HNS Lady Wildcats hit a dry spell

HARTINGTON — The Hartington-Newcastle Lady Wildcat basketball team ran into tough stretch of teams last week, dropping regular season games to Plainview and Winnebago before losing in the opening round of the Lewis Division of the Lewis & Clark Conference Tournament to Wakefield, 48-38 on Jan. 27.

Winnebago defeated the Lady Wildcats on Jan. 25, 40-32 on the road while the Lady Pirates downed Hartington-Newcastle 48-36 on Jan. 23 in a game played in Hartington.

One goal at the beginning of the season for head coach Grant Rolfes and the Lady Wildcats was to make the Lewis Division tournament of the Lewis & Clark Conference Tournament after winning the Clark Division Tournament last season.

The Lewis Division is comprised of the top eight seeds in the conference. The Lady Wildcats attained their goal, but were bounced in the opening round by the Lady Trojans.

“We haven’t had much practice time,” Rolfes said. “We need to continue to work and find an offensive rhythm that was missing last week.”

The statistics back up the Coach’s statement.

Hartington-Newcastle averaged just under 48 points per game while winning 7-of-8 games prior to this three-game swoon. During the current streak, the Lady Wildcats are averaging just over 35 points per contest.

The Lady Wildcats trailed by eight after the first quarter, 14-6, but played even with Wakefield in the second frame as the teams headed to the halftime locker room with Hartington-Newcastle sitting at a 24-16 deficit.

The Lady Trojans added a couple of buckets in the third before the Lady Wildcats trimmed a basket from the lead by the final buzzer.

“We did a lot of the things we wanted to, but just couldn’t find ways to score,” Rolfes said. “(Jordan) Metzler is a good player and if you would have told me we held her to 1-of-12 shooting, I’d say we were in a good spot. But we put her on the line way too many times and she made them.”

Metzler made on field goal but was 21-of-22 from the charity stripe to finish with a game-high 23 points.

Zoey Gratzfeld was the lone Hasrtington-Newcastle player in double digits, scoring 13 points. Maddie Steffen and Lauren Howell each contributed seven, Mani Lange and McKenzie Bruning chipped in four each and Alejandra Reyes had three.

In the loss to the Lady Indians, a slow start was the culprit as the Lady Wildcats struggled offensively.

“Winnebago came out more ready to play than we did,” Rolfes said. “They physical and pressured us and we turned it over way too many times to win the game.”

Winnebago hopped out to a 13-8 lead at the end of the first frame, but HNS battled back in the second period to take a 22-21 lead into the break.

The Lady Indians went up five by the end of the third and the Lady Wildcats gave themselves a chance down the stretch, holding Winnebago to just five points in the final stanza.

“I was happy with the way we continued to battle,” Rolfes said. “But offensively we just never found a nice rhythm and down the stretch, although we defended well, we just couldn’t find a way to score points.”

Hartington-Newcastle managed a single basket in the final eight minutes to arrive at the 40-32 final.

The Lady Wildcats were coming off a two-week hiatus when Plainview came to town back on Jan. 23.

“It was just good to finally take the court again, but obviously not the outcome we would have liked,” said Rolfes. “Credit to Plainview, they showed up more ready to play and we were a step behind all night.”

The Lady Pirates outscored the Lady Wildcats by some in every quarter before arriving at the 12-point advantage at the final whistle.

“Plainview has a really solid group of athletic girls and we struggled against their pressure,” the Coach said. “We allowed them to live in the paint and shoot over 50% from the floor.”

McKenzie Bruning led Hartington-Newcastle with 12 points on the night, Steffen added seven and Lange tossed in five.

Gratzfeld pulled down six rebounds while Lange, Gratzfeld and McKenzie Bruning each had a couple of steals.

The Lady Wildcats were scheduled to play a consolation game in the Lewis Division Tournament Jan. 30 when they were to take on Wausa while hosting the consolation semifinals.

Ponca and Bloomfield will play on the other side of the bracket with the winners set to meet on Feb. 2 for the consolation finals at the highest remaining seed in the bracket. Hartington-Newcastle is scheduled to play Homer in Hartington on Feb. 5 as the season winds down.

HNS 6 10 6 16 - 38 WAK 14 10 10 14 - 48 P=Points, R= Rebounds, A=Assists, S=Steals, B=Blocks HNS (8-7): Mani Lange 2-5 0-0 4P, 5R, 3A, 1S; Alejandra Reyes 1-3 0-0 3P, 2R; Lauren Howell 3-3 1-6 7P, 5R, 1A, 1S; Olivia Grutsch 0-6 0-0 0P, 5R, 4A, 2S; Zoey Gratzfeld 6-12 1-2 13P, 2R; McKenzie Bruning 2-7 0-6 4P, 3R; Maddie Steffen 2-7 2-2 7P, 3R.

WAKEFIELD (9-8): Katie Borg 5-8 0-0 14P; Avila Montserratt 0-2 0-0 0P; Boston Brown 1-6 0-2 3P; Alli Brown 1-1 0-0 2P; Daveigh Munter-McAfee 2-6 2-2 6P; Jordan Metzler 1-12 21-22 23P. HNS 8 14 8 2 - 32 WB 13 8 14 5 - 40 HNS: Lange 1-4 0-2 2P, 3R, 3A, 5S; Howell 0-1 0-0 0P, 1R, 1S; Grutsch 1-4 0-0 3P, 12R, 1A, 1S; Gratzfeld 4-10 0-0 8P, 5R, 2S; Bruning 3-7 0-0 6P, 3R; Steffen 4-8 5-5 13P, 3R, 3A. WINNEBAGO (4-9): Haylie Lovejoy 0-7 0-0 0P; Daynee Harlan 3-7 0-0 7P, Jolon Blackbird 6-16 4-6 17; Charlize Frenchman 2-9 0-0 5P; Tressa Bigbear 3-7 0-0 6P; Caly Wolfleader 2-2 0-1 5P. PLA 15 9 12 12 - 48 HNS 10 7 9 10 - 36 PLAINVIEW (13-4): Abbie Kromarek 9-17 0-0 19P; Teya Boyer 5-12 0-1 10P; Madelynn Dougherty 1-6 0-0 3P; Jordynn Frahm 1-3 1-2 3P; Kenzie Doerr 0-1 0-0 0P; Brooke Rafert 3-3 0-0 6P; Marque Albin 0-1 1-2 1P; Peighton Arlt 2-2 0-0 4P; Riley Miller 1-2 0-0 2P. HNS: Lange 2-8 0-0 5P, 1R, 1A, 2S; Hazel Hochstein 0-0 0-0 0P, 1S; Howell 0-1 4-6 4P, 3R, 2A; Grutsch 1-9 0-0 3P, 4R, 1A, 1S; Gratzfeld 1-7 0-0 2P, 6R, 2A, 2S; M. Bruning 5-7 2-3 12P, 2R, 2A, 2S; Steffen 3-8 1-2 7P, 4R, 1B; Karissa Bruning 1-1 1-2 3P.