Longhorn boys get another win over Hershey

    Twelve days didn’t make a difference for the Chase County boys basketball team.
    The Longhorns beat Hershey (9-8) Jan. 16 in the SPVA tournament and beat them once more Saturday 47-42 in a regular season contest.
    Head Coach Chris Bartels said Chase County knew going in that Hershey was going to give CCS a tough test on the Panthers’ home floor, and that’s exactly what they did.
    Kade Anderson carried the scoring load for the Longhorns in the first quarter, scoring all 11 of the team’s points.
    Trailing 11-14 entering the second quarter, both teams struggled from the floor. Carson Terryberry and Tristan Jablonski joined Anderson in the scoring column and CCS went into the locker room trailing by one point, 19-20.
    Chase County tied the game up in the third quarter. Anderson continued to have the hot hand, scoring another seven points, and got help from Jablonski and Easton Fries.
    Heading into the fourth quarter tied at 32, CCS had its best offensive effort of the game over the final eight minutes.
    Anderson scored eight more points in the final stanza, but Bartels credited Zane Mays with a huge basket with 2:14 remaining in the game.
    “We played from behind the majority of the game, but always kept it within striking distance. Kade kept our offense going all night and Zane Mays hit a huge three pointer to increase our lead from three to six late in the fourth quarter that sealed the game,” Bartels said.
    Anderson finished the game with 30 points.
    Camron Lempke pulled down a team high nine rebounds.
    CCS made 7-8 free throws in the game.
Up next
    The Longhorns will have their hands full this week with Class D1 No. 2 North Platte St. Pat’s (15-2) Friday and Class B Gering (8-8) Saturday.
    “Our goal is to have a great week of practice and to be mentally and physically prepared to compete against two good basketball teams this weekend,” Bartels said.
    CCS has a full slate of quality opponents ahead of it, including Hitchcock County (9-6), Dundy County Stratton (14-3), Cambridge (9-8) and Bridgeport (10-7). Chase County’s regular season will come to an end against Sutherland (1-11) Feb. 17.
    Gothenburg (10-7), 42.6471, currently leads the race for home court advantage in the C1-11 subdistrict race.
    Holdrege (11-6), 41.8824, and Cozad (11-7), 41.6667, are neck and neck for the second seed with Chase County (6-9), 40.5333, following.
    Subdistricts will be Feb. 21 and 23.