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HARTINGTON - The Hartington-Newcastle boys basketball team had a rocky start to the new year with a close loss to Randolph, 58-56 on Jan. 3 and a not-so-close loss to Archangels Catholic 65-28 on Jan. 4.
The Defenders came to Hartington to take on the Wildcats and sprinted out to a 24-5 lead and increased the advantage to 35-9 at the halftime break.
“Archangels did everything to speed us up and control the tempo of the game,” said HNS coach Tylor Fincher. “We did have a bright spot in the third quarter where we settled down and started playing up to our potential.”
The Wildcats managed 11 points in the third, but the Defenders scored 18 of their own to put the game away.
Cole Rosener paced the Wildcats with 10 points and was the lone Hartington-Newcastle player in double figures. Brayden Lammers added six.
Lammers added five rebounds and a couple of blocks to his night while Ayden Rosener recorded two steals.
Last-second heroics were not in the cards for Hartington-Newcastle when the Wildcats played Randolph.
The Wildcats had the last shot of the game, but it missed its mark as the Cardinals escaped with the two-point win.
“Free throws have been one area where we have struggled this season and it showed its ugly face in this game. In any close game, if you only shoot 8-for-24 from the line, you will not win many games,” Fincher said. “That being said, we still had a great shot at the end of the game to tie it. We never gave up and gave great effort.”
The Cardinals were aided by canning 11 shots from beyond the 3-point line.
Cole Heimes and Lammers led HNS with 14 points each in the contest, Austin Sudbeck tossed in 10.
Lammers completed a doubledouble after pulling down 11 rebounds, Heimes and Carter Kelley each had five.
The Wildcats were scheduled to take on Bloomfield in Hartington on Jan. 7 and will travel to Tilden on Jan. 10 to take on Elkhron Valley in Greater Northeast Activities Conference action. Tri County Northeast comes to town on Jan. 16.
AC (8-2) 24 11 18 12 - 65 H-N (2-7) 5 4 11 8 - 28 HARTINGTON-NEWCASTLE: Cole Heimes 1-5 0-0 3; Austin Sudbeck 0-3 0-0 0; Cole Rosener 4-10 0-3 10; Ayden Rosener 2-3 0-4 5; Brayden Lammers 3-6 0-1 6; Lincoln Grutsch 0-1 2-2 2; Ashton Wakeley 0-0 2-2 2. RAN (3-4) 12 15 14 17 - 58 H-N) (2-7) 17 11 16 12 - 56 HARTINGTON-NEWCASTLE: C. Heimes 5-13 0-2 14; Sudbeck 3-9 3-4 10; Will Feilmeier 2-6 2-4 6; Carter Kelly 1-2 1-2 3; C. Rosener 0-3 0-0 0; A. Rosener 2-5 0-0 5; Lammers 6-13 2-12 14; Wakeley 2-3 0-0 4.
