CCS girls rout Hershey

    The Chase County girls basketball team broke a two-game skid with a win at Hershey Saturday.
    Hershey came into the game with back-to-back losses to Class C1 No. 1 Bridgeport, including a loss in the SPVA championship game.
    Saturday’s first quarter was back and forth all the way. Both teams held three point leads, but it was CCS that had the advantage at the end of the quarter, 16-14.
    Although Hershey grabbed the lead with a three pointer to start the second quarter, the Longhorns held a 22-18 edge with 4:35 left in the half.  That lead evaporated, but Chase County held a 27-26 advantage at halftime after a buzzer beating put back by Ali McNair.
    Hershey knotted the score at 32 midway through the third quarter. The Longhorns responded with five-straight points, only for Hershey to close out the quarter with two free throws with less than 10 seconds remaining to cut Chase County’s lead to 37-34.
    Chase County broke the game open in the fourth quarter. The Longhorns scored the quarter first 12 points and didn’t allow Hershey to score until only 2:20 remained in the game. Overall, the Longhorns only allowed two field goals by Hershey in the fourth quarter and ended up with a comfortable 18 point win, 57-39.
    CCS dominated in free throws, 21-30 to 8-21; offensive rebounds, 22-9; and overall rebounds, 47-24.
    B. McNair led the Longhorns with 22 points, including 10-13 free throws, and 20 rebounds. A. McNair finished the night with 11 points and L. McNair had 12 rebounds.
Up next
    CCS traveled to Bridgeport Tuesday to makeup their Dec. 22 postponed contest.
    The Bulldogs are the last undefeated girls team in the state and cracked the all-class top 10 ratings this week.
    Friday the Longhorns will have a chance to get some revenge on North Platte St. Pat’s for the 40-48 semifinal loss CCS suffered at SPVA.
    Chase County will host the Irish, then close out the season with three-straight away games.
    CCS will play at Gering (3-14) Saturday.
    Next week at Hitchcock County (4-12) Feb. 7 and Dundy County Stratton (5-12) Feb. 10.
    The Longhorns will need all the points they can get if they want to move up in the C1-12 subdistrict.
    Bridgeport is second in Class Cl points and should host the subdistrict.
    The Longhorns (9-7), 41.6875, is currently third in the subdistrict behind Hershey (14-5), 42.6842. Ogallala (10-8), 41.5000 and Chadron (8-10), 40.8889 are sitting fourth and fifth, respectively.
    Subdistrict games will be played Feb 13, 14 and 16.