CCS falls to GICC in Friday’s district finals

The Chase County girls’ basketball team knew it would have its hands full in its district matchup with a tall Grand Island Central Catholic team Friday.
Seeded 13th, CCS fell to the fourth-seeded Crusaders 35-48.
CCS was first on the board in the contest with a bucket by Morgan Peterson, but went on to struggle offensively. Chase County trailed 2-10 with 3:22 in the first quarter before a time out helped settle the Longhorns down. Bryn McNair responded with a three pointer. A conventional three-point play by Peterson and free throw from Jerzee Milner cut Chase County’s deficit to three points, 9-12, with 1:55 left in the quarter. After a GICC bucket, another free throw by Peterson kept CCS within four points. A three pointer by Grand Island Central Catholic with 29 seconds left had the Longhorns trailing 10-17 heading into the second quarter.
Grand Island Central Catholic opened the second quarter with another three pointer to put the CCS deficit into double figures. McNair knocked in a bucket for Chase County, but the Longhorns went quiet offensively for nearly two minutes and trailed 12-23 before Peterson scored three straight points. McNair capped a four-point run by Chase County with a free throw of her own, but with no points over the final 2:54 of the half, the Longhorns trailed 16-29 at halftime.
Neither team had much offensive success in the third quarter, but CCS had it the worst. The Longhorns only scored four points in the third quarter, free throws by McNair and later a bucket by Peterson.
Facing a 20-38 deficit, Chase County turned up the intensity in the fourth quarter. McNair made 2-4 free throws in the quarter’s first three minutes, before Peterson got loose in the low post for a jumper. A driving basket by McNair brought the score to 26-40 with 2:44 remaining. Following a basket by GICC, two offensive rebounds off long-range bombs set McNair up for a conventional three point play. Three straight points by the Crusaders were answered by two free throws by Milner, which left the Longhorns trailing 31-45. McNair scored her final basket of the game with 1:10 remaining and Milner rounded out scoring by hitting a layup with two seconds left.
McNair led CCS with 17 points and 13 rebounds.
Peterson added 13 points.
CCS had no luck from beyond the arc, making only one of 21 three-point attempts. GICC made 2-10 three pointers.
The Longhorns outshot GICC from the free throw line, making 12-24 compared to 4-16 for the Crusaders.
Although the rebounding stats were fairly close, 36 for Chase County and 39 for the Crusaders, the Longhorns trailed in second chance points, 8-12, and points in the paint 16-36.
District results
Besides Grand Island Central Catholic, winning district games were top-seeded Lincoln Lutheran, second-seeded Broken Bow, third-seeded North Bend Central, sixth-seeded Gothenburg, seventh-seeded St. Paul and eighth-seeded Malcolm. Twelfth-seeded BRLD beat fifth-seeded Wahoo 41-38 for the only district upset.
State tournament games will begin Monday and continue throughout next week with the finals played Friday.