Bison basketball teams end 2009 on losing notes

Monday, January 4, 2010
Steve Kodad/McCook Daily Gazette Dustin Parde of McCook hauls in a rebound in front of Josh Beck (20) of Columbus in boys GNAC Tournament fifth-place final Thursday at North Platte. Parde scored a game-high 17 points, but the Bison dropped a 50-40 decision to the Discoverers.

NORTH PLATTE -- Would McCook High School boys basketball head coach Tim Garcia play Olivia Newton-John in the locker room before Bison games?

'Let's Get Physical' might become the theme song for the McCook boys after the Thursday, Dec. 31 50-40 loss to Columbus in the fifth-place final in the Greater Nebraska Athletic Conference Tournament at North Platte.

The Discovered battered and bruised the Bison en route to the 10-point win. The McCook girls also came out on the short end of the score Thursday in a 43-32 loss to Hastings in the GNAC girls seventh-place final.

Steve Kodad/McCook Daily Gazette McCook's Brooklynn Trew (31, right) pressures an unidentified Hastings player in GNAC Tournament play at North Platte Thursday, Dec. 31.

"They were allowed to be extremely physical, I would say more physical than I believe a basketball game should be," Coach Garcia said. "But we can't make excuses, we have to learn to make adjustments. That's what I told the kids in the locker room -- we have to be able to adjust our game to how it's being played on that given night and how it's being called on that given night, and we didn't do that. We allowed them to take us out of our game."

When the Bison executed the game plan, Garcia said his team played well Thursday.

"But when (Columbus) got us out of our game plan, it looked like we were playing noon ball at the YMCA," he said. "We can't afford to do that. We are a structure team. I like to believe we are a disciplined and a fundamentally sound team. I don't ever want us to get into those up-and-down games like YMCA basketball, and we allowed ourselves to do that.

"We allowed them to take us out of our game due to the physicality, the constant pushing, shoving, hand-checking. We allowed them to take us out of our game plan and it cost us the ball game."

In addition to his game-high 17 points, Parde had 7 rebounds and 2 steals. Larson added 13 points, while Mark Nichols grabbed 8 rebounds.

The Bison have a busy week with three games on tap. McCook travels to Phillipsburg, Kan., Tuesday, Ja. 5, with boys junior varsity action set to open at 5:45 p.m., followed by boys varsity starting at 7:30 p.m. The Bison boys also visit Hershey Friday, Jan. 8, with Sidney here Saturday, Jan. 9.

Improved effort for McCook girls

NORTH PLATTE -- Although the final outcome wasn't changed, the McCook High School girls turned in a much stronger effort in the seventh-place final Dec. 31 in the Greater Nebraska Athletic Conference Tournament.

The Bison girls dropped a 43-32 decision to Hastings at the North Platte High School auxiliary gym.

McCook got more shots on the offensive end, cut down turnovers and played better defense that the Bison girls have much of the season.

"That was the message that I gave the girls (after the game)," head coach Jeff Ellis said of his team's improved effort. "I'm super proud of them. They came out and executed the things that we've been asking them and preaching to them. They did a much better job, especially our man-to-man defense.

"Offensively, we got a lot more shot opportunities that we have and that was exciting. Unfortunately, not a lot of them were going in."

McCook hit 12 of 46 field goals for 26.1 percent, compared a 17-for-48 effort by the Tigers. The teams were even at the charity stripe, with McCook hitting 7 of 14 free throws and Hastings 7 of 12.

Ellis said his team's 50 percent effort at line wasn't horrible, but he knows the Bison had a great shot to gain their first win of the season.

"We make a few more (free throws), and hit a few more of those field goals, and we're right three, we're right there," he said. "It was exciting to see the more shots we got off. The girls were moving a little bit better offensively.

"Now, all that being said, we played a team that we matched up better against, so some things were there for us that we haven't been seeing. I was excited for the girls, it was just unfortunate that we couldn't get a win."

Megan Ruppert led McCook with 8 points and Emilyne Nichols added 6 points. Laura Brooks had a game-high 7 rebounds.

The Bison girls will draw a rematch with Hastings Friday, Jan. 15, in McCook.

McCook has three games on the schedule this week. The Bison girls travel to Kansas Tuesday, Jan. 5, to face a solid, quick and athletic Phillipsburg squad. Varsity action Tuesday is set to begin at 5:45 p.m., followed by the JV game at 7:30 p.m.

McCook also travels to Hershey Friday,Jan. 8, and entertains Sidney Saturday, Jan. 9.

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  • Is there a place where readers could view a box score for the games???

    -- Posted by cmg003 on Mon, Jan 4, 2010, at 5:07 PM
    Response by Steve Kodad:
    We limit the amount of free content posted on line, so I don't usually post the box scores with the stories on the free portion of the Web site. If I put the entire content of the sports pages on line for free, people wouldn't subscribe to the newspaper, and there would be no newspaper. The box scores are printed with stories in our Sports sections in the actual newspaper, and you may also subscribe to the Gazette's on-line edition and view all the pages in the newspaper on your computer. Sorry I can't give away all our work product for free on the Web site.

    If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me by email:

    sports@mccookgazette.com or phone: (307) 345-4500.

    Steve Kodad

    Gazette Sports Editor

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