LDNE Boys and Girls Lose Tough Games in EHC

By Clare Wiltse

Sports Contributor

Being the smallest school in a sixteen team conference has its problems like trying to get respect from the big schools.  When the brackets are drawn up for the annual EHC basketball tournament, L-D’s wins over small schools does not rate too high.  They ended up with a 12th and 14th seed.

 

The two teams showed that they can play with the top teams as it took four quarters to decide the winners in the East Husker tournament.  The girls lost to third seeded Howells-Dodge 44-35.  The boys’ game went to the last minute before fifth seed, Twin River, assured themselves a 59-53 win.

 

Dodge-Howells got off to a great start on their home court.  After Haley Bacon opened the scoring the Jaguars made three of their next four shots.  The Cougar hung in their with Darcey Simonsen and Vanessa Peterson scoring.  An 8-2 run made for a 16 to 8 lead for  H-D at the quarter.

 

The next two quarter saw the Cougars outscore the Jaguars 21-16.  Lexie Bacon’s five points in the second quarter made it as four point game, 15-19.  After her sister, Haley, made a free throw it was down to three points.  Howells-Dodge rallied with eight points to take a 27-20 half  time lead.

 

The Cougars outscored H-D  by 7 to 2 when the second half resumed.  Darcey Simonsen ‘and Vanessa Peterson  scored goals before a trey by Tessie Collins pulled the Cougars to within two points with three minutes left in the quarter.  Vanessa Peterson added two free shots with 40 second left in the quarter.  A late free shot gave the Jaguars a 32-29 lead.

 

H-D created some breathing room early in the fourth quarter.  They made only two of ten shots, but used their height advantage to grab four offensive boards with two going for put backs.  Northeast struggled to put up points as six turnovers hampered their offense.  Darcey Simonsen got them going with six points, but the Jaguars relied on six free throws to claim a nine point win.

 

Darcey Simonsen and Vanessa Peterson led the Cougars with ten points each.  The Jags were led by Faith Molacek with 12 and Leah Grovijohn with 9.

 

“You cannot find any fault with the effort tonight,” said Coach Cronin.  The girls played their hearts out.”

 

L-D      8          12        9          6          -35

H-D     16        11        5          12        -44

 

2pt       3pt       FT        Rb        F          TP

Madie R           0          0          0/0       1          4          0

Darcey S          5          0          0/0       8          4          10

Haley B            3          0          1/3       4          2          7

Tessie C           0          1          0/0       2          1          3

Lexie B            0          1          2/2       0          1          5

Vanessa P        4          0          2/2       9          3          10

Abby P            0          0          0/0       3          0          0

Team                12        2          5/7       27        15        35

H-D                 17        0          10/23   035      12        44

 

 

With four senior starters back from the Tournament Runner-up team of 2013, Twin Rivers was a very creditable opponent with a 14-4 record.

 

The Titans opened in a zone defense as they tried to neutralize the offense of Cougar post man  Dakota Riecken.  They succeeded in slowing Riecken, but the Cougar guards made them change their minds.  Simpson and Henneman found openings to launch threes while Alex Brehmer and Marcus Hegy slashed the lane for deuces.  Twins River made 9 of 12 shots and led 19-17 at the end of one period.

 

Twin River went to man-to-man defense in the second quarter.  Brehmer tied the score with his patented floater from the lane.  Riecken used his spin move to answer a Titan score and keep L-D and TR even at 21.

 

Twin River used a 6-0 run to put a clamp on the lead.  Scores by Riecken, Hegy and Brehmer could not match the Titan’s output as the half ended with the Cougars trailing

34-26.

 

Northeast found themselves down by twelve points early in the half. After an opening basket by Riecken the Titans ran off six straight. Dakota scored two more times to bring the lead down to eight, 40-32.  Brehmer’s leaner with 4:15 completed a 6-0 run as the Cougars were back to a six point deficit. Another 6-0 run by Twin river was ended by a Taylor Fuston put back.  The Cougars trailed by ten with a quarter to play.

 

Northeast’s never say die attitude kept the Titans on edge during the fourth period.   An opening score on a put back by TR’s Crowell would be the Titans last basket.  Brehmer had two scores from the lane and Simpson found his mark from outside the arc.  Free throws kept Twin River alive as they made 5 of 8  to lead by ten.  The Cougars made their charge in the last four minutes as Hegy and Riecken were perfect from the line and Chevy Henneman hit the trifecta to make it a 54-50 game.

 

Forced to foul,  the Cougars gave back four points  before Henneman connected again with 18.2 to play.  A quick foul and two misses gave the Cougars life, but there was no more magic as Northeast could not connect on two three pointers and Twin River escaped with a 59-53 win.

 

Northeast had three in double figures.  Dakota Riecken had 14,  while Chevy Henneman and Alex Brehmer had 12.

 

“We re playing really well right now,” Said Coach Lahm   “Twin River has a nice team and we gave it  our all; we just came up a little bit short.  Lahm said he is  looking forward to playing Scribner  who has won only 2 of 9 games since Christmas.

 

 

L-D      17        9          10        17        -53

TR       19        15        12        13        -59

 

 

 

2pt       3pt       FT        Rb        F          TP

Chevy H           0          4          0/0       2          5          12

Alex  B 6          0          0/0       2          0          12

Bobby S           0          2          0/0       1          3          6

Taylor F           1          0          0/0       4          4          2

Dakota R         6          0          2/2       9          4          14

Marcus H         2          0          3/4       5          4          7

David B            0          0          0/0       1          1          0

Team                15/31   6/16     5/6       29        18        53

Twin River        20/39   1/3       18/24   21        11        59

 

 

 

 

The Cougars will be playing consolation games this week.  The Ladies will be matched against Clarkson/Leigh  in a 6:00 p.m. game on Thursday at Clarkson.  The Men get another shot at Scribner-Snyder on Friday.  They have a 7:45 p.m. game at Humphrey.