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HARTINGTON - The Hartington-Newcastle Lady Wildcats dropped a couple of games last week to a couple of talented teams.
The Lady Wildcats traveled to Tilden for a GNAC matchup with Elkhorn Valley, Jan. 10 and fell, 61-22 after dropping a tight game to Bloomfield, 42-36 here in Hartington on Jan. 7.
Elkhorn Valley showed why they are unbeaten and highly regarded as Hartington-Newcastle couldn’t get anything going in the entire game.
“Credit goes to Elkhorn Valley, their roster is about as complete a team as I’ve seen in awhile,” said HNS coach Grant Rolfes. “They can guard, rebound and have so many players that can score and beat you on any certain night.”
The Lady ‘Cats found themselves in a 17-0 hole after the first eight minutes and it went deeper, 37-6 at the intermission.
“I thought we defended well when we gave ourselves a chance,” the coach said. “But too many early turnovers put us in a huge hole.”
The Lady Falcons coasted in the second half to post the win.
McKenzie Bruning paced the Lady Wildcats with eight points, Vayda Lippert added four while Maddie Steffen and Ella Eickhoff each chipped in three.
Lippert pulled down five rebounds on the evening, Alejandra Reyes swiped four steals.
Hartington-Newcastle took a lead into the halftime locker room against Bloomfield.
After trailing at the end of the first frame, the Lady ‘Cats got defensive and held the Bees to a single point in the second period.
Meanwhile, the HNS offense put nine points to go to the break with a 19-15 advantage.
Bloomfield nibbled a point off the lead in the third quarter then closed the game 16-7 in the final period to claim the win.
“We started a little slow but overall played well enough to win but also just had a few really key spots where we failed to get stops or rebounds,” said Rolfes. “The Mlady freshman is a very good player and we couldn’t keep her as contained as we wanted to. Bloomfield made the plays when they needed them.”
Madyson Mlady finished with a game-high 23 points.
Steffen led HNS offensively with 17 points including a 5-for-10 performance from inside the arc and a 4-of-6 showing from the charity stripe.
McKenzie Bruning just missed a double-double with eight points after pulling down 11 rebounds. Hazel Hochstein added seven points.
The Lady Wildcats were set to take on Tri County Northeast Jan. 13 in a game played here in Hartington.
Neligh-Oakdale is on the schedule on Jan. 20 in Neligh followed by a trip to Laurel on Jan. 21 to take on Laurel-Concord-Coleridge.
HNS (7-5) 0 6 8 8 — 22 EV (12-0) 17 20 13 11 — 61
HNS: Vayda Lippert 2-7 0-0 4; Hazel Hochstein 1-5 0-0 2; Alejandra Reyes 0-2 0-4 0; Karissa Bruning 0-2 2-2 2; Ella Eickhoff 1-4 0-0 3; McKenzie Bruning 4-11 0-0 8; Maddie Steffen 1-5 1-2 3; Ziva Stratman 0-2 0-0 0. BHS (6-4) 14 1 11 16 - 42 HNS (7-5) 10 9 10 7 - 36 HARTINGTON-NEWCASTLE: Lippert 1-8 1-2 4; Hochstein 3-7 0-0 7; Reyes 0-1 0-1 0; Eickhoff 0-8 0-0 0; M. Bruning 3-9 2-2 8; Steffen 6-17 4-6 17.
