Lady Longhorns expected to meet Gothenburg in subdistrict first round

    It won’t be official until today (Thursday), but the Lady Longhorns look to be the No. 2 seed in next week’s C1-11 subdistrict basketball tournament.    
    That means Chase County will probably face off against No. 3 seed Gothenburg in Tuesday’s 6:30 p.m. MT game at North Platte High School.
    Hershey, who Chase County upset in a big overtime win Jan. 27, gained the subdistrict top seed. Ogallala will likely be No. 4 and Cozad No. 5.
    Brackets will be posted on the NSAA website after points from Tuesday night games this week are factored into the standings.
    Chase County did not have a Tuesday night game, but the other four subdistrict teams did. However, due to the gap in points between the teams, CCS Coach Mark Bottom doesn’t think how teams sat for seeding Monday will change.
    Chase County’s last regular season game against Cambridge this Saturday won’t be factored into the seeding.
    In looking to the game with Gothenburg next week, Bottom said he believes his team will go into it with confidence.
    Chase County defeated the Lady Swedes Jan. 12 in a regular season game, 52-36.
    And, the Lady Longhorns have beaten the three other subdistrict teams, Hershey, Ogallala and Cozad, this year.
    However, Coach Bottom said it’s a tough subdistrict, and they’ll have to play better in some aspects of the game, including free throws and two-point shooting.
    After two tough losses last week, Chase County holds a 12-9 record with just Saturday’s Cambridge game left on the schedule.
    Action starts at 3:30 p.m. in Imperial with the JV games, followed by varsity. Saturday will also mark Senior Night for the Chase County players.
    Cambridge, new on the Chase County lineup this year, was 14-5 before their game Tuesday at Arapahoe.
Wray, Colo. game
    Chase County gave the No. 2 ranked team in Colorado a run for their money Jan. 30, but came up short at the game’s end, 56-64.
    It was a great first half for Chase County after a 19-19 first quarter tie. In the second, Mallie McNair and Lauren Gockley each hit a pair of treys while Sophie Spady, Ragan Nickless and Andrea Page all connected on buckets, giving the Lady Longhorns a 37-31 halftime advantage.
    Gockley had another trey first quarter, and Coach Bottom said those threes “saved us.”
    But, Wray took some momentum third quarter, outscoring Chase County 14-7.         Still holding a 41-37 lead halfway through the third, Chase County gave up an eight-point run to Wray, as they failed to score during more than four minutes before McNair hit a three with five seconds left. That pulled Chase County within one, 44-45, as the third ended.
    Chase County was again outscored in the fourth, 19-12.
    After a quick Wray bucket, McNair hit her fourth trey of the game, tying it 47-47. A trey by Spady at the 6:55 mark tied the game again at 50, but Chase County never gained the lead again.
    At the 1:00 mark, Wray had just a four-point lead, 60-56, but Chase County couldn’t get on to drop, as Wray connected on most of its free throws.
    Coach Bottom said Wray switched its defenses on McNair second half, disrupting her flow a bit. They also outrebounded the Lady Longhorns in the game, 39-27, and Wray pulled down a lot on the offensive boards, he said, giving them second and third shots.
    Chase County also struggled connecting from two-point range second half.
    McNair led the Chase County scoring with 16, while Nickless was also in double figures with 10.
    Chase County was 8-22 on threes (36 percent) and hit 12-37 from two-point range (32 percent). They had a good free throw shooting mark at 73 percent (8-11), but didn’t get to the line near as often as Wray, which finished 17-29 (59 percent).
    In other stats, Nickless had seven rebounds while McNair and Page had five each. Spady tallied three steals in the game.

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