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Fast Ogallala will add color to Bison hoops tonight
McCOOK, Neb. — There won’t be anything bland or dull about what Ogallala brings to “Color Day” basketball action at McCook High tonight.
Both Indian teams have only lost two games all season as they enter this varsity doubleheader with a 5:30 p.m. scheduled tip time.
The boys will likely begin around 7 p.m.
Both Indian teams unleash full-court, mad-scrambling relentless pressure leading to 23 double-digit wins this season.
Yet both have also conquered some close contests, and the McCook Bison would love nothing more than send Ogallala home 0-2.
“The good thing about pressing teams is if you break the press correctly, that sometimes leads to lay-ups or easier points. We are going to look to score off their press,” Bison girls coach Amy Scheil explained.
The Bison girls (7-10 record) haven’t played for eight nights since beating Valentine, 42-34, in their SWC fifth-place game.
A break has helped top-scoring junior point guard Liviya Wier fully recover from her ankle injury suffered against Lexington on Jan. 21.
“Livi is back,” Scheil confirmed. “The girls have been working hard in practice and we can see a ton of improvement. Now we just need that to carry over to the next level and show up in the games.”
Ogallala (16-2) will be trying to rebound from a SWC finals loss to Broken Bow Saturday night. The Indians have escaped by one point over both Hershey, 50-49, and Kearney Catholic, 51-50, along with a 54-51 win over Ainsworth.
They are 9-0 in “true” road games this season.
Meanwhile, the Ogallala boys (15-2 record) are 10-0 since a Dec. 30 Kearney Catholic Holiday Tournament defeat.
Their average victory margin tops 32 points during this streak, so McCook actually played one of the closer Indian games in Saturday’s SWC tournament title game.
The Bison would love some payback for that 82-56 defeat at North Platte’s Mid-Plains Community College.
“Nothing different playing Ogallala a second time as far as scheme,” coach Joe Imus said. “We just need to execute our gameplan better.”
McCook (9-8 record) will be missing three players due to injury or illness tonight: senior Bryan Leslie, sophomores Josh Hegwood and Brendan Gillen.
McCook’s girls continue without forward Emma Kehler, who’s recovering from a recent injury.
Both Bison teams immediately hit the road to a Saturday doubleheader at Ainsworth.
Varsity tip times are scheduled at 3:30 and 5 p.m.
Ainsworth’s girls are 8-8 while the boys own a 6-10 season record.
“We are going to have keep both teams off the boards and allow them one shot,” Scheil concluded.
“Ainsworth is a scrappy team that plays up and down,” Imus observed. “They have one player (senior 6’4” Grant Stec, 19.1 points per game) who is scoring a lot of points. It’ll be important for us to know where he’s at.”