Cougars Squeak Past the Trojans

“It was an ugly game,” said Coach Derek Lahm as he described the 41-40 win over Scribner-Snyder in the consolation bracket of the EHC tournament.  “We struggled offensively all night, but the kids were resilient and pulled out the game with some defensive stands and a last second shot and some good luck.   We only led twice in the game, at the end of the first quarter and with six second left to play.”

 

It was a horrendous shooting night for the Cougars.  They made only 13 of 50 shots (26%).  They were 9 for 32 on to pointers and 4 of 18 from behind the arc.  Their free throws were not much better as they converted only 11 of 19 tries.

 

The Trojans put in 17 of 34 shots.  The nailed   16 of 28 twos(57%) but were only good on 1 of 6 threes.  They made 5 of 9 free shots.

 

After leading 11-10 after one period, the Cougars went seven and half minutes without scoring in the second quarter.  “We couldn’t make a five footer and missed four straight free throws before Marcus finally made two free shots,” said the coach.  Northeast finally got a basket as Chevy Henneman made a steal and scored with 10 seconds left.  S-S took a 23-13 lead into the locker.

 

The Cougars limited S-S to just three baskets in the third quarter.  The got 5 free throws to go with baskets by Hegy and Henneman.   They closed out the period with a trey by Simpson and found themselves trailing by only two ;points, 29-27.

 

Bobby Simpson continued with the long bombs and made a trey for Northeast’s first points in the fourth quarter.  Alex Brehmer added a bucket, but the Trojan had a six point lead, 38-32, with a minute and a half to play.  Simpson lifted a second trey over the Trojan zone defense with about a minute left to make it as three point game.

 

Scribner added another score which Northeast answered on a Hegy driving lay-in.  The Trojans missed the top end of a one and one on their next possession and the Cougars found themselves at the line after Alex Brehmer was fouled.  Brehmer is only a 30% free shooter for the season, but he sank both to pull Northeast to within one point.

 

A defensive stop put the ball in the Cougars hands in the closing seconds of the game.  Dakotas Riecken made his only basket of the night after he chased down a tipped pass under the basket and put it in for the winning score with six seconds to play.

 

The Trojan zone defense created problems for the Cougar shooters.  Bobby Simpson found some openings to nail four three pointers as he led the team with 12 points.  Marcus Hegy had 9 points and 11 rebound.  He had 7 offense boards.   The team out rebound the Trojans 32 to 19.  On a poor shooting night they had 18 offensive rebounds.

 

Coach Lahm was proud of his team which has posted ten wins for three seasons in a row.   They have a 10-8 record with two weeks to left in the regular season.  Coach Lahm noted that with two wins they could assure themselves a winning season.  That was be the first over .500 record since 2004.

 

Scribner-Snyder falls to 6-11.  They had beaten the Cougars twice in previous meeting this season.  They had 57-52 and 53-47 victories over Northeast in December.

 

Northeast will take on (13-7)  Wisner-Pilger and (1-18) Logan View in a pair of road contests this week.

 

 

L-D     11        4          12        14        -41

S-S      10        13        6          11        -40

 

 

2pt       3pt       FT        Rb        F          TP
Chevy H           2          0          2/2       1          4          6

Alex B              1          0          2/2       6          1          4

Bobby S           0          4          0/0       2          2          12

Taylor F           0          0          0/0       0          0          0

Dakota R         1          0          4/10     5          2          6

Marcus H         3          0          3/5       11        0          9

David B            2          0          0/0       3          1          4

Team                9          4          11/19   32        10        41

S-S                  15        1          5/9       19        13        40