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Cedar Catholic Trojans jump ahead early, cruise to District title
HARTINGTON — The Cedar Catholic Lady Trojans turned away the Nebraska Christian Eagles 62-45 Friday at the Msgr. Werner Activities Center to advance to the D1 State Tournament.
Cedar used an explosive first half to take control. Addison Walter opend the scoring with a trey, and Cedar then quickly raced out to a 6-0 lead, forcing the Eagles to call an early timeout to try and regroup. A minute later Caoch Erin Mankin’s team hit their first jumper to get on the board.
The Eagles try to pull within two, but Anisten Wortmann grabbed the missed shot and raced coast to coast for a layup to make it 8-2. Cedar continued to hit on all cyclenders as they continued to rack up the first-half points.
“We’ve been working on some things all season and I believe they are second nature now,” said Cedar Catholic coach, Craig Wortmann. “I think the girls are starting to listen to what we are saying. We played very well here tonight, especially in the first half.”
In the first half, Bailey Hochstein made things difficult for the Lady Eagles canning three 3-pointers in the first half.
“The shots I made were easy, I just waited for someone to get me the ball and took it from there,” said Hochstein. “I would have felt awful if I would have missed those shots, I was wide open.”
Hochstein and company made short work of Nebraska Christian, scoring 43 points in the opening 16 minutes, almost the Lady Trojans’ total average for an entire game this season.
“We really dominated the first half and then kind of settled in to the rest of the game,” said Wortmann. “I really think we are playing our best basketball right now, which is exactly what you want.”
The Trojans were up 14-11 toward the end of the first frame, then hit back-to-back threes, an improbable one from Katelyn Arens to end the first and another from Hochstein to open the second and take a 20-11 lead early in the second quarter.
After an Eagles bucket, Addison Walter splashed a long ball to make it 23 -13 forcing Nebraska Christian to call another timeout.
But after another basket by the Eagles, Arens grabbed an offensive rebound and put it back in the basket, then Anisten Wortmann stole the ball and laid it in to give Cedar Catholic a 27-15 lead.
After a Nebraska Christian miss from the foul line, with 5:11 left in the opening half, Arens spotted Lauren Bernecker cutting to the basket for a score to make it 2917 then Hochstein canned another trifecta from the top of the key to make it 32-19.
Brynn Bernecker hauled in an offensive rebound and scored to make it 34-19 before Walter converted a pair of charity tosses to make it 36-19.
The Eagles hit 2-of-4 from the free throw line before Brynn Bernecker hit a 12-foot jumper from the baseline to make it 38-20.
Lauren Bernecker saw Savannah Pick open and hit her for a three before Hochstein hit McKinlee Lammers for a layup to send the teams to the halftime huddle with the Trojans in front, 43-21.
Cedar led 57-31 after three then coasted to the 65-42 final score.
“We just wanted to get through this game with a win and no injuries,” said Annisten Wortmann. “Our team is like a family and we care about each other. Now we can go to state and see what we can get done down there, it should be a lot of fun.”
Wortmann finished the night with a team-leading 16 points, Walter added a dozen, Hoschstein and Arens added nine points apiece and Lauren Bernecker tossed in eight.
Walter paced the Lady Trojans on the boards with eight rebounds, Brynn Bernecker and Arens pulled down six missed shots each.
Cedar Catholic was set to take on Southwest in the opening round of the Nebraska D1 State Girls Basketball Tournament, March 5.
Neb. Christian 11 10 10 11 - 42 Cedar Catholic 17 26 14 8 - 65 NEBRASKA CHRISTIAN (19-7): Tatum Perdew 1 1-4 4; Gracie Hackel 8 2-10 19; Piper Norris 0 0-2 0; Emma Rathjen 2 1-2 3; Sheridan Falk 6 2-4 14; Cara Sidak 1 0-3 2.
CEDAR CATHOLIC (15-11): Bailey Hochstein 3 0-0 9; McKinlee Lammers 3 0-0 6; Savannah Pick 1 0-0 3; Katelyn Arens 4 0-0 9; Lauren Bernecker 4 0-0 8; Aisten Wortmann 5 5-8 16; Brynn Bernecker 1 0-0 2; Addison Walter 4 2-2 12.
