Menu
Win or go home for Bison in districts
It's the time of year when high school basketball teams, their coaches and fans go into sudden death mode.
District tournament time means one loss and the season is over for most of the state's prep teams -- except for the few teams in contention for state tournament wild-card bids.
The McCook boys don't have that wild-card luxury. The Bison take a 14-10 record into the Class B-5 District Tournament semifinals Monday, March 1, at the Kearney High School gym. McCook, the second seed in the district, faces Lexington Monday at 7:45 p.m. The winner advances to Tuesday night's district championship game to play for a berth in the Class B boys state tournament in Lincoln March 11-13. The McCook-Lex loser Monday night stows away the basketball gear until next winter.
Lexington, seeded third with an 11-11 record, eliminated Hastings with a 52-46 decision in first-round action last Saturday night.
Adams Central, 18-3, is the top seed in the B-5 District. The Patriots face fourth-seed Holdrege, 5-14, Monday at 7 p.m. in the other semifinal contest. Holdrege ended Grand Island Northwest's season last Saturday with a 44-32 win in the other first-round contest.
Win or go home
The Bison can't afford to look past Lexington to a possible match-up with the top-seeded Patriots, for several reasons. Head coach Tim Garcia and his squad knows that there is no tomorrow come district time -- it's win or go home. Plus, McCook dropped a 42-36 decision at Lexington in mid-January.
Garcia watched the Minutemen battle with Hastings last Saturday, and he had praise for both teams.
"Lexington did a nice job; it was a close game all the way," he said. "Hastings played a good game -- they worked well. It ended up being a six-point game. It seemed like Lex was up 15, 20 points, and you'd look at the scoreboard and it was a six-point game. So you have to give Hastings credit, they played a good game. Lex did what they had to do to pull it out.
"Lexington is going to be scrappy, they have some confidence going into this district game. I'm sure we're going to get their best shot. It's going to be physical, scrappy. I think we're prepared. I have to believe our kids are prepared to go to Kearney and win a tough basketball game."
Records don't count
Coach Garcia said throw season records out the window in district tournament play.
"Right now everyone's record is 0-0," he said. "You win, you move on, you lose you go home, that's just the way it is. It doesn't matter where you're seeded, it doesn't matter what your regular season record is. You look at Class A, there were some big upsets Saturday night in Class A. Teams that were favored to win, they just didn't get the job done and their season's over with. It's no different for us right now. We've got to go take care of business.
"The early season loss (to Lexington), I think that will give us a little bit of fire, a little bit of motivation, to get out on the floor and really take it to them. We had kind of a slow monotonous game against them the last time. We don't plan on doing that again this time. We need to get out and run-and-run, work our shots in transition, and when the transition shots aren't there, get into our half-court offense and really attack and play an aggressive style of offense."
Both teams match up evenly. Lexington has a pair of big men in 6-6 seniors Hawken Albus and RJ Seberger to battle with the Bison big men, 6-6 senior Dustin Parde and 6-4 senior Mark Nichols. Lexington has a strong point guard in senior Andrew Rios, as does the Bison in junior Connor Larson.
Bison stat leaders almost dead even
The McCook trio is pretty even atop the season statistics. Nichols leads Bison scorers with 265 total points this season, an average of just over 11 points per game. Larson is just one point back with 264 total points, with Parde close behind with 261 total points. Nichols led McCook rebounders with 176 total boards, an average of 7.3 per game, and Parde has 162 rebounds, an average of just under 7 per outing. Parde has 40 blocked shots, with Nichols close behind with 37. Larson leads the squad with 109 assists.
Bison relatively healthy
The Bison are relatively healthy. Seniors Tye Smith and AJ Huffman battled injuries several weeks ago, but both players are back on track and are expected to be at full strength tonight.
"We've had the same illnesses every other team has had, with kids missing a few practices here and there, sporadically," Garcia said. "But it looks like we're feeling good, doing well and the kids are ready to go. I'm just excited. This is the time of year we typically come together -- we peak -- that's what basketball season's about, peaks and valleys.
"I think these kids are very well prepared, I think they have they have their mind-set where it needs to be in their mental toughness; their physical toughness is where it needs to be and we're going there obviously to win a basketball game and to put ourselves in a position to win the district championship."
The B-5 District final is set for Tuesday, March 2, at 7 p.m. at Kearney High School.