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WAYNE - After opening the season with four straight wins, the Laurel-Concord-Coleridge Bear boys basketball team has lost four in a row including the first two rounds of the Elkhorn Valley Bank Great Northeast Nebraska Shootout here at Rice Auditorium Dec. 27 and 28 to wind up in the seventh-place game on Dec. 30 against South Sioux City (3-5).
The Bears lost in the semifinals of the consolation bracket to Winnebago, 69-63 after dropping the opening game to Plattsmouth 79-50.
In the loss to the Indians in the consolation semifinals, the Bears jumped out to an early lead, finishing the opening eight minutes with a 20-11 advantage behind Gibson Robert’s 10 points. Roberts would finish with with a gamehigh 35 in the contest.
Winnebago chipped away to get the lead back to three at the halftime buzzer, 34-31. Unfortunately the Bears went cold in the third frame scoring only a bucket to end the period trailing 51-36.
Roberts and company came storming back in the final quarter, outscoring Winnebago 27-18, but fell short in the game by the 69-63 final score.
Caleb Erwin added nine points, Connor Korth tossed in six and Carter Korth contributed five.
Laurel-Concord-Coleridge trailed Plattsmouth in the opener by only three at the end of the first quarter, 16-13 and 32-25 at the intermission. Another bad third frame spelled doom as the teams went to the final quarter with the Bears behind 59-39 and Plattsmouth went on to post the 29-point win.
Roberts again paced LCC with 20 points, Cade Johnson poured in 11.
Plattsmouth’s Nate Frederick led all scorers with 23 points.
The Blue Devils lost to Wayne, 67-38 in the championship semifinals to end up in the third-place game.
The Bears will be in action after the tournament when they will host Elkhorn Valley on Jan. 7 in a Greater Northeast Activities Conference contest.
LCC (4-4) 20 14 2 27 - 63 WIN ((4-5) 11 20 20 18 - 69
LCC Gibson Roberts 35; Caleb Erwin 9; Connor Korth 6; Carter Korth 5; Eli Haisch 4; Cade Johnson 4.
WINNEBAGO: Rahkim Free-Bass 15; Darrius LaPointe 12; Rachman Free-Bass 12; Kellen Medina 10; Lavelle Smith 8; Adrian LaPointe 7; Cassius Snowball 3; Faron Kearnes 2. PHS (2-5) 16 16 27 20 - 79 LCC (4-4) 13 12 14 11 - 50
PLATTSMOUTH: Nate Fredrick 23; Derek Nanke 18; Rylee Johnson 13; Traceson Skalberg 8; Logan Ksiazek 8; Hunter Mazzulla 3; Alex Zielke 3; Levi Walker 3.
LCC : Roberts 20; Johnson 11; Co. Korth 5; Erwin 4; Tanner Thompson 3; Haisch 3; Paxton Hoeppner 2; Drey Puppe 2.
