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HARTINGTON — The Hartington- Newcastle Wildcat basketball team opened the 2024 portion of the schedule with a couple of losses to Winside, 37-35 on Jan. 5, and Bloomfield, 48-42 on Jan. 2.
The Purple Cats couldn’t overcome a shaky start in the battle of the Wildcats with Winside in Hartington in a low-scoring contest.
Hartington-Newcastle stumbled to a two-point quarter in the first frame. Meanwhile, the Winside Wildcats ran out to a 10 -point lead at the first rest stop.
The lead grew to 15 by the intermission before the Wildcats got things going in the second half.
Hartington-Newcastle nibbled five points off the advantage by the end of the third period and took another eight points off the deficit by the end of the game, but fell a basket short.
Riley Sudbeck paced the HNS Wildcats with 15 points on the night. Brayden Lammers added nine, Dayton Sudbeck tacked on seven and Cole Rosener chipped in three.
In the loss to the Bees, the Wildcats played well for three quarters before a Bloomfield surge in the final eight minutes erased a Hartington- Newcastle lead and tipped the game back to the Bees.
“We played some of our best basketball for the first three quarters,” Wildcat coach, Tylor Fincher said. “We really didn’t shoot that well from the field, but we still played well.”
The Wildcats were a frigid 5-for-31 from behind the 3-point line and 17-for-57 (30%) overall from the field and only had four chances
from the charity stripe.
The Bees shot 45% from the field and attempted 17 free throws to steal away the six-point win.
Lammers led the offensive attack for Hartington-Newcastle with 13 points and just missed a double-double with nine rebounds.
Cole Heimes added 12 points, Dayton Sudbeck added seven, Riley Sudbeck had six and Ayden Rosener tacked on four.
The Wildcats are set for a wo-game home stand as they welcome Homer and Laurel-Concord-Coleridge on Jan. 12 and Jan. 16 respectively.
“We just need to put it all together,” Fincher said. “I still know we can be a really tough team to beat as the season moves along.”
Win (4-7) 12 13 6 6 - 37 H-N (3-8) 2 8 11 14 - 35 HARTINGTON-NEWCASTLE: Cole Heimes 1; Dayton Sudbeck 7; Cole Rosener 3; Brayden Lammers 9; Riley Sudbeck 14; Lincoln Grutsch 1. H-N 11 7 12 12 - 42 B (8-4) 12 7 7 22 - 48 P=Points, R=Rebounds, A=Assists, S=Steals, B=Blocks. HARTINGTON-NEWCASTLE: Cole Heimes 4-17 0-0 12P, 2R, 2S; Dayton Sudbeck 3-5 0-0 7P, 3R, 1A; Keatyn Arens 0-1 0-0 0P, 1R; Cole Rosener 0-6 0-0 0P, 2R, 2A; Ayden Rosener 2-4 0-0 4P, 4R, 1A; Brayden Lammers 6-10 1-2 13P, 9R, 2A, 2S, 1B; Mason Krause 0-1 0-0 0P, 2R; Riley Sudbeck 2-13 2-2 6P, 10R, 3A, 2S, 4B. BLOOMFIELD: Wiley Ziegler 1-8 1-2 3P, 5R, 2A, 1S, 2B; Beau Eisenhauer 2-5 0-0 6P, 5R, 1A, 1S; Keaten Gilsdorf 1-2 0-0 2P, 2R, 1A, 2S; Jacob Smith 3-6 0-0 7P, 4R, 1A, 2S; Keldon Loecker 0-0 0-2 0P, 1A; Layne Warrior 6-11 9-11 21P, 7R, 6A, 4S, 1B; Benjamin Dodge 0-1 0-0 0P; Ma-
