CCS boys fall to top teams
No one can say the Chase County boys’ basketball team has had it easy this year. Out of the team’s 15 losses on the season, only two have come to teams’ with losing records.
Last week was one of the toughest of the season. CCS took on Colorado’s top 2A team, Yuma (15-1) Tuesday, then turned around and took on Class D1’s top team North Platte St. Pat’s Friday.
CCS Head Coach Chris Bartels said his team has played a lot of high quality opponents this year, and last week was no exception.
“Yuma and North Platte St. Pats are both highly ranked in their classes, and we knew we had our work cut out for us,” Bartels said.
His team talked a lot about controlling what it can control and how it can improve as a team no matter who the opponent is, Bartles said, adding he thought CCS improved as a team last week, even though the scoreboard wasn’t in its favor.
At Yuma, CCS fell behind 0-13 over the first 3:30 of the game. Baskets by Ryan Bernhardt and Jensen Olsen, followed by a three pointer by Tysen Lempke, went with three free throws by Bernhardt and Keenan Cole.
Trailing 10-29, CCS fell farther behind in the second quarter. Chase County made 4-6 free throws and got six points from Bernhardt. Lempke and Olsen also added field goals.
Chase County hung with Yuma in the second half. Both teams came out intent to put the ball in the basket and the score shot up from 22-52 at halftime to 30-59 in two minutes. CCS closed out the third quarter on an 8-4 run after a buzzer beater by Yuma.
Four points by Nick Rau around a basket by Lempke started off the fourth quarter. Bernhardt and Camron Lempke rounded out CCS scoring in the 85-52 loss.
Both teams shot the ball well, each had effective field goal percentages over 50 %, but points off turnovers were big in Yuma’s favor, 6-35.
Ryan Bernhardt led CCS with 16 points in the game. Kade Anderson, Tysen Lempke and Rau each scored eight points.
The Longhorns fell behind 0-6 to start the game with NPSP. A two by Anderson and three by Bernhardt around a St. Pat’s free throw closed the gap to 5-7. With 3:30 left in the quarter, NPSP scored 10-straight points and CCS trailed 6-19 at the end of the first quarter.
CCS didn’t score for the first four minutes of the second quarter. Trailing 6-29, the Longhorns closed the half on a 7-3 run.
Anderson started CCS off on the right foot in the second half with a basket, but Cole’s three pointer at the six-minute mark still left the Longhorns trailing 18-36. Rau, Olsen and Cole found the bottom of the basket in the third quarter, leaving CCS trailing 25-52 entering the fourth quarter.
After a Cole basket to start the final quarter, NPSP scored six-straight points. Bernhardt scored two baskets around an Irish basket, but the Longhorns went scoreless once more. With 1:34 left in the game Tristan Jablonski made two free throws and Ben Skeels hit a three as time ran out in the 36-68 loss.
Cole was the only Longhorn in double figures, scoring 11 points.
Chase County’s shooting percentage didn’t carry over from Tuesday to Thursday. Its effective field goal percentage was 32.6% against NPSP.
The Longhorns were outscored in the paint 18-42 and outrebounded 25-42.
Up next
CCS hosted 12-9 Hitchcock County Tuesday night. Saturday, Cambridge (13-6) will be in town for a boys’ only matchup. The regular season will wrap up with a game at 1-15 Sutherland Feb. 18
Subdistricts will be Feb. 21, 22 and 24 at the site of the highest subdistrict seed. Bridgeport and Bayard are neck and neck for the subdistrict lead, with Perkins County, Morrill and CCS rounding out the teams.
Bartels said its important for CCS to get healthy, which it hasn’t been since Christmas break.
With three games and nine practices left CCS needs to get better every single chance it has to get on the floor, he added.
“We want to be playing our best basketball at subdistricts, and I believe we will be doing that if we can get healthy and take advantage of every practice and game we have until then,” Bartels said.
Class C2 Point Standings as of Feb. 7—1. Hartington Cedar Catholic (17-4), 46.4286; 2. Humphrey/Lindsay Holy Family (20-0), 46.4000; 3. Freeman (19-2), 46.0000; 4. Norfolk Catholic (16-3), 45.6316; 5. Doniphan-Trumbull (16-2), 45.4444; 6. GICC (15-3), 45.4444; 7. Howells-Dodge (17-3), 44.9500; 8. Amherst (18-3), 44.6190; 9. Cross County (19-2), 44.2381; 10. Laurel-Concord-Coleridge (17-4), 44.2381; 19. Bridgeport (13-8), 42.5238; 22. Bayard (14-8), 42.0455; 26. Perkins County (12-7), 41.1579; 30. Morrill (10-7), 40.2941; 31. Chase County (6-15), 40.2381. Subdistrict C2-12 in bold.