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 By Russ Pankonin
The Imperial Republican
Boys’ head basketball coach Carl Zuege likes the progress he’s seen in his team since the season opener.
After falling to Sidney to go 0-3, the Longhorns bounced back with wins over Ogallala and Garden County.
But he still fells his team has work to do, especially offensively.
In the loss to Sidney, the Longhorns put up just 37 points. In their wins over Ogallala and Garden County, they put up 50 and 52 respectively.
“We’ve got to get a ton more proficient offensively,” he said. Simply put, he said they need to make more shots.
Against Sidney in the 58-37 loss, the Longhorns had trouble converting buckets inside the paint, shooting a paltry 24 percent for the game.
Not to downplay the loss, Zuege said Sidney could well be one of the best teams the Longhorns will see during the regular season.
The Longhorns played good defense, holding them to one shot many times throughout the game. However, Sidney’s got a good crew of shooters, Zuege conceded.
The Longhorns found better success shooting the ball, going 57 percent from the field in the 50-40 win over Ogallala.
More experience
For the most part, Zuege has a young team, starting three sophomores along with one junior and one senior.
He relies heavily on youth coming off the bench as well.
The guys are really starting to play better, he noted.
In Friday’s dominating 51-20 win over Garden County, he was able to get a lot of different players on the floor.
The Longhorns gave Garden County fits with their trapping defense, forcing 20 turnovers.
The Longhorns jumped to a 15-4 lead after the first period. By half, they’d boosted that lead to 19, 28-9.
They limited Garden County to just 11 points en route to the convincing win.
 Performance
getting stronger
Zuege likes the way his team is playing defense. He said their aggressive style on man-to-man assignments and their trapping press are creating turnovers and limiting offensive rebounds by their opponents.
He said they are coming along offensively, but still wants to see more scoring.
“We have good shooters,” he said. “They just haven’t got it going yet. But they will.”
Statistically against Sidney, Jeff Dickey was the only player in double figures with 12.
Against Ogallala, three players finished in double figures, led by Dickey with 20, Justus Wallin with 12 and Isaac Sorensen with 11. Wallin also finished with 7 rebounds.
Nine players got in the scoring column against Garden County, led by Dickey with 11 and Travis Luhrs with 10. Brian Bell came off the bench to add 8.
Luhrs led the rebounding with 6, followed by Trey Milner with 5.
Christmas break ahead
The Longhorns play at home tonight (Thursday) with the Dundy County-Stratton Tigers coming to town for both girls’ and boys’ action. Jayvee action begins at 4 p.m.
This will mark the final game before the dead period over Christmas.
The Longhorn boys traveled to Yuma, Colo., for a triple-header. Watch for coverage of the Yuma and Dundy County games next week.
Holiday tournament
The Longhorns will be competing in the Cabela’s Holiday Basketball Shootout in Sidney, beginning on Thursday, Dec. 27.
Chase County will face Douglas, Wyo., in the opening round of the three-day, eight team tournament.
Imperial 37
2 PT. 3 PT. FT/
FG FG FTA F TP
Travis Luhrs 1 0 3-3 0 5
Ryan Moline 0 0 0-0 0 0
Freddie Kasselman 0 0 0-0 0 0
Kevin German 0 0 0-0 0 0
Dan Sullivan 1 0 0-1 3 2
Jeffrey Dickey 3 0 6-8 1 12
Kale Gockley 2 0 3-4 5 7
Kelton Fisher 2 0 0-0 2 4
Justus Wallin 1 0 0-2 0 2
Trey Milner 1 0 1-2 2 3
Isaac Sorensen 0 0 0-0 3 0
Calin Griffin 0 0 0-0 0 0
Holden Dreiling 0 0 0-0 0 0
Brian Bell 0 0 2-2 1 2
Hunter Spady 0 0 0-0 0 0
TOTALS 11 0 15-22 17 37
Sidney 58
C. Mabey 8, L. Harvey 7, H. Vowers 8, P. Ehler 7, T. Wintholz 2, S. Arterburn 16, L. Rosenbaum 8, C. Onstott 2.
Sidney’s team totals: 2 pt. FG—13; 3 pt. FG—7; FT/FTA—11-17; Fouls—19; TP—58.
Points by quarters:
Imperial 14 7 5 11—37
Sidney 19 15 8 16—58
Imperial 51
2 PT. 3 PT. FT/
FG FG FTA F TP
Travis Luhrs 2 2 0-0 1 10
Ryan Moline 0 0 0-0 0 0
Freddie Kasselman 1 0 0-0 1 2
Kevin German 1 0 0-0 0 2
Dan Sullivan 0 0 0-0 3 0
Jeffrey Dickey 4 1 0-1 1 11
Kale Gockley 1 0 0-0 0 2
Kelton Fisher 4 0 0-0 2 8
Justus Wallin 1 0 0-2 3 2
Hunter Spady 0 0 0-0 1 0
Trey Milner 2 0 2-3 2 6
Isaac Sorensen 0 0 0-0 4 0
Calin Griffin 0 0 0-0 0 0
Brian Bell 4 0 0-1 0 8
TOTALS 20 3 2-7 18 51
Garden County 20
R. Smith 3, B. Coyne 8, A. Caro 9.
Garden County’s team totals: 2 pt. FG—2; 3 pt. FG—2; FT/FTA—10-16; Fouls—12; TP—20.
Points by quarters:
Imperial 17 10 11 13—51
Garden County 4 5 3 8—20
Imperial 37
2 PT. 3 PT. FT/
FG FG FTA F TP
Travis Luhrs 0 0 1-2 2 1
Ryan Moline 0 0 0-0 0 0
Freddie Kasselman 0 0 0-0 0 0
Kevin German 0 0 0-0 0 0
Dan Sullivan 0 0 0-0 0 0
Jeffrey Dickey 7 1 3-7 1 20
Kale Gockley 1 0 0-0 1 2
Kelton Fisher 1 0 0-0 4 2
Justus Wallin 5 0 2-4 1 12
Hunter Spady 0 0 0-0 0 0
Trey Milner 1 0 0-0 0 2
Isaac Sorensen 2 2 1-2 1 11
Calin Griffin 0 0 0-0 0 0
Brian Bell 0 0 0-0 2 0
TOTALS 17 3 7-15 12 50
Ogallala 40
J. Cogdill 6, T. Neill 13, A. Crandall 10, D. Folchert 2, C. Thorson 6, A. Ewert 3.
Ogallala’s team totals: 2 pt. FG—12; 3 pt. FG—4; FT/FTA—4-6; Fouls—15; TP—40.
Points by quarters:
Imperial 15 13 8 14—50
Ogallala 10 9 13 8—40
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