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First round completed in Cattle Trail basketball tourney
Several games went down to the wire in the first round of the 2011 Cattle Trail Invitational basketball tournament Tuesday, Dec. 6, in McCook.
A total of eight boys and eight girls teams from the Gazette area battled in opening-round games at the McCook Senior High School gym and the McCook Junior High gym.
In the girls division, Hayes Center outlasted Decatur Community of Oberlin, Kan., 46-40, and Arapahoe nipped Dundy County-Stratton, 55-53. The Hitchcock County girls ran past Maywood, 67-33, and Southwest thumped Medicine Valley, 68-6.
In the boys division, Hayes Center pulled away in the second half for a 61-50 win over Decatur Community, and Medicine Valley held off Hitchcock County, 54-41. Arapahoe also ran past Maywood, 67-25, and Dundy County-Stratton advanced with an easy 50-19 victory over Southwest.
The tournament resumes Friday, Dec. 9, with consolation bracket semifinal and championship bracket semifinal action in both boys and girls divisions at both sites in McCook. Semifinal winners and losers will play Saturday, Dec. 10, for seventh place through first place in both divisions.
Here is a summary of Tuesday's opening-round Cattle Trail Invitational results:
BOYS DIVISION
Hayes Center 46, Decatur Community 40
Hayes Center rallied in the second quarter, then pulled away from the Decatur Community boys in the second half.
Oberlin led 13-8 after one quarter with a patient ball-control offense. Hayes Center caught fire in the second quarter, outscoring the Red Devils 23-14 to grab a 31-27 halftime edge. Michael Bishop had 10 points in the second period for Hayes Center.
The Cardinals stretched the lead to 42-33 after three quarters, and a big fourth quarter from Adam Lawson helped Hayes Center keep the Devils at bay.
Lawson, a 6-3 senior, scored 10 of his game-high 25 points in the final period. Bishop and Tyler Rehbein each had 16 points for the Cardinals.
Hayes Center head coach Louis Cuellar said his team hurt themselves in the first half with cool shooting and mistakes.
"We have to establish our strength, which is our inside game. I thought the second half we did a lot better job in that. We're still throwing the ball out of the gym, and I think that hurt in the first half, and it still hurt in the second half.
"Decatur Community, they did a tremendous job on half-court trap (defense).That's something that I'm going to have to look at the film and see why we had so much trouble with that. We were able to break it, and we were able to get some easy buckets.
"I thought we played all right, so I'm happy."
Decatur Community was led by Dalton Jones with 23 points, including four shots from 3-point range.
Med Valley 54, Hitchcock County 41
Medicine Valley's big second quarter was key for the Raiders win over Hitchcock County.
Med Valley outscored the Falcons 21-10 in the second period to help build a 37-23 cushion. The Raiders stretched the lead to 47-29 after three quarters, then never led the Falcons cut the lead to single digits in the final period.
Riley Garey scored 21 points and Lucas Gleisberg added 18 to pace Medicine Valley. Garey had 18 points in the first half, with four field goals beyond the 3-point line. Gleisberg also scored 11 points in the opening half.
Cale Brown pace Hitchcock County with 13 points.
Medicine Valley head coach Steve Gleisberg said his team's defensive effort was key to the victory.
The Raiders had a strong football season, getting to the third round of the Class D-2 (eight-man) playoffs. Coach Gleisberg was asked if the long football campaign is having an effect on his squad early in the basketball season.
"Actually I think it maybe kind of hindered us a little bit physically, because some of the kids have been beat up and banged up," he said. "Mentally it's great thing for that to happen."
Gleisberg said Med Valley hasn't reached the boys Cattle Trail championship finals since he has been at the school seven years ago.
"Arapahoe will pressure you from the tip-off to the final buzzer, so it's nice to have a game like this heading into that match-up Friday," Gleisberg said. "We've got a ton of things to work on."
Arapahoe 67, Maywood 25
Arapahoe's big second quarter boosted the Warriors to the big win over Maywood.
The Warriors outscored Maywood 22-1 to claim a 41-8 halftime lead.
Arapahoe also had balanced scoring, led by Wyatt Anderson with 16 points, plus Justin Stagemeyer and Gage Schutz with 10 points each.
Levi White tallied 12 points to lead Maywood.
Arapahoe head coach Bob Braithwait expects a tough battle with Medicine Valley Friday in the semifinals. Braithwait said he has seen the Raiders during summer league play.
The veteran Warriors head coach likes the tough competition in the early-season tournament.
"We learn a lot about ourselves and what we have to work on," Braithwait. It gives us an opportunity to see where we're at. Right now I'm OK with where we're at. We've got to get better, definitely. We have some depth and we have some size, and we can shoot the ball. If you've got those things you have a chance to be successful."
Arapahoe lost to Hayes Center in the Cattle Trail finals last December. Braithwait said his team won't look ahead.
"The joy of what I do, and what's kind of gone from year to year, traditionally, is our kids take a great deal of pride in getting better every game," he said. "That's been handed down from class to class. Our kids want to win the tournament, sure, but they're worried about Friday. They want to play well Friday night. Then they want to play well Saturday. That's a coach's dream, I guess.
"We play them one at a time, that's all we do and that's all we've ever done."
DCS 50, Southwest 19
Dundy County-Stratton never let Southwest get untracked in a big first-round win over the Roughriders.
DCS led 15-3 after one period and 31-6 at halftime.
The Tigers had a balanced attack, with 11 players getting in the scoring column. Scott Rotherham was the only DCS player in double figures with 10 points. Joe Rettele added eight points, as eight DCS players scored at least three points each.
Southwest was led by Dylan McConville with 11 points.
Friday's boys games
In the boys championship bracket semifinals Friday, Dec. 9 at the McCook Senior High gym, Hayes Center and Dundy County-Stratton meet at 5 p.m., followed by Arapahoe and Medicine Valley at 8 p.m.
The boys consolation semifinals Friday at the McCook Junior High gym will feature Decatur Community and Southwest at 5 p.m., plus Maywood and Hitchcock County at 8 p.m.
GIRLS DIVISION
Arapahoe 55, DCS 53
Arapahoe held off a Dundy County-Stratton rally in the most exciting girls contest of the first round.
Kaylea Watson scored seven of her game-high 16 points in the second quarter to help stake Arapahoe to a 31-22 halftime advantage. DCS cut the gap to 43-37 after three quarters. Morgan Jones hit three field goals in the final quarter for DCS, but Arapahoe held off the late charge to advance.
Jones led DCS with 15 points and Harley Powell added 14 points -- 12 in the second half. Rochelle Wendland also hit double figures for Arapahoe with 10 points.
Hayes Center 46, Oberlin 40
Hayes Center capitalized on a slow start by the Decatur Community girls. Both teams struggled in the opening quarter, as neither team scored until Kerbie Large of Hayes Center hit a shot from the left with with a minute left in the period.
The Cardinals led 4-0 after one period, then stretched the gap to 18-7 at intermission.
Darbi Rouse and Miki Dorshorst came alive for the Oberlin, Kan. squad in the third quarter. Rouse scored nine points and Dorshorst added eight as Decatur Community tallied 19 points in the period. Unfortunately for the Red Devils, Haley Tyan and Halsie Large also found their shooting eye on the other end of the court. Tyan and Large each had nine points in the third quarter, as both squads scored 19 points as Hayes Center led 37-26.
Decatur Community outscored the Cards 14-9 in the first quarter, but Hayes Center held on for the win.
Dorshorst had seven of her team-high 19 points for Oberlin in the final eight minutes. Rouse added nine points for the Devils.
Haley Tyan also had 19 points to pace Hayes Center, and Halsie Large added 12 points.
Southwest 68, Med Valley 6
Southwest claimed an easy win over Medicine Valley. The Roughriders helped hold Med Valley scoreless in the first half as Southwest tallied 20 points in each of the first two quarters.
Abby Daffer of Southwest had 25 points, including 15 in the opening half. Kate Kelley chipped in 12 points for the winners. The Roughriders did not hit a 3-point shot through the entire game.
Hitchcock Co. 67, Maywood 33
Hitchcock County's girls also rolled to a big win over Maywood, thanks to a strong first half and a huge game from Laramey Lewis.
The Falcons led 21-7 after one period, then stretched the gap to 39-20 at intermission.
Lewis, a 5-8 senior who will play basketball for the University of Nebraska-Kearney next season, scored 34 points. Lewis had 21 points in the opening half.
Alexis Bantz and Allyson Cole added six points each for the winners.
Maywood was led by Abby Werkmeister with 12 points and Amber Hickert with 11.
Friday's girls games
In the Friday, Dec. 9 championship bracket semifinals at the McCook Senior High gym, the Hayes Center girls and Southwest will square off at 3:30 p.m., with Hitchcock County and Arapahoe meeting at 6:30 p.m.
In the girls consolation bracket semifinals Friday at the McCook Junior high gym, Decatur Community and Medicine Valley meet at 3:30 p.m., with Maywood facing Dundy County-Stratton at 6:30 p.m.