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TILDEN - The Hartington-Newcastle Wildcats dropped its Greater Northeast Activities Conference Tournament opener Feb. 2.
The Wildcats hit the road to take on Elkhorn Valley which came away with a 55-35 win over HNS to move on to the conference semifinal s and send the ‘Cats to a consolation game.
“We did everything right except put the ball in the hole,” said Wildcat coach Tylor Fincher. Our shooting percentage was really bad and our free throw percentage was 25%. We played great defense, just couldn’t score.”
The Wildcats were 0-for-12 from beyond the 3-point line and just 3-for-12 at the charity stripe.
Mason Krause was the only Hartington-Newcastle player in double figures with 14 points, Carter Kelly and Austin Sudbeck tossed in six points apiece.
The loss drops HNS to 8-10 on the year, while Elkhorn Valley improves to 12-6 The Wildcats will now play a consolation game on Feb. 5. After the conference tourney wraps, the Purple and White only have three more regular season games left on the schedule. All three are on the road. The ‘Cats will take on Wausa Feb. 10 and will travel to Wynot Feb. 13 before winding up the regular season Feb. 20 at Creighton.
HNS 8 10 14 3 - 35 EV 18 10 22 5 - 55 HARTINGTON-NEWCASTLE: Carter Kelly 3-7 0-0 6; Austin Sudbeck 3-11 0-2 6; Keatyn Arens 0-1 1-2 1; Brayden Lammers 1-10 0-3; Mason Krause 6-13 2-5 14; Maximus McCray 1-2 0-0 2; Lincoln Grutsch 0-1 0-0 0; Colton Cavanaugh 2-2 0-0 4.
