Lady Wildcats open subdistricts with a win

BANCROFT — The Hartington-Newcastle Lady Wildcats opened play in the D1-4 Subdistrict Tournament with a 55-54 win over Tri County Northeast on Feb. 16 to advance to take on Bancroft-Rosalie in the subdistrict semifinals on Feb. 17.

A complete recap of the win will be in next week’s Cedar County News. Earlier in the week, the Lady ‘Cats split a couple of games to close out the regular season. HNS now sits at HNS dropped a game to Wynot 54-41 on the road Feb. 13 and traveled to Wausa Feb. 10 and defeated the Lady Vikings 48-37.

Vayda Lippert was on fire in both games. She posted an evening of 30 points against the Lady Blue Devils and a school record 34 points against Wausa.

The Lady Wildcats led Wynot 14-11 at the end of the first eight minutes then took a 26-25 advantage into the halftime locker room.

Hartington-Newcastle went cold in the second half, managing just 15 points while the Lady Blue Devils posted 29 to take the 13-point victory.

After Lippert’s 30, Ella Eickhoff had seven points and Karissa Bruning chipped in four.

Bruning yanked down a dozen rebounds while Lippert grabbed seven missed shots. Hadley Grutsch recorded six. Grutsch also added four assists.