Chase County advances to SPVA semi-finals

    The Chase County boys basketball team won its SPVA opening round game over Hershey Monday night, 55-32.
    The win moves Chase County forward to a semi-final matchup against No. 1 seed North Platte St. Pat’s (12-2), ranked second in Class D1.
    The SPVA championship game will be at North Platte Community College Saturday at 6 p.m. CT. The consolation game will begin at 3 p.m.
    A full recap of the tournament will be in next week’s paper.
    Following the tournament, Chase County will have two rematches. The first, against Hershey (7-7), will be Jan. 28.  On Feb. 3 CCS will host NPSP.
Busy week behind them
    The Longhorns were busy last week, hosting Southern Valley Tuesday and Perkins County Thursday before a Friday trip to Gothenburg.
    CCS set the tone with its defense against Southern Valley. Chase County held the Eagles to 14 first quarter points, while five Longhorns scored in the first half.
    While not as many CCS players scored in the second half, Kade Anderson and Camron Lempke, who scored 21 and 18 points respectively, kept the Longhorns in the drivers seat of the 55-41 win.
    Head Coach Chris Bartels said he thought CCS did a good job of taking care of the ball and rebounding.
    “We let our good defense turn into quick offense by running the floor in transition. We are at our best when we can play transition offense,” he said.
    Anderson also had 10 rebounds and nine assists.
    CCS outscored Southern Valley in transition points 17-0 and in the paint 38-14.
    It was Perkins County that set the tone Thursday.
    Chase County didn’t score for the games’ first five minutes and fell behind 0-13.
    CCS turned the tide in the second quarter, cutting a 6-18 deficit to 19-24 by holding PCS to six points.
    But the Plainsmen held Chase County to one two-pointer and one three-pointer for the Longhorns only field goals in the second half of the 31-46 loss.
    “Perkins County came out with a lot of energy and outplayed us for the majority of the game,” Bartels said.
    “It seemed like we never got in a groove offensively and we let that impact our defense. There were times it looked like we were going to sneak back into the game, but Perkins County made more plays than us down the stretch,” he continued.
    Anderson scored eight points and Jablonski and Fries each added seven points.
    CCS had an effective field goal percentage of 24.4% compared to 50% for PCS.
    Bartels said turnovers were Chase County’s biggest issue Friday against Gothenburg.
    “It was a five point game after the first quarter, but Gothenburg’s 1-3-1 defense really bothered us in the second quarter and Gothenburg went into halftime with a 25 point lead,” Bartels said.
    The Longhorns were able to match Gothenburg’s efforts in the second half, but, as Bartels said, the damage was already done.
    Anderson led eight Longhorn scorers with eight points. Olsen pulled down 10 rebounds.
    Chase County only attempted four free throws in the game, compared to 13 for the Swedes.
    CCS was also outscored 4-34 in points off turnovers.