WINTER SPORTS
C5
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2020
THE NORTH PLATTE TELEGRAPH
Telegraph file photo
Junior Austin Hoelscher will be one of the scoring options for a deep Hershey Panthers team that is almost half seniors.
Hershey boys show ‘grit’ in hot start
move forward. We’re not go- ing to change a lot, we’re going to put in some new things, and let’s just have good energy all week,’” he added. As of press time, it’s uncer- tain why a coaching change was made, and Lowther said he wasn’t really sure himself. That hasn’t stopped Hershey from finding some success, ei- ther. The Panthers are 2-2 and have wins against Perkins County and Cozad, but fell to Gothenburg and St. Pat’s. No game has been close. Sophomore Tahlia Steinbeck leads the team with 11.3 points per game, and junior Shayda Vaughn and senior Carly Sexson have provided second- ary scoring options as well. Sexson, Vaughn and soph- omore Michalee Brownawell and freshman Emma Hall have averaged over four re- bounds per game. “Mentally, I think our team is very strong,” Lowther said. “They’ve shown it in these last few weeks as well.”
After winning their first two games handily — a 64-36 win over Perkins County and a 43- 27 victory against Gothenburg — the Panthers played Cozad (43-42 OT win) and St. Pat’s to the wire. Jorgenson said Spearman is the kind of player to spend most of his time in the gym, and he even thought Spearman would spend more time shoot- ing even after hitting the game winner over St. Pat’s. “The kid puts in so much time,” Jorgenson said. “I know he lives in the gym and I can guarantee he’s probably going to be shooting again tonight.” Half of Hershey’s roster are seniors who have gained experience over the years. Spearman has filled into a scorer’s role, but other seniors have made contributions as well. Bryce Butterfield forced a turnover on an inbounds pass that set up the game-winning 3. Sage Young and Hoelscher added four points each in the win.
By JAKE DREILINGER jake.dreilinger@nptelegraph.com When Cayden Spearman let a 3-pointer from the corner fly with the Hershey boys basket- ball team’s game against St. Pat’s on Dec. 12 in the balance, he also held the weight of the Panthers’ undefeated season with it. As it sunk in and St. Pat’s called a timeout to figure out its next move, Spearman and the Hershey bench celebrated for a second before regrouping. The Panthers have won its first four games for the first time since the 2010-11 season. They went 20-4 that year. “I thought we showed a lot of grit,” coach Dustin Jorgenson said following the St. Pat’s game. “Both teams deserved to win and played their tails off, and we just happened to hit a couple big shots.” Spearman scored 15 points that day, and was helped with seven points each from Thomas Gosnell and Austin Hoelscher.
Schedule Dec. 19..............................................................................Ogallala Dec. 29-30............................................Hershey Holiday Tourney Jan. 2......................................................................... Broken Bow Jan. 5.......................................................................... South Loup Jan. 8............................................................................at Maxwell Jan. 9............................................................................Bridgeport Jan. 12......................................................................... Sutherland Jan. 15............................................................................ Valentine Jan. 16........................................................................ at Holdrege Jan. 18-23........................................................ SPVA Tournament Jan. 30....................................................................Chase County Feb. 2.................................................................................. Mullen Feb. 6...................................................at Dundy County-Stratton Feb. 9..............................................................................at Paxton Feb. 11..........................................................................at St. Pat’s
“It everybody,” Spearman said. “If I didn’t have those two screens down there, I wouldn’t have made anything happen. It’s all on my teammates.” took Alex Lowther joined the Hershey girls basketball team over the summer as an as- sistant coach. Only a couple games into the season, how- ever, he was promoted to head coach. A coaching change that early
into the year could cause prob- lems adjusting, but Lowther said the girls continued prac- ticing as if everything was normal. “Obviously it was just a lit- tle shocker, but the girls did a great job,” Lowther said. “We just moved forward with it. We had a great week of practice. “I had a talk with them af- ter that announcement was made and said, ‘Hey, let’s just
A work in progress as Sutherland gains experience
many varsity minutes yet and are still getting adjusted to taking on a larger role. One junior who is an ex- ception to that is point guard Andrew Dowse, who also has 5.3 points per game and leads the team with 1.7 assists per game. “He’s been a really calm- ing, steady force for us,” Dyer said. “He has been our best perimeter defender. We’ve been really pleased with Andrew’s work ethic.” At the end of the day, Dyer said he wants to see his team continue to improve and that wins and losses don’t always ref lect how much a team has grown. “We know there are things we need to get better at during the course of the sea- son,” Dyer said. “We want to be playing at our peak and at the best of our abilities.” The Sutherland girls bas- ketball team has found some success early on in the sea- son, defeating Brady 62-13 and Sandhills Valley 44-27. In its other games, it has fallen to Mullen 48-23, St. Pat’s 64-30, Bridgeport 78-16 and Wallace 46-36. Juniors Faith Stewart and Allie Hiatt and sophomore Mataya Roberts lead the team offensive. In the Sailors loss to St. Pat’s on Dec. 5, those three combined for 25 of the team’s 30 points. In that game, Sutherland start-
“Luke is, in terms of point production, a guy we knew we would need to count on,” Dyer said. “He’s taken on a differ- ent role. I think he’s starting to realize offensively we’re going to need to get things out of him.” So far, he has been Sutherland’s main option on offense. He leads the team with 8.7 points per game across six contests and in rebounds with 6.7 a game. Dyer said Martinez is more of a laid-back leader. The vo- cal leadership comes from Ty Monie, the other senior on the team. Monie has added 5.3 points per game and 4.5 re- bounds per game. “He’s probably our most vo- cal guy in terms of rallying the troops and talking during games,” Dyer said. Sutherland boasts a large junior class, some of whom Dyer said haven’t played
By JAKE DREILINGER jake.dreilinger@nptelegraph.com Sutherland boys basketball coach Daniel Dyer main focus is getting his team to play like one and stray away from indi- vidual basketball. At times, Dyer said he can see the team working to- gether and playing well. But sometimes, they revert back to that solo mentality. “It’s still a work in prog- ress,” he said. “At times I feel like we’re playing together us- ing our strength and at times we’re playing more individual- ly than we should be.” Dyer said that’s something they work on in practice. They figure out who should be where and what to look for in certain moments. And more importantly, who’s going to give them the best opportuni- ty to score. So far, that’s been senior Luke Martinez.
Schedule Jan. 8..............................................................Sandhills/Thedford Jan. 9.................................................................... Perkins County Jan. 12......................................................................... at Hershey Jan. 15.....................................................................at Cambridge Jan. 18-23........................................................ SPVA Tournament Jan. 26...................................................................at Creek Valley Jan. 29............................................................................... Kimball Feb. 2....................................................................Garden County Feb. 5........................................................... at Wauneta-Palisade Feb. 9............................................................................at Maxwell Feb. 11................................................................................Paxton Feb. 19............................................ at Chase County (boys only)
Telegraph file photo Junior Luke Martinez is expected to be a go-to scorer for Sutherland this season.
ed Stewart, Roberts, juniors Casidee Miller and Ashtyn
Gunderson and sophomore Cyndie Wilson.
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