With tournaments over for a while, NCHS has settled into conference play and got off to a good start with a pair of wins. Friday’s game against Lingle-Ft Laramie is not a conference game, but still counts in SEWAC standings. The teams battled back and forth in the first period with the Doggers taking the 15-14 lead on a three pointer at the buzzer. Both teams were careless with the ball in the second as the visitors edged out to a 27-18 lead before NCHS trimmed it to 28-24 going into the break.

Unlike several recent games the Tigers came out of the locker room with more energy and upped the defensive intensity. What resulted was one of the best quarters of basketball Lusk has played in a while. Ryan Gilkey had seven of his 23 points, Alec Penfield six of his dozen and Teagan Tschacher and Cole Hart drilled back to back treys. Hart’s triple was followed by his quick steal and nifty behind the back dish to Penfield in a 23-4 blitz. Lusk was ahead 41-30 with one quarter to play against a shell-shocked Dogger squad. NCHS did not let up in the 61-40 win.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

LFL 15 13 4 8  40

NCHS 14 10 23 14  61

TEAM STATS

LFL: 11/22 FG, 5/20 3PT, 3/10 FT, 29 REB, 25 TO, 20 PF

NCHS: 19/50 FG, 2/10 3PT, 17/27 FT, 46 REB, 10 TO, 15 PF

NCHS PLAYER STATS: Scoring- Gilkey 23, Penfield 12, Ryan Bruegger 8, Tschacher 8, Jake Heil 6, Hart 3, Dylan Miller 1.  Assists- Hart 5. 

Burns is always a hard place to win, but a trio of Gilkey three pointers is a good way to calm the crowd early. NCHS led 15-9 after one period but then the defenses took over. The Tigers pushed the lead to 25-17 at halftime but it would not get easier.

The second half was even more defensive as fouls began to add up for both squads. The Tigers lead going into the final stanza was 33-22 and it’s a good thing that was enough to win. Lusk had just two points-both off free throws in the fourth and held on for the 35-30 win, to improve to 6-6 overall and 1-0 in 2A SE games.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

NCHS 15 10 8 2  35

BURNS 9 8 5 8  30

TEAM STATS

NCHS: 7/31 FG, 5/15 3PT, 6/17 FT, 37 REB, 14 TO, 18 PF

BURNS: 7/28 FG, 4/13 3PT, 4/11 FT, 35 REB, 14 TO, 20 PF

NCHS PLAYER STATS: Scoring- Gilkey 17, Miller 7, Bruegger 5, Penfield 4, Heil 2. Rebounds- Penfield 9, Tschacher 6Miller 5. Assists- Stone 5.

The JV beat LFL 36-27 as Jayden Matthews led with 15 points and Jarit Krejci scored seven. Wyatt Stauffer grabbed 12 rebounds and Declan Jensen added six rebounds and five steals. On Saturday they beat Burns 49-47 as Penfield led with 13 points. Tschacher scored eight while Bruegger and Tanner Carpenter each had seven.

The C squad beat Burns 22-17 in two periods for a clean sweep of Burns in their own gym (6-0 boys and girls games). They played in the frosh-soph tournament in Guernsey Monday night and beat LFL 50-49 as Matthews went off for 24 points and Carpenter added ten points and 13 rebounds. In the follow-up the Tigers came up short against Wheatland 49-47. Stauffer scored 15 points and grabbed nine rebounds and Matthews scored a dozen.

This week the Tigers host Southeast Friday (4 and 7 p.m.) before a trip to Pine Bluffs on Saturday (11:30 a.m., 1 and 4 p.m.).