Hartington-Newcastle Wildcats open the season with a split of L&C games

HARTINGTON — Hartington-Newcastle ground out a win in its second game of the young boys’ basketball season by turning away Wakefield 35-29 on the home court Dec. 2.

The night before, the Wildcats dropped their season opener 46-27 to Ponca.

Against the Trojans, the Wildcats sprinted to a 12-2 lead at the end of the first stanza, but Wakefield narrowed the gap 17-11 by the intermission.

The teams played to a draw in the second half with the Wildcats winning the third quarter by a couple of baskets and Wakefield taking the fourth frame by a couple of baskets to arrive at the 35-29 final score.

“It was nice to get a win over a C1 opponent,” second-year Hartington-Newcastle coach, Tylor Fincher said. “”We rebounded much better this game.”

Riley Sudbeck and Dayton Sudbeck each pulled down 10 rebounds on the night and Riley added his first double-double of the season by adding 11 points to his effort.

Cole Heimes added seven points, Dayton Sudbeck had six, Cole Rosener tossed in five and Brayden Lammers tacked on four. Lammers also grabbed five boards.

“It is nice we are starting to get more experience with some younger players,” Fincher said. “Keatyn Arens had a big offensive rebound in the game and he put it back in for his first points of his career.”

On Dec. 1 against the Indians, Ponca scored at least 10 points in each quarter as it built a lead the Wildcats could not overcome.

The lead was 12-7 at the end of one, 23-13 at the half, 36-21 at the end of three and the Indians outscored the Wildcats 10-6 in the final eight minutes to arrive at the final score.

“Ponca’s top six guys are pretty good,” Fincher said. “They really sped us up and forced us to take some difficult shots.”

Heimes paced the Hartington-Newcastle offense with nine points on the night. Riley Sudbeck was right behind with eight points and Dayton Sudbeck hit for six.

Dayton Sudbeck pulled down nine rebounds while Riley grabbed six.

Hartington-Newcastle was set hit the road for first time this season with a trip to Humphrey to take on the St. Francis Flyerson Dec. 5.

A tough game with Pierce is set for Dec. 9 in Hartington then a trip Dec. 12 to take on Tri County Northeast.

Wake (1-1) 2 9 2 16 - 29 HNS (1-1) 12 5 6 12 - 35 P=Points, R=Rebounds, A=Assists, S=Steals, B=Blocks.

HARTINGTON-NEWCASTLE: Cole Heimes 2-3 2-6 7P, 4R, 4S; Dayton Sudbeck 3-8 0-2 6P, 10R, 5A, 1S; Keatyn Arens 1-1 0-0 2P, 1R, 1S; Cole Rosener 1-4 2-4 5P, 1R, 1S; Brayden Lammers 2-4 0-0 4P, 5R, 2S, 2B; Riley Sudbeck 3-11 3-4 11P, 10R, 3A, 1S; Lincoln Grutsch 0-0 0-0 0P, 1R. Ponca 12 11 13 10 - 46 HNS 7 6 8 6 - 27 HARTINGTON-NEWCASTLE: Heimes 3-12 2-2 9P, 2R; D. Sudbeck 2-6 1-2 6P, 9R 3A; Arens 0-2 0-0 0P, 1R; Rosener 1-2 0-0 2P; Lammers 1-5 0-0 2P, 2R, 1A, 1S, 2B; Mason Krause 0-1 0-0 0P, 1R; R.