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HARTINGTON - Hartington-Newcastle dropped a pair of games in its Holiday Basketball Tournament here Dec. 27-30.
The three-team, round-robin tourney was set to continue Dec. 30 with West Holt and Lutheran High Northeast playing each other after they both defeated the Wildcats Dec. 27 and 28.
The Eagles defeated HNS 4628 on Dec. 28 while the Huskies won 46-37 on Dec. 27.
Lutheran High came to town with a 5-3 record and left town 6-3 with the 18-point win.
“I feel the only difference in the game was our missed layups, We were 4-of-17 from within five feet of the hoop,” Hartington-Newcastle coach, Tylor Fincher said. “We need practice time to improve on fundamentals and we will continue to get better on offense. Not to take anything away from Lutheran High. They have a good team and they made it difficult for us on offense.”
The Wildcats did lead early in the game, posting an 11-8 advantage after the first eight minutes, but Hartington-Newcastle scored just four points in the second frame and the Eagles took a 21-15 lead into the locker room.
Things went from bad to worse for HNS as it scored three points in the third and Lutheran High added 14 points to the lead.
The Wildcats trimmed the deficit by a bucket in the final quarter, but the damage was already done.
Austin Sudbeck led a balanced HNS offense with eight points, Brayden Lammers added seven, Cole Heimes had six and Keatyn Arens put in five.
Lammers pulled down 10 rebounds, Ashton Wakeley grabbed six missed shots.
Austin Sudbeck had three steals.
West Holt remained undefeated on the young season with the nine-point win over the Wildcats.
“West Holt was a quality opponent and there is a reason they are still undefeated,” Fincher said. “I thought it was a real physical game and we lost the battle on the boards. We also committed 22 turnovers which led to a few easy baskets for them.”
It was another offensive lull for Hartington-Newcastle which made it very difficult to grab the victory.
The score was 30-23 heading into the second half, but the Wildcats managed just a single point in the third frame to head to the final eight minutes behind, but still a manageable deficit as their defense held the Huskies to just six points.
“I thought holding them to 46 points would get us the win but without a single basket in the third quarter, we dug ourselves too deep in a hole.”
The Wildcats knocked three points off of the West Holt lead, but it was too little, too late.
Lammers was the lone Wildcat in double figures with 11 points in the contest. Carter Kelly tossed in nine, Ayden Rosener had seven and Heimes scored six.
Lammers grabbed nine rebounds to just miss a double-double and also blocked four shots, Kelly pulled down six boards and Heimes and Sudbeck had five apiece.
Hartington-Newcastle will hope some more home cooking will be the recipe for a win as the Wildcats host their next three opponents.
Randolph comes to town Jan. 3 with the Archangels Catholic defenders arriving the next night. Bloomfield will be in Hartington Jan. 7.
“I am so proud of our effort and our depth,” the coach said. “I’m sure we will continue to get better.”
LHNE (6-3) 8 13 17 8 - 46 HNS (2-5) 11 4 3 10 - 28
HNS Cole Heimes 2-8 0-0 6; Austin Sudbeck 3-8 1-2 8; Will Feilmeier 0-4 0-0 0; Carter Kelly 0-3 0-0 0; Keatyn Arens 2-4 0-0 5; Ayden Rosener 0-3 0-0 0; Brayden Lammers 3-9 1-3 7; Mason Krause 0-3 0-2 0; Maximus McCray 0-1 0-0 0; Colten Cavanaugh 1-1 0-0 2; Ashton Wakeley 0-2 0-2 0. WH (6-0) 14 16 6 10 - 46 HNS (2-5) 8 15 1 13 - 37
HNS: Heimes 2-8 0-2 6; Sudbeck 2-9 0-2 4; Feilmeier 0-2 0-0 0; Kelly 3-8 3-4 9; Rosener 3-9 0-0 7; Lammers 5-10 1-2 11; Krause 0-2 0-0 0; Wakeley 0-1 0-0 0.
