Longhorns avenge Hershey loss to advance in subs

    Chris Bartels’ Chase County Longhorns got some sweet revenge Tuesday night with a 65-55 win over the Hershey Panthers in the first round of the C1-11 subdistricts in North Platte.
    They’ll be looking for some more payback when they face fourth-seeded Ogallala in the subdistrict final tonight (Thursday).
    The Indians got away with a 74-72 double overtime win on the Longhorns’ home floor in the third game of the season.
    But the Indians have been on a run of their own.
    After beating Gothenburg 58-57 to close the regular season Friday, they turned around  and beat them again Monday, 65-52, in the subdistrict play-in game.
    Then, on Tuesday, they upended top-seeded Cozad 65-54 to advance to the sub final against the Longhorns.
Win when it really counts
    Just a week after the Longhorns claimed the SPVA championship, Hershey came to town and came away with a 68-76 win over the Longhorns.
    Better then than now, because the season’s done with any loss.
    The Longhorns got out to a 6-5 lead on a pair of 3-pointers by Scott Wheeler to open the game.
    After a Hershey trey gave them a 10-8 advantage, Cedric Maxwell answered with back-to-back baskets to put the Longhorns back up 12-10. From there on, the Longhorns  never trailed.
    Coach Bartels said they wanted to come out hard in the first four minutes and punch Hershey, and like expected, Hershey punched back.
    “It’s a heck of a lot better to be the one that punches first than the one who has to respond to it,” he said following the game.
    Bartels said his kids responded to Hershey’s runs with runs of their own and played really smart down the stretch.
    “We just took what was given to us. We didn’t try to force anything,” he said.
    “We didn’t try to do anything that we probably would have done in December as opposed to now,” he added.
    Bartels told his kids the smarter team that keeps their head would be the team that won the game. “That’s what we did.”
    In their last contest, Hershey shot the eyes out of the basket and their big men dominated inside.
    Tuesday night, Bartels said they dropped into some double teams down low with the goal of limiting Hershey to just one shot.
    The strategy worked. Hershey still got points inside but didn’t get a lot of offensive rebounds. Those belonged to the Longhorns’ Jack Bauerle who pulled down 10 defensive and two offensive rebounds.
    In the first quarter, the Longhorns lead by as many as eight and took an 18-12 lead into the second quarter.
    Hershey got the first five points in the second to pull within one, 18-17, before the Longhorns responded.
    They went on a 10-2 run capped by a trey from Taylor Jablonski at the 2:31 mark.
    Hershey went to the inside, scoring three unanswered baskets before Jablonski added another trey right before the halftime buzzer for a 31-27 lead after two.
 

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