It was all Elkhorn Valley girls basketball in its 52-12 drudging of Plainview Saturday.
The Lady Falcons were dominant on both sides of the ball, netting 52 points on 40 percent shooting, while also recording 19 steals on the defensive end. EV (7-0) opened the game with a 17-3 run in the first quarter. A 19-1 run in the second, put the contest firmly out of reach. The Lady Falcons allowed just 4 points in each of the next two quarters, while scoring 16 points offensively. Olivia Nall led the way with 12 points, four rebounds, two assists and seven steals. Hannah Ollendick tallied 12 points, four rebounds and three assists, Sierra Rystrom recorded 11 points and six boards and Amber Miller added 9 points and five steals. In the boys contest, the Falcons dropped their second-straight game, with a 57-45 loss to the Pirates. Leading 22-20 at the break, Plainview outscored EV (4-3) 35-25 in the second half to pull away. Braedyn Ollendick led the Falcons with a double-double, with 19 points and 10 boards. Bryson Anderson netted 10 points and Carter Rautenberg accounted for 7 points and nine rebounds. Elkhorn Valley takes a break from the action until Dec. 28, when the Falcons face county foe Clearwater/Orchard in the Cyclone Holiday Tournament at Clearwater. The Elgin Public/Pope John girls basketball team got back on track with a come-from-behind victory over Boyd County, 36-35, Saturday.
Trailing 24-17 at the break, the Lady Wolfpack outscored the Lady Spartans, 19-11, to rally for their fifth win of the season. It was an offense by committee tonight for EPPJ (5-1) in the win. Six different players scored, led by Grace Rittscher's 10 points. Allyson Wemhoff recorded 9 points and five steals, Kirsten Krebs netted 8 points, Kayce Kallhoff had 4 points, Ally Selting scored 3 points and Lexi Bode added 2 points. In the boys contest, the Wolfpack fell to Boyd County, 56-16. A 24-3 run in the third quarter, blew the gates open for the Spartans. Adam Dreger, Colton Wright, Kyle Schumacher and Conor Ramold each accounted for 4 points for EPPJ (0-6). Elgin Public/Pope John hosts Creighton Monday at 6 p.m. The Neligh-Oakdale wrestling squad had a solid performance at a tough Fran Jorgensen Invitational in Cambridge Saturday.
N-O finished second, behind Norton Community. Three Warriors won their individual weight classes. Cameron Wilkinson (113), Andrew Herley (132) and Cade Wilkinson (145) placed first after going a perfect 4-0. Brock Kester (120), Caleb Payne (145) and Jayden Arehart (182) finished second. Dallas Snyder (138) was third, Colton Klabenes (220) took fourth, while Cody Booth (106), Griffen Claussen (106), Isaias Juarez (126), Jose Luna (152), Conor Dempsey (160), Kaleb Pofahl (170) and Dawson Kaup (195) also competed for N-O. Neligh-Oakdale participates in the Creighton Invitational Tuesday at 3 p.m. The Elgin Invitational proved to be as tough as advertise, with numerous quality teams and wrestlers competing at Pope John Auditorium Saturday.
“We have a saying in our program that pressure is a privilege,” noted Elgin Public/Pope John coach Trey Rossman. “When you’re not being pressured, life is easy and wrestling is not an easy sport. I told the guys it’s darkest before dawn, and we hit dark last week. Now we’re starting to see dawn. We’re going to keep improving and this is a small stepping stone to where we want to be.” Clearwater/Orchard finished third, out of 23 teams, in the team standings thanks to five placers, but head coach Dan Roeber was disappointed in the results. “We got into a big boy meet,” Roeber stated. “We got 10 district teams here and we won some of those matchups, and lost some of those matchups. We need our young guys to turn the corner, get going and score some more points to close that gap between second and third. We need help from the young guys." In the opening round, the Cyclones went 4-9 to start. Then in the championship semifinals. and the third round of the consolations, OC went 2-10. The Cyclones bounced back to win all four of their consolation semi matches, one just won match in the final round, a second-period pin by Donaven Nolze. “We started off slow with the young kids,” spoke OC senior Clay Thiele. “It was the first hard meet of the year. Last week (at the Stanton Invite) was to get into wrestling. We started slow, but when we needed pins, we got pins and we got some wins and we battled back to third.” Clay Thiele led the area with a second-place finish at 195 pounds. In the championship match against unbeaten Collin Gale, Thiele fell behind 2-0 in the second period after a late reversal by Gale. The senior Cyclone scored an early reversal in the third to knot the match at two, but Gale recorded an escape with 20 seconds remaining and held on for the one-point win. “I lost to the same guy last week (a 6-4 loss to Gale in the championship match of the Stanton Invite,” Thiele added. “Coming back and losing by one is an improvement. It gives you something to work towards for next week. You’re disappointed you got second, but you improved and learned. That’s what I have to go off of, work hard and work towards that first spot.” Nolze placed third for OC at 220 pounds, while Austin Pokorny (170), Codey Snider (182) and Tommie Peed (285) each finished fourth. The 138-pound championship took almost eight minutes to crown a winner. West Holt’s Cole Laible and Central Valley’s Enrique Martinez battled to a scoreless tie at the end of regulation. After neither wrestler scored a takedown in sudden victory, and Martinez failed to escape from the bottom in the second overtime, Laible took bottom with a chance to win. Laible scored an early reversal, turned Martinez and eventually picked up the fall to capture the 138-pound title. “I knew in 30 seconds I had to get an escape or a reversal,” Laible recalled. “Otherwise we’d go to sudden death and he could have chose top and if he would have rode me out, he would have won. I knew I had to have something big there in that overtime to get something to happen.” Husky heavyweight, Jade Buss, won the 285-pound crown with a second-period pin. For Elgin Public/Pope John, Luke Henn led the Wolfpack with a 3-2 record at “I went out there and tested the waters,” Henn said. “I didn’t know what to expect coming off of an injury. I gave it my best shot and left it all out there.” Saturday’s invite was the first time for Henn competing this season. “Missing the first few tournaments is kind of tough because the first few tournaments give you a lot of mat time, with it being a pool tournament,” Henn continued. “With this one being a bracket one, you really get thrown in there and you can’t do anything about it. It was pretty tough, but we felt pretty good.” Other participants at the Elgin Invite included Cory Romej (138), who won one match, Norman Grothe (120) and River Romej (113) for EPPJ. “We showed improvement from last week to this week,” Rossman remarked. “It’s not so much about the wins and losses, it’s about improving on the little things. They did that really well today.” For the Cyclones, Rafe Grebin (126) won two matches, Anthony Ferris (106), Alex Arroyo (145), Houston Marino (160), Colton Thiele (182) and Logan Mueller (285) won a match, while Spencer Kester (113), Eli Thiele (120), James Kester (132), Tyson Rix (138), David Arroyo (145), Gaby Gamez (152), Anthony Marino (220) and Jaccob Bennett (220) also participated in the tourney for OC. “Losing while we’re competing is good and I can take that as a loss,” Roeber said. “The big thing we need to do right now is finish matches. We lost a lot of early matches when we were up big and got thrown. We got complacent and didn’t take care of the small things. When you wrestle good caliber kids, that’s going to be a big difference, especially down the road.” West Holt’s Ben Slaymaker (160) claimed third-place, with Rylan Olson (126), Jaeger Ogden (138), Jeremiah Kaup (182) and Grady Smith (195) competed for the Huskies. EPPJ competes at the Burwell Invite Jan. 4 at 11:30 a.m., while OC travels to the Creighton Invitational Tuesday at 3 p.m. Several Elkhorn Valley grapplers had solid performances at the Platteview Invitational Friday.
The Falcons earned a fourth-place finish thanks to three individual champions. Adam Miller (120), Josh McFarland (160) and Brock Schaecher (182) each went a perfect 4-0 to take first in their respective weight classes. Hunter Bennett (106) and Prestin Vondra (145) were runners-up, while Christian Yaw (285) placed third. Reed Bennett (126) and Mitchell Petersen (170) also competed for the Falcons Friday. Elkhorn Valley participates in the Creighton Invitational Tuesday at 3 p.m. The Elkhotrn Valley girls basketball team remained perfect on the year with a 62-49 triumph over Stuart Friday,
Tied at 12 after the first eight minutes of play, the Lady Falcons used a 19-6 run to take control of the game. EV (6-0) was led by Hannah Ollendick’s 19 points, nine rebounds, four assists and eight steals. Amber Miller tallied 17 points, five rebounds and three assists, Olivia Nall accounted for 11 points, six boards and three assists and Sierra Rystrom netted 9 points. In the boys contest, the Falcons fell, 49-33, to the Broncos. Laeding by 6 at the break, Stuart used a 17-2 run to pull away and drop EV to 4-2 on the year. Braedyn Ollendick led the Falcons with 11 points, seven boards and two assists. Carter Rautenberg recorded 7 points and eight rebounds and Derek Hahne added 6 points, two assists and three steals. Elkhorn Valley hosts Plainview today, starting with the girls varsity at 6 p.m. The Neligh-Oakdale teams posted their second-straight sweep at home this week, as they downed Bloomfield 56-48 in the girls contest and 69-65 in the boys game Friday night.
The Lady Warriors got off to a hot start in the first quarter as sophomore Paige Furstenau started her perfect free throw streak and her career scoring night. Furstenau went 4-4 from the charity stripe and drove in for a couple layups in the first eight minutes of play. In addition, Claire Whitesel drained two shots from beyond the arc and Trinity Kurpgeweit laid one, giving the N-O girls the early 16-10 advantage. In the second quarter, Brooke Frey hit a trey, Kurpgeweit put in a couple bunny shots and Furstenau again went 4-4 from the line, giving them a 27-20 halftime lead. Bloomfield was able to close the gap in the third, but senior Haley Kerkman gave the Lady Warriors a much needed spark, scoring four points in the third quarter. Kurpgeweit and Furstenau each added two. A Bee three-pointer at the buzzer tied it up, 35-35, heading into the final quarter. In the fourth, the Lady Warriors buckled down and were able to convert on a few Bloomfield turnovers and scored layups on several backdoor cuts. Before fouling out of the aggressive battle underneath, Kerkman was able to find the bucket twice more. Whitesel added a field goal and Kurpgeweit went 2-2 on free throw shots. Furstenau made four layups and went 5-5 from the line to seal the game. "We knew going in that they would be really good on defense and that was their area, so we knew that we would have to make up for it on offense and just keep level heads," Kerkman said of their game plan. "And they ended up having a great shooting game, so we had to really pick it up on defense also." Furstenau had a record-setting night, hitting 100 percent or 13-13 from the free throw line—a school record for a single game percentage. The previous record was held by Jackie Capler in 2003 when she went 10-10 for the same percentage, but on fewer shots. Furstenau also tied the school record for making the most free throws in a game—a record she now shares with her mom Shelly, as well as Shelli Wiebelhaus and Cathy Yosten. "I guess I was just on," she said. "I practice free throws a lot and that practice paid off tonight." Furstenau led all scorers with a career-high 27 points, 9 rebounds and 2 steals. Kurpgeweit was also just one away from a double-double as she tallied 10 points, 9 rebounds and 2 steals, followed by Whitesel and Kerkman with 8 points apiece and Frey with 3. "This game was really good for us because there was pressure, and we all worked good together," Furstenau said. "So I think moving forward it's going to help us." In the boys game, Neligh-Oakdale tried to pull away on numerous occasions, but the pesky Bees kept swarming back. It looked like the Warriors would take a 16-11 lead at the end of the first quarter, but a Bloomfield buzzer beater cut the lead to two. Austin Rice had 7 points in the first, including a two-and-one, while Isiac Kurpgeweit put in two buckets, Hunter Charf hit a trey and Cole Belitz laid one in. In the second, Andrew Jacobsen and Belitz each went 2-2 on freebies, Beau Murray hit a trey, Kurpgeweit got a put back and Rice hit a field goal, a free throw and a trey. The Warriors took a 31-27 advantage into the locker room. Belitz and the Bloomfield point guard sat much of the third quarter due to foul trouble with 4 apiece. Garret Belitz came in and scored a bucket, Charf hit another, Murray made a layup and two free throws and Rice added three more shots. A second Bloomfield buzzer beater at the end of the third made the game, 47-42. Cole Belitz was able to finish out the fourth quarter and went 3-4 from the line, Charf and Rice each put up two, Kurpgeweit hit two shots and went 2-2 on free throws, and Murray capped it off with two field goals, a trey and 2-2 at the line. In the end, the Warriors were able to hold off the Bees by four. "Our game plan was to not underestimate them, we knew they were good shooters and we knew that they would be aggressive and really strong with the ball, so we just wanted to come in and play more physical," Murray said. "We came out a little slow, but got our tempo up in the fourth quarter." N-O Coach Ethan Larsen said Bloomfield was a stronger shooting team than he anticipated, but was pleased with his team's response. "Going into this game we were 4-1 and Bloomfield was 4-1, so we knew they had been playing some decent basketball," he said. "Credit to (Bloomfield), they shot very well tonight, but our boys shot pretty well too. It was probably pretty fun for the crowd to watch, but it was a little stressful for me as a coach." Larsen said he was proud of his team's rebounding efforts. "I thought the boys did a nice job, especially underneath. We're really big on rebounds and Isiac (Kurpgeweit) and Austin (Rice) did a fantastic job with support from Cole, Hunter, Beau, all of our guys," he said. Two Warriors earned a double-double on the night—Rice with 21 points and 10 rebounds and Kurpgeweit with 14 points, 12 rebounds and 2 blocks. Murray tallied 16 points and 5 steals, Charf and Cole Belitz each added 7 and Jacobsen and Garret Belitz had 2 apiece. "Overall, our team got better tonight and we look forward to some rest before we start out holiday tournament after Christmas," Larsen said. The Lady Warriors have one more matchup before the break as they host Niobrara-Verdigre on Tuesday night. Thursday was a tough night for the Clearwater/Orchard girls and boys basketball teams against Humphrey St. Francis.
A big second-quarter surge doomed the Cyclones’ boys squad against the Flyers, 65-47. Trailing 14-11, St. Francis used a 20-8 run to take a 31-22 lead into the break. Flyers outscored OC (4-2), 34-25, to secure the win. Ryan Wilhelm recorded a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds. Blake Hoke tallied 14 points, five board, two assists and four steals, Jacob Long contributed 7 points and seven boards, while Gage Clifton and Gage Switzer each netted 6 points. In the girls contest, the Lady Cyclones (2-5) fell, 80-21. St. Francis jumped out to a 26-2 advantage in the first quarter, and handed OC (2-5) its fourth-straight loss. Clearwater/Orchard begins its Christmas Break and returns to the hardwood for the Cyclone Holiday Tournament Dec. 27. Future Neligh-Oakdale ballers took to the court on Tuesday night during halftime of the girls varsity game.
Third and fourth graders who played in the scrimmage were Jaycee Gadeken, Mady Kurpgeweit, Brihanna Dugan, Harloe Kaufman, Kylee Lichtenberg, Kanyon Allemang and Bree Kester. Amber Miller wasn’t ready for her volleyball career to end. Fortunately, it isn’t over yet.
The Elkhorn Valley senior signed a letter of intent Thursday to play volleyball for the Lancers at Mount Marty College. On hand for the signing in the gym were her parents Tony and Kristi Miller and brother Adam, Mount Marty coach Frank Hebenstreit, high school coaches Emily Vaughn and Monica Wiehn and more than a dozen members of the Lady Falcon volleyball team. Amber said her coaches and many supporters have always told her she has what it takes to play at the collegiate level. “At first, I never believed them,” she said. “I thought, ‘What 5’7” setter is going to get to play in college?’” So, Amber said she just kept working as hard as she could. “I just have so much heart for the sport that once the season was starting to come to an end, I knew that I had to do something because I wasn’t ready to be done with my volleyball career,” she said. “When I first had offers start to come in, I was surprised. And then I was like, ‘Oh wait, maybe this is a thing I should be considering,’ so I started to take a look at them, and I realized that it’s something that I wanted to do.” One of those offers was from Coach Hebenstreit at Mount Marty, who watched Amber play for the first time on October 2, when EV swept Osmond in three sets. “A coach that I had worked with in Norfolk said, ‘You need to watch this girl.’ I trusted her judgement so I went to watch,” he said. “And it was fun because the instant you saw her, it was like, ‘This kid is good.’” When asked why he included Amber in his list of five recruits, the coach said there were “lots of reasons.” “First of all, when I watched her, she’s extremely athletic, very quick,” Hebenstreit said. “I knew, you could tell right away that she had the potential to be a good college athlete. Then, when I got to meet her and talk to her on our visit, her character and her personality style fit very well with the culture we’re trying to build at Mount Marty.” He said one of the things that makes her such a special player is her great passion for volleyball. “She loves playing,” the coach said. “That just comes across from watching her. She loves what she’s doing and that’s huge. In college, it’s a lot more demanding, so you really need to have that passion. That’s one of the first things I noticed when I watched her.” Hebenstreit said she will be “a great fit” for their program at Mount Marty. “It’s hard to say for sure until you get everybody in the gym in August, but as I’m looking at it right now, I think she will be a strong contender to be a varsity setter for us, even as a freshman,” he said. “And it’s pretty rare for a freshman to be in that position, but she has so much ability and is fitting in, in terms of character and style, to what we’re looking for.” A four-year varsity starter and letterwinner in volleyball, Amber has earned numerous awards, including conference honors each year. Her team qualified for the D1 Nebraska State Volleyball Championships her junior year. In addition, she has shattered two school records for ace serves. This year, she broke her own records. Amber served 78 aces this season, eclipsing her old record of 70 from 2016; and added onto last year’s career record of 188—making it a whopping 266 career aces. “I broke our school record my freshman year for serving aces in a season,” she said. “And then my sophomore year, I broke it again and also broke our career aces. And then I’ve added on to my career one each year. And then this year, I broke my other season one again.” While serving up an impressive number of ace serves, Amber was doing it was jaw-dropping accuracy. She was a 90 percent server in her career, 91 percent her senior year. Her other career stats include 348 kills, 44 ace blocks, 1,164 digs and 1,480 assists. In Amber’s senior season alone, she tallied 135 kills with .258 hitting efficiency, 12 ace blocks, 362 digs and 466 assists. A three-sport athlete, Amber has received conference honors in basketball and is a two-time state medalist in the pole vault. “I really like competing in athletics,” she said. When she decided to continue volleyball at the collegiate level, Amber said she had several offers, but her trip to Mount Marty in October made her decision much easier. “I did have a few other offers and I was kind of looking, but after I visited there and I got to meet some of the team and stay for practice, I just felt like that was what I wanted in a team,” she said. “And meeting some of the girls, everybody was so open and nice to me, already wanting to contact me. When I verbally committed, I had plenty of teammates already texting me and welcoming me to the team. So it felt like home. I was really excited.” Amber verbally committed to Coach Hebenstreit on Oct. 17. “I verbally committed by sending my coach an email with my Mount Marty T-shirt,” she said. “I’m really happy to have Frank (Hebenstreit) as a new coach.” Amber said she is unsure of what she will major in at this time, but her “two top choices right now are either physical therapy or special education.” Her high school coach Emily Vaughn said she knows Amber is going to love collegiate volleyball. “She will love it,” she said. “She will have fun. And she’s a super hard worker and she’s very coachable. If Coach Hebenstreit needs her to do something, she’s going to do it. She’s going to fight. She’s going to want a significant role on this team. I know she can do it.” Vaughn said she believes Amber will be a contributing player “right away” for the Lancers. “She’s played so many different positions that she could play wherever he needs her,” she said. "And she’s going to work hard to do what she needs to do. I just wish her the best. Being a collegiate athlete, you create so many new friends and memories, and she’s got what it takes.” Madison recently released the bracket for its Holiday tournament for Dec. 28 and 29.
In the girls bracket, Elgin Public/Pope John opens with Emerson-Hubbard Dec. 28 at 2:30 p.m. The winner of the EPPJ and E-H contest, faces the Madison-Burwell winner in the championship game Dec. 29 at 2:30 p.m. The consolation game is scheduled for 11 a.m. The EPPJ boys team faces E-H in its first-round matchup at 4:15 p.m. on Dec. 28. Madison plays Burwell in the other first-round matchup at 12:45 p.m. The boys third-place game is at 12:45 p.m. and the title tilt takes place at 4:15 p.m. on the Dec. 29. The Warrior basketball teams will head back to Wisner this year to play in the 26th Annual Shootout on the Elkhorn Holiday Tournament, Dec. 27-29.
In their first round games, the girls are scheduled to play on Thursday, Dec. 27 at 2:30 p.m. against Ponca, and the boys will follow, taking on Ponca at 4:15 p.m. Both games are slated to be played in the south gym. Win or lose, the girls will play again on Friday, Dec. 28 at 6 p.m. and the boys will play at 7:45 p.m. Teams in the tournament include Wisner-Pilger, Battle Creek, Ponca, Neligh-Oakdale, Lutheran High Northeast, Winnebago, Pierce and Wakefield. See the complete brackets below: The Elkhorn Valley girls and boys basketball teams continued their hot starts to the 2018-19 campaigns, with a pair of wins over county foe Elgin Public/Pope John Tuesday.
In a battle of unbeatens, the Lady Falcons rallied past EPPJ, 58-41. “I was really proud of our effort, especially with how we slept walk through the first quarter,” stated EV girls coach Brendan Dittmer. “We responded. Our second quarter was full of energy and Elgin matched us. I told the girls at halftime to find where we are at because if we keep our play up to the caliber where it was in second quarter, we’d be fine.” The Lady Wolfpack took early control of the contest with a 10-0 to start the game. Four different players scored the first 10 points for EPPJ. “We came out firing on all cylinders,” noted EPPJ girls coach Randy Eisenhauer. “Ally (Wemhoff) came out and made her first three 3-pointers for us. We were attacking, but then they adjusted a few things out of a timeout and made it tougher for us to shoot from the outside. We still had a lot of shots and a lot of opportunities in the second half, but we didn’t convert like we did in the first half.” A 9-3 run by EV cut the deficit to 4, but a Kirsten Krebs jumper and Allyson Wemhoff 3-pointer at the buzzer, gave the host team an 18-9 advantage after the first. The Lady Falcons opened the second quarter with a 14-6 run to claim its first lead thanks to back-to-back jumpers by Sierra Rystrom. “We didn’t start out too hot and when coach Dittmer called timeout, he brought us over and had a good analogy about defense,” recalled EV senior Amber Miller. “We need to play defense like we’re tap dancing and we need to always move our feet. He is pretty good at always keeping a positive vibe in our heads. He said we’re better than this and we started out bad, but it doesn’t mean it’s going to affect the rest of the game. Go out and fix it.” A Grace Rittscher layup gave EPPJ the lead, 26-25, heading into the break. After an Ally Selting free throw knotted the contest at 28, the green and black scored 11 of the next 16 points, taking a 6-point lead into the final stanza. “We got a couple of big shots,” Dittmer said. “The girls said in the locker room we were one play from catapulting into the next series on defense. That’s what it was. We got excited for our play and our crowd got into it. It became a really fun game.” It was Lady Falcons from there, as EV outscored EPPJ, 20-9, in the fourth quarter to remain undefeated on the year (5-0). “Our girls worked pretty hard tonight,” Miller said. “We didn’t start off the greatest. Coming into the game, I talked to my teammates and said, ‘People know we’re undefeated and we knew we had that target on our backs; especially with our rivalry with Elgin from volleyball season.’ It was a tough game and I know that we wanted it.” Miller had a big fourth quarter, scoring 9 points in the quarter to help the Lady Falcons surge past EPPJ. “I knew going into the fourth quarter I had four fouls and needed to be careful with my defense,” Miller added. “But defense is more of my game than offense. Because of my defense and how my teammates work together, we all got rewarded with some more points in that last quarter. We all worked together and had fun. My team really helped me out to build confidence and get more points in that fourth quarter.” A big key to the come-from-behind win for Elkhorn Valley was its defensive pressure after a sloppy start. In the first half, Wemhoff had 13 points, but the Lady Falcons shut down the senior guard and held her to just 3 points in the final 16 minutes of play. “We needed to play our game,” Dittmer said. “I call it a beautiful tap dance. We want to play with our feet moving all the time, and our hands with it. When we do that, it’s a good thing to see. Our defense stepped up. Good shooters are going to get good shots, like Ally (Wemhoff) does. It’s a matter of rebounding the ones she misses and we have to be there to contest her shots.” Three Lady Falcons scored in double-figures, led by Miller’s 17 points and four steals. Hannah Ollendick collected a double-double with 10 points and 13 rebounds, Olivia Nall recorded 13 points, three boards and three assists and Rystrom had 8 points, four rebounds and two steals. Wemhoff led EPPJ (4-1) with 16 points, Rittscher tallied 10 points, Kayce Kallhoff netted 6 points, Selting pitched in 5 points and Krebs added 4 points. “We played a good team,” Eisenhauer said. “Elkhorn Valley has a lot of returning starters back and they have a good coach. He does some good things with those girls. We knew coming into this game, it was going to be an uphill battle for us. We’re dealing with some injuries right now, but we had some girls step up. We just ran out of gas in the third and fourth quarters. Also, we went 10 for 21 from the free-throw line and missed quite a few bunnies. If we make those towards the end, we might be able to close that gap a little." In the boy's contest, Elkhorn Valley held off a pesky EPPJ team, 44-35, to move to 4-1 on year. “Elgin played extremely hard,” said EV boys coach Derric Werner. “They never quit and they knocked down open shots. We didn’t get the ball in the hole in the first half, like we did in our previous four games, and that obviously got to our kids. It was our first away game and bringing a young team on the road is always a little nerve racking.” It was a defensive battle all game, as both teams struggled to score. “We talked about before the game it was going to take all five kids on the floor communicating and working together,” remarked EPPJ boys mentor Michael Becker. “They did that for the majority of the possessions. We just had a few letdowns. here and there, and in a close game sometimes those are the difference.” After falling behind 10-5 at the end of the opening quarter, the Wolfpack rallied with a 7-2 run, and tied the game at 12 with two Adam Dreger freebies. A Brandon Evans triple and Carter Rautenberg layup gave EV a 17-12 advantage going into the locker rooms. Defense continued to rule the game, as only one basket was made in the first four minutes of the third, and the Falcons entered the fourth leading, 30-22. Evans opened the fourth with a huge trifecta, pushing EV’s lead to 33-22. “The whole team got me open and I got them (my shots) to fall tonight,” Evans recalled. However, the red, black and white once again refused to give up and used an 11-5 run, capped by Layne Bullock’s putback basket, to cut the the Falcons’ lead to 40-35. “The kids played really hard against a good Elkhorn Valley team,” Becker said. “Our shots didn’t fall early on like we initially wanted to get and we dug ourselves into a little of a hole, but we came back and battled. We had an opportunity later in the game too, but we couldn’t quite get over the hump.” EV held off the rally and shut out the Wolfpack the remainder of the contest to secure the win. “We knew it was going to be a hard-fought battle,” Evans said. “Elgin hasn’t won a game, so we knew they were going to be hungry. We knew we needed to come in and do what we do.” Both defenses were dominant in the game. Elkhorn Valley forced 15 EPPJ turnovers and turned it into 14 points. “Defense is what we really pride ourselves on,” Evans continued. “We knew we had to step up on the defensive end and try to shut down Conor (Ramold). We knew he was a good shooter.” The Wolfpack held the high-scoring Falcons to their lowest point total of the season. Three players surpassed double-figures for EV. Rautenberg led the squad with 12 points, seven rebounds and four assists. Braedyn Ollendick contributed 11 points and eight boards, Derek Hahne had 10 points and five rebounds and Evans tallied 6 points, two assists and three steals. “Since I started coaching, I told the kids I don’t want one person to rely on for the bulk of our offense,” Werner said. “If we can have five guys averaging double-figures, it’s an ideal situation. Anybody could go off for their night and puts more stress on the defense as well.” Kyle Schumacher led EPPJ (0-5) with 12 points, three assists and six rebounds. Ramold scored 11 points and Dreger accumulated 9 points and 21 rebounds. Elgin Public/Pope John hosts Boyd County Saturday. “We’re going to keep improving and continue to get better,” Becker stated. “We’re going to give the guys the day off tomorrow to try to get our legs back. It gives us two days to prepare for Boyd County and to keep trying to get better every day.” The Lady Wolfpack tip-off at 2 p.m. at Elgin Public. “We talked after the game about bouncing back from this,” Eisenhauer said. “There’s a lot of things we can learn from this loss and things we can control. We’ll come back tomorrow ready to go, fight a little hard in practice and we’ll be ready to go for Boyd County on Saturday,” Elkhorn Valley travels to Stuart Friday at 4 p.m., before playing its final game before the Christmas break Saturday against Plainview. “It’s good to keep this thing going,” Dittmer concluded. “I told them they have to wake up every day and seize the day. If we go through life with energy and bring that to practice tomorrow, and Thursday, hopefully we’re ready for the weekend. It’s going to be a grind and then we get 10 days to recover. Hopefully we can carry this into the weekend.” In a home sweep, the Lady Warriors picked up their first victory in dominating fashion, 57-32, while the N-O boys cruised to their fourth win with a score of 59-45 over St. Mary's.
The Neligh-Oakdale forced several St. Mary's turnovers and converted them into some easy buckets as they jumped out to a 15-5 lead in the first quarter. The Cardinals doubled their efforts within the first two minutes of play in the second as they tried to closed the gap, but a 6-0 run by the Lady Warriors widened the margin even further. The home team took a commanding 30-15 lead heading into the break. Neligh-Oakdale kept up their intensity on offense and played tenacious defense to extend their lead, 45-22, by the end of the third. Holding their opponent to just 10 points, while draining 12 of their own in the final quarter, the Lady Warriors rolled to their first win of the season. "I feel like we worked a lot better together," sophomore Trinity Kurpgeweit said. "We worked as a family, we weren't selfish and trying to get points ourselves." That was evident in the balanced scoring attack, which put three players in double figures. Kurpgeweit led all scorers with 16 points, followed by Brooke Frey with 15 (including 3/3 on 3 pointers), Paige Furstenau 13, Haley Kerkman 8 and Claire Whitesel 5. "I'm just really proud of how the girls came out and played as a team," Coach Christy Knutson said. "We've been trying to focus on that all week, not playing as an individual, we play as a team. And that's what they really stepped up and that's what we wanted to focus on. We haven't played man to man that aggressively all year and we haven't trapped, so we focused on that, too. It was a good win for everybody. We all needed that. They've been working so hard, it's just a good payoff." Kurpgeweit was all smiles after the team's win. "It feels really good to get a win," she said. "We were all really excited. I feel like we were a lot more confident in ourselves, in our teammates, and we trusted each other a lot more." In the boys game, the Warriors jumped out early, but held onto just a 12-10 lead at the end of the first quarter. The N-O boys went on a 7-0 run to give themselves a little breathing room in the first few minutes of the second. The Warriors were able to keep the Cardinals at bay, leading 31-24 at halftime. After the break, St. Mary's appeared to make a surge in the third quarter, but the Warriors answered and took a 47-34 advantage into the final eight minutes of play. In the end, the N-O boys sailed to a 14-point win. Senior Austin Rice led the Warriors with 19 points, followed by Cole Belitz with 16, Hunter Charf 10, Isiac Kurpgeweit 9 points and 10 rebounds, Garret Belitz 3 and Beau Murray 2. "We came out and played pretty good defense and held them to 45 points," Rice said. "They are a really good shooting team, but we shot the ball really well. I think we were 8 of 11 from 3-point, so we were pretty hot all game. We used that and we kind of went down low too. We got the ball inside, along with the outside shot really opening up our game. We tried pressuring them a bit in the full court, and I think that helped us get a few turnovers that led to our success." Coach Ethan Larsen said their game plan was very similar to their approach in the game against Creighton. "We credit St. Mary's," Larsen said. "We knew that they were a good shooting team and we knew that they were going to play tough man defense, so the similarities between them and Creighton are pretty close. Ultimately, I liked the grit out of our guys. We had some matchups that we needed to make sure that we locked down on and were disciplined on defensively. After getting them stopped, the ball seemed to go through the hoop real well for us tonight, so we were happy to see that on our home court and very happy to come away with a win. " The Warrior teams will host Bloomfield on Friday night. It was a home split as the Clearwater-Orchard girls dropped a 47-26 contest and the boys cruised to a 71-47 win over Stuart on Tuesday night.
The Lady Cyclones struggled to get their offense going in the first, falling behind 11-3. The girls tripled their efforts in the second, but Stuart added onto their lead to hold a firm 23-12 lead at the half. The Broncos hit their stride in the third, scoring 16 points while allowing just 5 by OC. The deficit was too much to overcome in the fourth and the Lady Cyclones (2-4) fell to Stuart (4-1). Julia Thiele led the Lady Cyclones with 7 points. Katie Stearns recorded 5 points, eight rebounds and four steals, Taylor Sanne and Maryssa Long each had 5 points, two boards and a steal and Avery Cheatum collected 4 points and six boards. In the boys game, the Cyclones were nearly even with Stuart in the first quarter, hanging on to just a one-point lead. An OC scoring frenzy in the second opened up a 10-point halftime lead, 35-25. An even third quarter helped the Cyclones hold their ground heading into the final quarter. The OC boys finished strong in the fourth, scoring 20 points while holding Stuart to just 6 for the win. The Cyclones had three players in double figures, led by Blake Hoke's 26 points, followed by Ryan Wilhelm's double-double of 20 points and 10 rebounds, Gage Clifton 10 points, Jacob Long 9, Gage Switzer 3 and Anthony Umphress 2. Clearwater-Orchard will travel to Humphrey St. Francis on Thursday. Attention, Warrior and Cyclone fans: your team could be on TV!
Fans are being given the chance to decide which basketball games will be broadcast on News Channel Nebraska on Jan. 4, 2019. All games will feature a varsity girl-boy double header. Cast your vote using the link below: Click this link to vote. Clearwater/Orchard released the brackets for the Cyclone Holiday basketball tournament today, which is scheduled for Dec. 27 and 28 at Clearwater High School..
In the girls bracket, Ewing faces Chambers/Wheeler Central at 3 p.m., and the OC-Elkhorn Valley game is scheduled for 6 p.m. CWC and Ewing kickoff the boys tournament at 4:30 p.m., and the day concludes with the Cyclones taking on the Falcons at 7:30 p.m. The girls and boys third-place game is scheduled for 3 p.m. and 4:30 p.m., respectively, on Dec. 28. The girls championship game takes place at 6 p.m., followed by the boys title tilt at 7:30 p.m. No local or conference passes will be accepted at the tournament. A sloppy second half cost the Clearwater/Orchard girls basketball team, as OC fell to Boyd County, 35-24, Saturday.
After cutting the deficit to 1 heading into the break, the Lady Cyclones went cold offensively and were outscored, 19-9 in the second half. Katie Stearns recorded a double-double to lead OC, with 13 points and 13 rebounds. Julia Thiele and Holly Schacht each netted 5 points and Julian Tuttle added 2 points. Clearwater/Orchard (2-3) hosts Stuart Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. The Elkhorn Valley girls and boys basketball teams completed a perfect weekend Saturday after sweeping Santee Friday and Chambers/Wheeler Central Saturday.
The Lady Falcons surged past CWC, 57-46. After falling behind 8-7 in the first, EV used a 24-10 run to take a 13-point lead into the break. The Lady Renegade came storming back, with a 19-10 run in the third, to cut the deficit to 4 heading into the final stanza. The Lady Falcons held off the CWC comeback and remained perfect on the year with the win. Hannah Ollendick led EV (4-0) with 26 points, nine rebounds, two assists and four steals. Sierra Rystrom recorded 15 points, three rebounds, three assists and two steals, Amber Miller tallied 8 points, three assists and seven steals, Olivia Nall had 6 points, five boards, three assists and two steals and Kaylee Bacon pitched in 2 points and three rebounds. In the boys game, the Falcons cruised to a 50-31 victory over CWC. EV opened the game with a 15-6 run in the opening quarter and extended its lead to 11 at the half. A 14-7 run in the third quarter iced the game for the EV (3-1) was led by Carter Rautenberg’s 18 points, five rebounds, three assists and two steals. Braedyn Ollendick accounted for 16 points, five boards and three assists, Derek Hahne accumulated 9 points, four rebounds, three assists and two steals, Julio Sierra contributed 4 points and three boards and Bryson Anderson added 3 points and three rebounds. Elkhorn Valley travels to Elgin Tuesday to face EPPJ at Pope John at 4 p.m. The Elgin Public/Pope John boys basketball team held its own going against one of the top teams in Class D2 Saturday.
The Wolfpack fell to Riverside, 78-49. EPPJ battled the Chargers to a 17 all tie after the first and trailed by 6 heading into the break. However, a 24-10 run in the third, and 19-10 run in the fourth, propelled Riverside past the Wolfpack. Kyle Schumacher led EPPJ (0-4) with 24 points. Adam Dreger recorded 10 points and four rebounds, Conor Ramold collected 6 points and five boards,R.J. Lierman scored 6 points and Colton Wright added 3 points. In the girls contest, the Lady Wolfpack’s hot start guided EPPJ to a 62-34 triumph over Riverside. EPPJ (4-0) outscored the Lady Chargers, 39-14, in the first half to take a commanding lead. The Lady Wolfpack were led by Allyson Wemhoff’s 23 points. Grace Rittscher accounted for 11 points and six rebounds, Ally Selting accumulated 9 points, Kayce Kallhoff pitched in 7 points and five steals and Kirsten Krebs had 6 points and five boards. Elgin Public/Pope John hosts county foe Elkhorn Valley Tuesday at 4 p.m. Several impressive performances by the Clearwater/Orchard wrestling team helped the Cyclones place third as a team at the Stanton Invitational Saturday.
OC scored 166 team points to take third. Plainview won the team title with 228 points, followed by Oakland-Craig with 175 points. Crofton/Bloomfield finished fourth with 101.5 points. Seniors Donaven Nolze (220) and Codey Snider (182) pinned their ways to an individual title. Snider went a perfect 5-0, while Nolze was 4-0. Houston Marino (160) and Clay Thiele (195) took runner-up honors after falling in the championship match. Eli Thiele (120) took third, Spencer Kester (120), Austin Pokorny (170) and Colton Thiele (182) were fourth and Anthony Ferris (106), Rafe Grebin (126), Tyson Rix (138) and Tommie Peed (285) each placed sixth. For Crofton/Bloomfield, Hudson Barger (106) and William Poppe (138) each finished third. Calvin Dather (195) took fourth, Conner Tarr (120) and Brantson Gieselman (182) were fifth and Hunter Hegge (160) placed sixth. Crofton/Bloomfield competes at the Wayne Invitational Saturday at 9 a.m. Clearwater/Orchard travels to the Elgin Public/Pope John Invitational Saturday at 10 a.m. at Pope John. The Elkhorn Valley wrestling team continued its hot start to the 2018-19 season.
The Falcons won the Osceola Invitational team title with 150.5 points, and every wrestler earned a spot on the podium. Elgin Public/Pope John scored 11 team points. Hunter Bennett (106) and Brock Schaecher (182) each placed first in their respective weight classes. Adam Miller (120) and Josh McFarland (160) finished second, Reed Bennett (126) and Christian Yaw (285) were third, Hunter Klinetobe (132), Mitchell Petersen (170) and Caden Reikofski (220) each earned a fourth-place finish, Gavyn Clause (195) took fifth and Michael Glynn (152) placed seventh. River Romej (113) led the Wolfpack with a third-place finish. Norman Grothe (120) and Cory Romej (138) each won a match for EPPJ. Elgin Public/Pope John hosts the EPPJ Invite Saturday starting at 9:30 a.m. Elkhorn Valley travels to O’Neill for a quad-match with Battle Creek, Pierce and O’Neill Thursday. A fast start propelled the Clearwater/Orchard boys basketball team to a 60-39 win over Niobrara/Verdigre Friday.
After taking a 22-5 lead in the first quarter, the Cyclones outscored the Cougars, 18-8, in the second, to claim a 40-13 halftime advantage. Jacob Long led OC with a double-double, 16 points and 10 rebounds, to go along with his three steals and one assist. Blake Hoke recorded 18 points, eight boards, three assists and seven steals Ryan Wilhelm collected a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds and Chris Kester had 4 points and four assists. Ken Justo and Logan Reynolds each netted 9 points, while Rane Vesely scored 8 points. In the girls contest, Niobrara/Verdigre (1-2) defeated Clearwater/Orchard (2-2), 37-32. Niobrara/Verdigre hosts county foe Bloomfield today at 2 p.m. at Niobrara. Clearwater/Orchard (3-1) hosts Stuart Tuesday at 8 p.m. at Orchard. The Elgin Public/Pope John girls basketball team remained unbeaten on the year with a 51-31 triumph over Plainview Friday.
A 33-12 run in the first half out the Lady Wolfpack ahead for good and propelled EPPJ to its third win of the season. Allyson Wemhoff led EPPJ with 14 points. Kirsten Krebs tallied 9 points and eight rebounds, Ally Selting pitched in 8 points, Kayce Kallhoff had 6 points, Grace Rittscher recorded 5 points and nine boards, Kaylee Martinsen accounted for 4 points and Lexi Bode added 3 points. In the boys contest, EPPJ fell to the Pirates, 64-53. A hot start doomed the Wolfpack, as the red, black and white fell behind 31-21 heading into the half, and did not recover. Conor Ramold led EPPJ (0-3) with 15 points, four assists and seven rebounds. Kyle Schumacher and R.J Lierman each netted 11 points, Adam Dreger contributed 10 points and Colton Wright scored 6 points. EPPJ returns to action today, as the Wolfpack travel to Spalding to take on Riverside at 2 p.n. Two dominant defensive performances led the Elkhorn Valley girls and boys basketball teams to wins over Santee Friday.
The Lady Falcons defeated Santee, 59-38. “At times we didn't hustle very well and we didn't shoot the ball very well,” stated EV girls coach Brendan Dittmer. “But they handled themselves well and their effort on the defensive end was the catalyst tonight. We executed well on the offensive end in the second half. We got some good things going forward." Despite a sloppy start, EV held a 20-11 advantage after the first quarter. Each team committed seven turnovers each, but the Lady Falcons turned Santee's miscues into 11 points and the Lady Warriors scored just 6 points off of turnovers in the first. "Santee gets you to play that way," Dittmer added. "They put a lot of pressure on the ball and play very physical. Our girls had to respond to that. At times we threw the ball away, but once we got the ball in the half-court, we executed our game." The Lady Falcons found their groove in the second, outscoring Santee, 11-4, and won the turnover battle in the second, 10-2. “Coach (Dittmer) told us to play as a team,” spoke EV junior Olivia Nall. “It's supposed to be a fun sport and there's supposed to be no stress on your shoulders. We needed to play as a team like we usually do. It gets hard to play as a team when the other team isn't cooperating as much and it doesn't let us play like we want to." Triples by Hannah Sheridan, Ashley Wabasha and DaWayna Wabasha, followed by a layup by Sheridan, cut EV's lead to 12 late in the third. "We've never seen a 1-3-1 (defense), and it caught us by surprise,” commented Santee coach Deon LaPointe. “They played man on us, and we've seen man-to-man all year. We had plan for man, but we had to make some adjustments to it. Once we made the adjustments our offense took off, but we just ran out of gas at the end." The Lady Falcons' stifling defense kept the Lady Warriors in check and sealed a 21-point victory for EV (3-0). “It wasn't the best win we could have had,” Nall said. “Our offense was a little slow and we weren't connecting as usual, but on defense we caught up a little bit in the second half. We were getting steals, but we didn't play how we wanted to." EV was in complete control of every statistical category. The green and white outrebounded Santee, 37-24, and won the turnover battle, 30-23. “In practice we work a lot on rebounding and it pays off in the games,” Nall said. "Everyone gets lots of rebounds, we box out better every game and it's adding up. Hopefully it adds up to us getting to state this year." Thirty-one of EV’s 59 points were scored following a Lady Warrior turnover. “We capitalized and didn't dwell on our own mistakes,” Dittmer said. "We turned it over 23 times, that's too many. I don't think we didn't hustle for those ones and try to make up for them. That's a good thing to build off of. Our team is built to get a lot of steals and create a lot of turnovers. We just have to work on converting those more and more and getting more consistent. I think they'll get there." Sheridan led Santee (0-2) with 17 points. DaWayna Wabasha netted 15 points and Ashley Wabasha added 6. Four different players scored in double-figures for the Lady Falcons, led by Sierra Rystrom's 17 points, seven rebounds and three assists. Nall recorded 13 points, seven rebounds and five steals, Amber Miller accounted for 12 points and four steals and Hannah Ollendick scored all 10 of her points in the first quarter. “In our two (previous) wins, we had a really good offense,” Nall noted. “Most people were in double figures. When you get those assists and points on the court is a big thing. Tonight we didn't find it, but hopefully tomorrow we do and there's more smiles on our faces." In the boys contest, Elkhorn Valley cruised to a 62-23 victory over Santee. “It went well,” noted EV boys coach Derric Werner. “We started kind of slow offensively, but we still got some shots to fall. The Falcons surged to a 12-0 lead to start the contest. A 20-point second quarter gave EV a 34-15 lead heading into the locker room. “We started off slow and lackadaisical,” remarked Elkhorn Valley freshman Carter Rautenberg. “Coach (Werner) talked to us in the locker room at halftime and in third quarter we started playing a lot better. We played a 1-3-1 zone and it really worked. We got some steals and easy buckets." Elkhorn Valley’s defense took over from there, allowing just 8 points in the third quarter, and shut out the Warriors in the fourth. “It felt good to get our second win tonight,” Rautenberg continued. “We had a tough loss last week. We really worked hard this week in practice. It was nice to get a win, again." The Falcons capitalized on the Warriors miscues. EV (2-1) turned 24 Santee (0-2) turnovers into 31 points. “It was good (to see),” Werner commented. “We switched from man-to-man to a 1-3-1 defense. I don't know if that threw them off guard, but our length did. It's always nice to capitalize those turnovers into points. The last couple of years, that's been us with teams capitalizing on our turnovers. It was nice to flip the script." Rautenberg had a big second half, scoring 8 of his 12 points in the second half to help the Falcons go on a 28-8 run in the final 16 minutes of play. “I tried to be quick and used my teammates to help me get open a lot,” Rautenberg stated. “I used good positioning to go drop-step or go up-and-under. Or I passed out to my teammates to relocate and get it back in the post." Braedyn Ollendick led all scorers with 18 points. Bryson Anderson and Derek Hahne each netted 7 points, Julio Sierra contributed 6 points and eight boards, while Brandon Evans and Josiah Wriedt each scored 5 points. Antonio Hoffman led the Warriors with 9 points, while Bianco White chipped in 8 points. Santee travels to Marty Indian Saturday, with the girls game starting at 6 p.m. “They had good effort and hustle tonight,” LaPointe said. “We only have six girls and they get tired and winded. I wish I had more girls, but there are no excuses." Elkhorn Valley hosts Chambers/Wheeler Central Saturday. "This is my fifth year of coaching and CWC is a team we've never had success against,” Werner said. “This year we matchup a lot better and I know our kids are really looking forward to it." The Lady Falcons tip at 3:30 p.m. “We have to play well,” Dittmer concluded. “I told them no matter what, you can't shoot thinking you're going to miss the shot. You have to shoot knowing it's going to go in. We have to play with confidence, have fun and if they do that; we'll get the result we want in the end." |
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