Longhorns advance to Friday’s district finals

    With subdistrict wins over Mitchell and Hershey, the Chase County girls’ basketball team advanced to face Grand Island Central Catholic in the C1-4 district final this Friday in North Platte.
Mitchell
    After Hershey upset top-seeded Chadron on its home court in the evening’s first game, CCS faced third-seeded Mitchell (11-14).
    The Tigers scored the game’s opening bucket, but the following seven minutes were all about the Longhorns. Bryn McNair, Morgan Peterson and Landree McNair made field goals to give CCS a 9-2 lead at the end of the first quarter.
    Jerzee Milner started and ended the second quarter with three pointers for Chase County. Between those shots, B. McNair made a lay up for the Longhorns’ only other points in the quarter. Mitchell kept pace with CCS in the quarter, but couldn’t cut into the Longhorns’ lead. CCS led 17-10 at halftime.
    A driving basket by Milner got CCS on the board in the second half. Mitchell cut the lead to 19-16 before CCS found another gear and closed the quarter on a 5-2 run to open up a 24-18 advantage. B. McNair and Peterson made 3-4 free throws to close out the quarter.
    Chase County Head Coach Randy Longoria said his team wasn’t comfortable with a seven to nine point lead even though it was shooting better in the second half.
    CCS put the Tigers to bed early in the fourth quarter. B. McNair made a three pointer which was matched by Milner. A fast break basket by Peterson gave CCS a 32-18 lead. Mitchell cut the lead to 10 points with two baskets, but the Longhorns responded with a driving basket by Peterson, bucket by B. McNair, free throw by Milner and basket in the paint by Peterson to increase the lead to 39-22.
    CCS wrapped up the 42-28 win the free throws by B. McNair and Jordan Jablonski.
    Longoria said his team has been defending really well.
    While it wasn’t the Longhorns’ best shooting performance in the first half, Longoria said Chase County’s defense gave a good effort.
    B. McNair scored 16 points and pulled down 11 rebounds to lead CCS. Milner scored 12 points and Peterson added 11.
Hershey
    In their third matchup of the year with Hershey, CCS fell behind 0-6. B. McNair and Peterson led Chase County on  a 10-point run over the final four minutes of the quarter to give the Longhorns a 10-7 lead going into the second quarter.
    The Panthers quickly cut Chase County’s advantage to one point, but CCS responded with a two pointer by B. McNair and three pointer by Jablonski.
    Hershey scored six points over the final 4:30 of the half, but L. McNair and B. McNair nearly kept pace and CCS held a 20-15 lead at halftime.
    B. McNair answered Hershey’s three pointer to start the second half with one of her own. Peterson traded points with the Panthers and kept Chase County’s lead at seven points, 27-20. As the teams continued to trade baskets, L. McNair made a three pointer and two pointer. Milner increased the Longhorns’ lead to 10 points, 35-25, with a three pointer with 3.5 seconds left on the third quarter clock.
    Both teams struggled to score in the fourth quarter. CCS led 37-27 with 5:00 left and the score remained the same until a B. McNair free throw with just under two minutes remaining in the game.
    The Longhorns made their free throws down the stretch and took a 42-31 lead.
    Hershey only made 2-21 three pointers in the game, which Longoria attributed to the Panthers panic as time ran down and the Longhorns’ defense limiting good looks at the basket.
    B. McNair totaled 17 points in the game and Peterson added 11 points. B. McNair and Jablonski each had eight rebounds.
    Despite giving up 24 offensive rebounds to Hershey, the CCS defense only allowed 14 second chance points.
District finals
    GICC is 19-5 on the year and sits fourth in the point standings. GICC won the C1-9 subdistrict with a win St. Paul (20-4), which qualified for the district finals as the seventh seed.
    Chase County, now 19-7, is the 13th seed.
    The game will be played at North Platte High School at 7 p.m. CT.
    Longoria said GICC has three players over 6’0” and each has a different skill set. He expects GICC to rely heavily on those players.
    Longoria said Chase County will spread the floor to pull the GICC defense out of the middle.
    For the Longhorns, shooting the ball well and staying out of foul trouble will be key if CCS wants to advance to Lincoln.
    Other district games will be top-seeded Lincoln Lutheran against Fairbury, second-seeded Broken Bow against Omaha Gross Catholic, third-seeded North Bend Central versus Ainsworth, fifth-seeded Wahoo against BRLD, sixth-seeded Gothenburg against Milford, seventh-seeded St. Paul against Columbus Scotus and eight-seeded Malcolm versus Syracuse.