PENDER – In one week high school girls basketball teams will be in search for one more win to punch their ticket to the state tournament. Thursday evening saw a handful of area teams in action.
A game that was aired on KTCH, featured the C2-4 subdistrict from Pender Public Schools with #1 Ponca taking on #2 Guardian Angels Central Catholic.
Despite a 7-0 run early in the second quarter for Ponca, GACC held onto a six-point lead at half and didn’t trail the entire second half to win 47-33. The Bluejays became subdistrict champions and improve to 22-3 while Ponca fell to 20-4 in search of a wild card spot.
Guardian Angels Central Catholic took the early lead of 17-6 in the first before Ponca outscored GACC 15-10 in the second. Score at the half favored the Bluejays 27-21. GACC then used pulled away from Ponca in the second half with a 7-4 third and 13-8 fourth to again win 47-33.
Three Bluejays recorded double figure scoring led by Brenna Rief with 15 points. Sophia Hass and Brandi Doernemann both scored 10 points while Marissa Hunke added eight points. Kate Gnad also scored four points off the bench.
GACC finished 5-8 from the foul line (5-6 4th quarter).
Samantha Ehlers fouled out with a team-leading 12 points for Ponca as Kaci Day scored 11 points. The Indians were without their second leading scorer of 11.5 points a night of Ashlyn Kingsbury due to injury. Other scoring came from Alyssa Crosgrove with seven points while Maggie McGill tallied three points from the foul line.
Ponca shot 4-6 from the charity stripe.
GACC will advance to the district final while Ponca again will look for one of the four wildcards that will be posted on the NSAA website once all scores are final. District final girls action is scheduled for Friday, February 28.
Girls state is scheduled for Thursday, March 5 – Saturday, March 7 in Lincoln.
Area teams competing in their respective subdistrict tournaments:
C1-3 (Wisner-Pilger): #1 West Point-Beemer defeated #2 Winnebago, 62-43.
C1-7 (Norfolk High): #1 Norfolk Catholic defeated #3 Battle Creek, 35-15.
D1-1 (West Point-Beemer): #1 Archbishop Bergan defeated #2 Pender, 54-34.
D1-3 (Ponca): #1 Hartington Cedar Catholic defeated #2 Hartington-Newcastle, 57-38.
D1-4 (Battle Creek): #2 Laurel-Concord-Coleridge defeated #1 Elkhorn Valley, 52-47.
D2-2 (Hartington Cedar Catholic): #1 Wynot defeated #2 Randolph, 53-10.