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NELIGH - The Hartington-Newcastle Lady Wildcats traveled to Neligh for the opening round game of the Greater Northeast Activities Conference Tournament Feb. 3 and came home with a decisive 47-27 win over the Lady Warriors to advance to the semifinals.
The Lady ‘Cats then traveled to Atkinson on Feb. 6 to take on West Holt for a chance to play in the first-ever GNAC Championship game.
The Lady Huskies out lasted Hartington-Newcastle 41-35 to send the Lady Wildcats home.
HNS led West Holt by a basket at the end of the first quarter, but the Lady Huskies responded with a 15-5 quarter run in the second stanza to send the teams to the halftime break with Hartington-Newcastle trailing by eight, 24-16.
Another five-point quarter put the Lady ‘Cats in an even deeper hole.
HNS came to life in the fourth, but West Holt held on for the six-point win.
Vayda Lippert had another good performance scoring 17 points on the evening with Alejandra Reyes tacking on eight.
Maddie Steffen grabbed a dozen rebounds in the contest. Lippert also contributed five steals defensively.
In the opening round, Hartington-Newcastle sprinted out to a 19-10 lead before the teams played to a 4-4 stalemate in the second frame.
The Lady ‘Cats added a bucket to the lead in the third then held Neligh-Oakdale to just two baskets again in the fourth to coast to the 47-27 victory to advance to the semifinals.
Steffen paced the Lady Wildcats with 17 points, Lippert posted a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds and added seven steals to her complete game.
Reyes swiped six steals in the contest.
Hartington-Newcastle was set to host Wausa on Feb. 11 before closing out the regular season with a game against Wynot, also in Hartington.
Post-season action begins Feb. 17. with the start of the D1-3 SubDistrict. HNS will compete against Bloomfield, Osmond, Wausa and Cedar Catholic. The highest-rated team will host the event. As of Monday, Cedar Catholic was fifth in the state in NSAA Power Points, while Bloomfield was 18th and HNS was 22nd.
HNS (11-9) 11 5 5 14 - 35 West Holt (15-6) 9 15 11 6 - 41 HARTINGTON-NEWCASTLE: Vayda Lippert 7-19 2-3 17; Hazel Hochstein 0-3 0-0 0; Alejandra Reyes 3-5 0-0 8; Karissa Bruning 1-2 0-0 2; Ella Eickhoff 1-1 1-2 3; Maddie Steffen 2-7 1-2 5. HNS (11-9) 19 4 11 13 - 47 N-O (5-15) 10 4 9 4 - 27 HARTINGTON-NEWCASTLE: Lippert 4-22 6-7 14; Hochstein 2-5 0-0 5; Reyes 1-2 0-0 2; Eickhoff 1-5 2-2 4; Steffen 7-12 2-4 17.
