CROFTON – Two more northeast Nebraska high school basketball teams began their season with a Friday night showdown.
From Crofton Community School, the Warriors welcomed in the Laurel-Concord-Coleridge Bears.
The girls game favored pre-season rated (C2) #1 Crofton over Laurel-Concord-Coleridge, 69-28 while preseason (D1) #2 LCC boys used a strong second half to top the Warriors, 70-41.
In the girls outing, the Bears scored two points early but then gave up 21 straight before scoring the final two points of the quarter trailing 21-4. Crofton then outscored LCC 21-8 in the second to lead 42-12 at the break. The Warriors then extended their lead in the third thanks to a 17-10 quarter and pushed the game past 40 points in the final minutes to win 69-28. Crofton starts their season at 1-0 while Laurel-Concord-Coleridge falls to 0-1.
Senior Lacey Sprakel paced all scorers with 20 points while fellow senior Kaley Einrem added 14 points for Crofton. Other Warrior leaders came from senior Allie Dahl (eight), sophomore Blair Jordan (seven), junior Ella Wragge (seven), junior Alexis Folkers (six), freshman Ellie Tramp (six) and freshman Caitlin Guenther with one point.
Crofton shot 11-16 from the foul line.
Junior Kinsey Hall led LCC in scoring with 15 points followed by freshman Mallory Erikson with six points. Senior Erica Wolfgram scored four points, sophomore Haley Christensen added two points and junior Reggan Kuhlman added a point.
The Bears finished 6-19 from the foul line.
1 2 H 3 4 F
4 8 12 11 5 28 – LCC
21 21 42 17 10 69 – Crofton
From the boys contest, both teams went back and forth as LCC used a 15-10 first quarter and then edged Crofton in the second, 13-10. After leading 28-20 at the break, the Bears took control in the third quarter with a 26-10 scoring clip as Crofton picked it up in the fourth with a 21-16 quarter. Final favored Laurel-Concord-Coleridge over Crofton, 70-41 to open their season at 1-0 while the Warriors fell to 0-1.
Senior Cael Hartung finished as the leading scorer for LCC with 23 points while junior Evan Haisch scored all 18 of his points in the second half (16 coming in the third quarter). Junior Evan Schmitt also tallied double figure scoring with 13 points. Other scoring for Laurel-Concord-Coleridge came from junior Lucas Rasmussen (eight), junior Daegan Puppe (four), senior Austin Hall (two), junior Grant Erwin (two) and junior Wilton Roberts (two).
The Bears shot 4-11 from the foul line.
Junior Mayson Ostermeyer paced Crofton in scoring with 15 points while junior Paul Konechne added eight points. Other leaders for the Warriors were junior Roy Knapp (six), sophomore Simon McFarland (five), junior Jimmy Allen (three), junior Jaxon Wiebelhaus (two) and senior Sam Tejral (two).
Crofton finished 10-21 from the foul line.
1 2 H 3 4 F
15 13 28 26 16 70 – LCC
10 10 20 10 21 41 – Crofton
The Laurel-Concord-Coleridge Bears will next visit Homer on Tuesday, December 8. The Crofton girls will play at Boone Central on December 8 and then join their boys team at Boyd County on December 10.