Single games for Bison basketball weekend

Thursday, January 13, 2011
Steve Kodad/McCook Daily Gazette Rachel Goltl (24, right) of McCook applies defensive pressure against Maegan Hiatt of Hershey late in the Friday, Jan. 8 Bison girls victory over the Panthers at the Senior High gym.

Bison basketball faithful might label the upcoming weekend as an easy one for the McCook High School teams, but it will be anything but that.

Easy in one sense, as both the McCook boys and girls have just one game each on the schedule, with a trip to Hastings Friday, Jan. 14. Action opens at 4 p.m. with junior varsity boys and girls games in the Hastings High School main gym and auxiliary gym. The McCook-Hastings girls varsity contest will follow the girls JV game at approximately 6 p.m. at the main gym, followed by the boys varsity contest at approximately 7:45 p.m.

Bison girls head coach Jeff Ellis talks about "winnable" games for his team, and on paper, Hastings is an opponent the Bison girls should beat. McCook brings a 5-9 overall record into Friday's contest, while Hastings is 2-9 with wins over York (a 37-29 decision at home Dec. 18) and Kearney (34-31 in the seventh-place final at the Greater Nebraska Athletic Conference Tournament in Kearney Dec. 30. The Tigers have scored 35 points or more in just three games this season.

Steve Kodad/McCook Daily Gazette McCook's Sean Backer (22) tries to draw a charging foul on Hershey's Parker Young (44) as Bison teammate Matt Chitwood (back) looks on in basketball action Jan. 8 at the Senior High gym. The McCook boys claimed a 56-52 win.

Ellis had an opportunity to scout Hastings twice at the GNAC Tournament, and he's watched the Tigers on film.

"We're really going to feel like we're prepared, knowing their offensive and defensive sets and knowing their personnel," Ellis said. "So all it's going to come down to is just how well do we take care of the things that we need to take care of down there Friday night to be successful?"

The Bison coach said his team will take a business trip to Hastings Friday.

"We've got to go down there and take care of business," he said.

Focus on single game

Ellis likes the single game for his Bison this weekend with the Orange and Black Tournament in Colby, Kansas, on tap the following weekend.

"This one will be a huge game this week -- the girls can put all their energy and focus into this game," Ellis said. "Depending on how successful we are against Hastings, we can have some momentum going into the Colby Tournament (three games in three days starting Thursday, Jan. 20). A big win on the road against Hastings will just springboard us into that tournament -- that would hopefully allow us to have even more success in the tournament."

The Bison girls are 2-3 in the last five games, but the losses have been close -- 36-33 to North Platte in the GNAC fifth-place final Dec. 30, 44-37 to Phillipsburg, Kansas Jan. 4 at home, and 42-33 at Sidney last Saturday.

Turnovers have been a problem for McCook. The Bison girls committed nearly 40 turnovers against Sidney, but the McCook defense helped Sidney commit 30 miscues.

"That's a testament to our defense playing very well," Ellis said. "We've just got to take better care of the basketball and lower those turnovers.

"One phase of the game, if we could take better care of the basketball we'd probably have more wins than we do right now. Our focus is just try to get better taking care of the basketball, and then give ourselves more opportunities to play the style of basketball that we're comfortable with."

Familiar foe for Bison boys

The Bison boys will face a familiar foe Friday. McCook edged Hastings, 57-53, in the consolation semifinals of the Greater Nebraska Athletic Conference Tournament at Kearney Dec. 29.

In that game, McCook held a 15-point halftime lead and still led 44-31 after three quarters before Hastings rallied in the final eight minutes.

Bison head coach Tim Garcia said a key for his team Friday will be to play all-out for all four quarters and not have a letdown like the bison did in the fourth period against the Tigers last month.

Although Hastings brings a 2-7 record into Friday's game, Garcia knows the Tigers will be a tough test.

"Coach (Scott) Rosno has them playing really good basketball," Garcia said.

The Tigers dropped a 56-50 decision at 8-1 Beatrice Dec. 21. Hastings lost a tough 40-38 decision to Lexington for seventh place in the GNAC Tournament. But the Tigers avenged that loss with a 46-38 win at home over the Minutemen last Saturday.

"Hastings is a much improved team," Garcia said, noting the Tigers have no seniors on the roster. "They're young and they're finding their way. What's happening now in the second half of the season, they are starting to develop leadership, they are starting to develop confidence, they're starting to understand they are pretty darn good basketball players and they have a very good coach. The team that we see Friday night is going to be much better than the team we saw in the second round of GNAC.

"We have to go back and make sure that we correct the mistakes that we made during that game, and make sure that we come out more with a defensive mindset."

Defensive focus

Garcia noted that Hastings has scored 50 or more points in just two games this season -- the loss to Beatrice and against the Bison.

"Our practice this week really had a defensive mindset to it, a rebounding mindset, a physical aggressiveness to it," he said. "We've been scoring plenty of points to win basketball games. Now I'm excited to see the kids come out and play a defensive-minded basketball game against Hastings."

McCook, 8-4, is coming off a 64-56 loss at Sidney Saturday, Jan. 8.

"That's a game that I feel Sidney came out and they played very well," Garcia said. "But when you go back and look at that game and see the things that took place during that game, that loss was more on us doing things poorly on defense than it was on them doing things great on offense. All their 3-point shots were wide open, uncontested shots. Their post entry (passes), we made it way too easy for them to get the ball in the paint. Then once a team gets the ball in the paint against us, it's going to be tough for us to defend that because our lack of size, and Sidney had a couple of big kids."

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