Bison boys take big Chance

Saturday, February 17, 2007

GRAND ISLAND -- It was Chance Unger's night at Grand Island Northwest.

Unger, a 5-foot-10 junior, was fouled on a 3-point attempt with 2.7 seconds left and cashed in all three of his free attempts to give the McCook High School varsity boys basketball team a 53-51 victory over the host Vikings.

GINW's John Ring missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer.

McCook's Cory Gaston, who scored 14 points, hit a 3-pointer with 14 seconds left to cut GINW's lead to 51-50.

Unger, who scored 13 points in the junior varsity game, scored a career-high 16 points in the varsity contest.

Josh Cherry added 10 points for the Bison. Brett Burton scored 6, Seth Schaeffer 5 and John Swanhorst 2.

Mitch Jones led the Vikings with 15 points, followed by Ring with 12, Andy Greer 9 and Ryan Kleselhorst 9.

Both teams hit 5-of-6 free throws in the game.

MCCook led 26-22 at halftime, but GINW took a 32-28 lead early in the third quarter. McCook rallied to take a 41-36 lead at the end of the third quarter.

McCook led 47-42, but the Vikings went on a 9-0 run to take a 51-47 lead.

Then Gaston hit his 3-pointer and Unger the game-winning free throws.

McCook improved to 10-13. GINW lost its fourth straight game and fell to 10-9.

The two teams will hook up again Feb. 26 in the first round of the Class B district tournament at Kearney.

The Bison boys will play at Cozad tonight in their final regular-season game of the season. Tip-off is 7:30 p.m.

The McCook varsity girls will play Cozad at 6 p.m.

McCook JV boys 66, GINW 51

The McCook High School junior varsity boys led 38-28 at halftime, led 57-41 after three quarters and pulled away for a 66-51 victory over the GINW JV boys Friday night.

Four Bison scored in double figures, led by Unger's 13 points. Matt Berry scored 11, Zach Wieser 10 and Aaron Ruppert 10.

Mike Grabowski added 7.

The Bison had seven 3-pointers, including three by Unger, and made 13-of-18 free throws. Berry and Grabowski each hit 4-of-5 free throws.

Grant Baird led the Vikings with 12 points.

The Bison JV boys will play at Cozad tonight in their final game of the season. Tip-off is 4:30 p.m.

The JV girls game is also slated for a 4:30 p.m. start.

McCook varsity

1881512--53

GINW

1571415--51

McCook: Cherry 10, Gaston 14, Burton 6, Unger 16, Schaeffer 5, Swanhorst 2.

GINW: Greer 9, Jones 15, Bills 2, Kleselhorst 9, Ring 12, Rundel 4.

McCook JV

1721199--66

GINW

12161211--51

McCook: M.Berry 11, Rippen 3, Wieser 10, Hines 4, Grabowski 7, Hardin 2, Unger 13, Stull 4, Ruppert 10, Sellers 2.

GINW: Wenhoff 6, Baird 12, Peters 5, Hader 6, Johnson 2, Pomazyl 4, Stutzman 7, Randolph 9.

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