Girls win Cabela’s opener, drop next two

    While they finished 1-2 at last week’s Cabela’s Holiday Shoot-out Basketball tourney, Lady Longhorn Coach Mark Bottom said they gained valuable experience.
    Going up against two Class B teams and another in Class A, Bottom said if his team can grow from the competition they faced in Sidney, it will eventually help them down the road.
    Chase County opened the three-day tourney with a 51-42 win over Class A Cheyenne South, then dropped Friday’s and Saturday’s contests to Class B Gering and Beatrice.
    It was a little disappointing to finish 1-2 at the tournament, Bottom said, but noted they played “pretty solid” all weekend.
    “We needed to get started earlier on offense,” he said.
    Senior Ragan Nickless, who was in double figures two of the three games, was named to the all-tournament team. Coach Bottom said she had an outstanding tournament.
    The holiday tournament results evened Chase County’s record at 5-5 as they began the 2018 portion of their schedule.
    After traveling to Dundy Co. Stratton Tuesday this week, the Lady Longhorns will be in Kimball Saturday to face the 4-2 varsity team. Coach Bottom said Kimball didn’t play a holiday tourney this year, and are dealing with some key injuries.
    Action in Kimball starts at 2 p.m. with the JV games, followed by varsity.
    On Tuesday, Chase County will be in McCook to play Southern Valley, which also has a 5-5 girls’ varsity record this week. The four JV and varsity games will be played in one McCook Community College gym starting at 2 p.m. MT. JV girls start the day’s action, followed by JV boys, varsity girls and varsity boys.
    Next Thursday, Jan. 11, the annual Pink Out games will be played against Perkins County in Grant. The Lady Plainsmen varsity girls are 1-6 this week. Games start with the JVs in two gyms at 4:30 p.m.
    Pink Out funds raised by the respective FFA chapters at each school will assist cancer patients in each community.
Cheyenne South game
    Despite trailing 28-15 at half, the Lady Longhorns settled in, fought back and scored 36 points in the second half to take a 51-42 win over Cheyenne South last Thursday.
    Coach Bottom said his team started slowly in what he  termed a “chaotic game,” with aggressive play from Cheyenne South.
    He said his team was more patient second half and settled into its offense, rebounded better and ran a good half-court offense to pull ahead and win by nine.
    One of the big factors in Cheyenne’s early lead was Felicia Sena, who scored 14 of her game-high 23 points in the first 10 minutes. She was held to just six second half.
    Ragan Nickless wasn’t far behind, scoring a season high of 22 points, complemented by 16 rebounds and three steals.
    While Mallie McNair didn’t score at all first half, she finished as the team’s second leading scorer with 14.
    From two-point range, Chase County hit 14-48 (29 percent) and cashed in on 20 of 37 free throws (54 percent).
    Cheyenne’s two-point shooting hit 44 percent (15-34), while they were 6-9 on free throws (67 percent). A big difference was at the line, as Cheyenne committed 25 fouls to Chase County’s 15.