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HARTINGTON — The Hartington-Newcastle Lady Wildcat basketball team is on a three-game winning streak after opening the 2024-25 season with a loss.
The Lady ‘Cats defeated Creighton 55-27 in a Saturday afternoon contest played on Dec. 14 and earlier in the week took care of Boyd County 54-27 in a game played in Spencer on Dec. 10.
An unusual start time proved to be no problem for the Lady Wildcats when they took on the Lady Bulldogs as they sprinted to a 21-7 lead at the end of the opening quarter.
“It was a Saturday afternoon game with no j.v. game and no boy’s game, just a little different routine so we wanted to make sure we started the game well,” HNS coach Grant Rolfes said. “Our defense gave us a spark as we were able to turn defense into offense. Our pressure was good.”
The Lady ‘Cats gave a few points back in the second frame, but turned up the defensive heat in the second half, allowing just eight points to Creighton as Hartington-Newcastle put the game away.
McKenzie Bruning did the most damage offensively with 18 points on the afternoon, Maddie Steffen added 13, Hazel Hochstein tossed in eight and Vayda Lippert had seven.
Bruning completed a double-double by pulling down 11 rebounds, Steffen just missed a double-double with nine boards and Lippert latched on to seven missed shots.
“I thought Hazel Hochstein had her best game of the year so far. She pressured their guards well then hit a couple of threes on the other end,” said Rolfes. “McKenzie Bruning had a big afternoon inside. She found openings in their zone and our guards did a nice job finding her.”
Hartington-Newcastle shared the ball well with Steffen leading the way with six assists, Lippert handed out five.
As the final score would indicate, the game with the Lady Spartans was very similar.
The Lady Wildcats ran out to a 21-3 lead at the end of the opening frame and kept the foot on the gas until the lead reached 46-16 at the end of three periods.
“We wanted to come out to a fast start and I thought we played our best quarter of the season in that first quarter,” the coach said. “Our press got us some turnovers and easy points right away. We do have to continue to work on not losing focus, I thought we let it lapse some in the second quarter but obviously when you win by 27 points, you are doing some things right.”
Lippert and Steffen were the main threats offensively with 17 and 13 points respectively.
Karissa Bruning grabbed 11 rebounds and Lippert had seven.
Lippert also recorded eight steals, Ella Eickhoff forced five turnovers.
Hartington-Newcastle has a couple of games left before the holiday moratorium with a home date with Niobrara/ Verdigre Dec. 17 and a trip to Walthill to take on the Lady Blujays on Dec. 20.
H-N (3-1) 21 9 19 6 — 55 CRE (2-4) 7 12 4 4 — 27
HNS Vayda Lippert 3-9 1-3 7; Hazel Hochstein 3-7 0-0 8; Karissa Bruning 0-3 0-2 0; Kloe Fischer 1-3 0-2 2; Ella Eickhoff 2-3 1-2 7; McKenzie Bruning 9-16 0-2 18; Maddie Steffen 6-19 0-1 13; Ziva Stratman 0-4 0-0 0. H-N 21 16 9 8 - 54 BC (0-5) 3 10 3 11 - 27 HNS: Lippert 7-18 2-2 17; Hochstein 0-1 0-0 0; Alejandra Reyes 0-5 0-0 0; K. Bruning 2-5 0-2 4; Fischer 0-2 1-2 1; Eickhoff 3-6 1-2 7; M. Bruning 3-6 3-4 9; Steffen 5-10 1-2 13; Ziva Stratman 1-3 0-0 3.
