they could handle.”
    Crestwood, ranked all season, currently has a 16-1 record and will move on to play Charles City Saturday.
    Down 18-9 at one point in the second quarter, a Megan Frerichs three-point shot brought the Chickasaws to within three, 24-21 with 1:08 left in the half.
    After intermission, though, Crestwood pulled out to a ten-point lead, and pretty much held it until late in the game. It was an accomplishment for the Chickasaws, with one senior starter, to keep that close to the Cadets, with five senior starters.
    “If we were into moral victories, we would have sat back with Cresco’s eight-point lead and kept it close, but we wanted to win.” The Chickasaws fouled to get possession, but the Cadets were successful at the line; in the fourth quarter they were 10 for 17.
    “One of the things we emphasized was to limit their momentum, we didn’t want them to go on a 10-0 run and the girls did a good job on that. Cresco’s got a lot of weapons.”
    The Chickasaws only had a day to prepare for the game, as they played Waukon Saturday and school let out early Monday. “We played a new defense and added a couple of new twists on offense, the girls did a good job in a short amount of time.”
    Becca Crooks led the team with eight points, Lindsey Jerdee finished with nine rebounds, Frerichs had four assists.
    “No matter who was out there, they were intense, their effort and execution were excellent. At times this was a high-paced game, and we had good crowd support, they were loud.”
    Moral victories do lead to marks in the win column. “Hopefully this will jump start us in the off-season. The kids are believing in themselves and what they can do.”
    Crestwood 55, New Hampton 39
NH    9    13    6    11        --39
CW    10    16    13    16        --55
New Hampton statistics
Megan Frerichs 1-5 0-0 3; Jade Fye 0-0 0-0 0; Kristen Flick 0-0 0-0 0; Kelsey Glaser 2-8 2-4 6; Brooke Shatek 0-1 0-0 0; Raelyn Webster 1-7 0-0 3; Sheena Hovey 1-1 0-0 2; Becca Crooks 4-13 0-2 8; Lindsey Jerdee 2-7 1-2 5; Hayley Drewelow 3-5 0-0 6; Trisha Smith 2-8 2-2 6
Three-pt. Frerichs 1-2; Glaser 0-1; Webster 1-4; Drewelow 0-1; Smith 0-3
Rebounds: Frerichs 5; Glaser 4; Webster 2; Hovey 1; Crooks 6; Jerdee 9; Drewelow 4; Smith 4
Assists: Frerichs 4; Webster 1; Crooks 1; Jerdee 1; Drewelow 2; Smith 1
Steals: Frerichs 1; Webster 1; Hovey 1; Crooks 1
Blocks: Jerdee 1

              NH                CW                                
Overall FG    16/55    20/49
3 pt FG     2/11    2/6
FT    5/10    11/17
Fouls    17    11
Rebounds    35    29
Turnovers    13    6
Assists    10    11
Blocks    1    6
Steals    4    7