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LINCOLN - A great team defense and an opportunistic offense carried the Cedar Catholic Lady Trojans to a 54-27 win over Southwest at the Bob Devaney Sports Center in the opening round of the D1 Nebraska Girls Basketball Championships Wednesday night. It was the Roughriders second loss of the season.
It was the Cedar Catholic defense that paced the Lady Trojans all night.
"We wanted to keep ball pressure on them the entire length of the floor and we wanted to make all five of their players handle the ball," said Cedar Catholic coach, Craig Wortmann. "We wanted to keep the presure on until they made a mistake, and they did in the first half especially."
Cedar Catholic forced 17 first-half turnovers and limited the high-powered Southwest offense to just 12 points in the opening 16 minutes to take a fairly comfortable, 29-12 lead at the intermission.
"We played our tempo and our game tonight. I told them we needed to come out with a lot of energy to start the game and in the first four minutes of the second half," said Wortmann. "At the beginning, we had a lot of energy, we just weren't making shots. They started to fall and we got rolling."
The Renegades held their first and last lead at 4-3 after Bailey Hochstein opened the game with a long ball for Cedar Catholic in the first 30 seconds.
Southwest scored on an in bounds play and a rebound and put back to go up 4-3 and the score remained that way for over two minutes in the first frame.
Anisten Wortmann dribbled down the left side of the paint and scored to give the Lady Trojans back the lead then Savannah Pick lined up a shot from behind the arc and drilled it with 3:30 left in the first to make it 8-4.
Pick then hit Katelyn Arens breaking to the basket for two and McKinlee Lammers spotted Arens inside for another bucket and Cedar Catholic was on its way.
"I just got the ball and scored, it was what I needed to do," said Arens, who finished with a game-high 17 points. "This is so excited and to do this with my teammates makes it even better, we love each other."
By the end of the first quarter, the Lady Trojans lead was up to 19-7 and increased to the 29-12 halftime advantage.
Cedar Catholic did more of the same in the second half, keeping the renegades at more than an arm's length, increasing the lead again to 20 points after the third and on the to the 27-point win at the final buzzer.
"Our schedule has prepared us for this atmosphere," Wortmann said. "We're used to playing this fast and as long as we can make some shots, we'll be right in the game."
Anisten Wortmann added 11 points, Addison Walter and Pick each added eight.
Arens was just short of a double-double with eight rebounds, Lauren Bernecker corralled seven boards and Walter hauled in six missed shots.
Pick handed out three assists and Bernecker swiped five steals.
The Lady Trojans will take on will take on Elm Creek, Mar. 7 at 10:45 a.m. at the Devaney Center. The Lady Buffaloes defeated Diller-Odell in a first-round match up, 60-44.
CC 19 10 9 16 - 54
SW 7 5 6 9 - 27
CEDAR CATHOLIC (16-11): Bailey Hochstein 1-5 0-2 3; Katelyn Arens 8-14 1-2 17; Lauren Bernecker 1-7 1-2 3; Anisten Wortmann 4-9 2-2 11; Addison Walter 3-12 2-4 8; McKinlee Lammers 1-4 0-0 2; Savannah Pick 3-5 0-0 8; Brynn Bernecker 1-3 0-0 2; Autumn Kathol 0-1 0-0 0; Kendra Schmit 0-1 0-1 0. TOTALS 22-61 6-12 54
SOUTHWEST (23-2): Anastasia Gallegos 2-6 0-0 4; Allison Vanpelt 2-9 0-0 4; Aspen Billeter 2-14 3-4 7; Kyra Nelms 2-10 1-2 6; Atleigh Nelms 3-5 0-0 6; Caitlyn Adams 0-1 0-0 0; Payton Truska 0-7 0-0 0; Ella Cure 0-1 0-0 0; Teagan Stitt 0-1 0-0 0. TOTALS 11-54 4-6 27.
