Lady ‘Cats get back on the winning track

HARTINGTON — The Hartington- Newcastle Lady Wildcats added a couple of wins to the season over the past week to improve to 8-4 on the campaign.

The Lady Wildcats used a big second half to turn back Bloomfield Jan. 2 in Lewis & Clark Conference action on the road, 47-44, then drilled Winside here in Hartington on Jan. 5, 52-19.

In the battle of the Lady Wildcats with Winside, the Hartington-Newcastle variety had little trouble in taking care of business over the Winside variety from the opening tip.

“We came out and took control of the game early which was nice to see,” said Lady Wildcat coach, Grant Rolfes. “I thought we did what we needed to do; played solid defense, limited turnovers and rebounded.”

Hartington-Newcastle sprinted to a 15-4 lead at the end of the first period and stretched it to 25-9 at the intermission.

The the HNS Lady Wildcats got completely defensive, shutting out Winside in the third frame while scoring eight points on offense to make it 33-9 heading into the final eight minutes.

The Lady Wildcats then turned up the offense and scored 19 points in final stanza to put the game away.

Mani Lange led a fairly balanced scoring attack for Hartington-Newcastle with 16 points.

McKenzie Bruning added eight, Maddie Steffen had seven, Karli Bruning had six and Olivia Grutsch chipped in five.

After trailing by 10 at the end of the first two quarters, the Lady Wildcats responded in the second half against the Lady Bees to come away with the three-point win.

“We found a way to win, which is always better than the alternative,” Hartington-Newcastle coach, Grant Rolfes said. “We talked through things at halftime and came out much better and fought our way back in the second half.”

Behind 25-15 at the intermission, the Lady Wildcats trimmed six points off the deficit in the third frame before completing the comeback and grabbing the lead late in the final eight minutes.

McKenzie Bruning had a big night offensively for the Lady Wildcats, scoring a game-high 19 points including knocking down 3-of-5 3-point attempts. She also completed a double-double by leading the team with 11 rebounds.

Zoey Gratzfeld added 13 points and Maddie Steffen hit double digits with 10.

Mani Lange handed out six assists on the night, Olivia Grutsch dished out three.

Bruning also added three steals to her night. McKenzie and Zoey are very versatile players for us and they showed it tonight,” Rolfes said. “It was great to get that win and now we turn our focus on getting more of them.”

The Lady ‘Cats are set to host Homer Jan. 12 then Laurel-Concord-Coleridge Jan. 16. A Jan. 13 date with Niobrara/Verdigre was postponed.

WIN (1-10) 4 5 0 10 - 19 H-N (8-4) 15 10 8 19 - 52

P=Points, R=Rebounds, A=Assists, S=Steals, B=Blocks.

HNS: Mani Lange 8-12 0-0 16P, 4A, 5S; Hazel Hochstein 0-2 1-2 1P, 1R; Alejandra Reyes 0-2 0-0 0P, 1R, 1A, 1B; Tansey Kneifl 0-1 0-0 0P, 1S; Cohen Paden 0-2 0-0 0P, 2R, 1A; Lauren Howell 0-3 2-2 2P, 6R, 2S; Olivia Grutsch 2-4 0-0 5P, 1R, 3A, 2S; Zoey Gratzfeld 2-4 0-0 4P, 2R, 1S; McKenzie Bruning 4-8 0-0 8P, 2R, 1A; Maddie Steffen 3-9 1-2 7P, 3R, 2A, 6S; Karissa Bruning 1-2 1-2 3P, 1S; Karli Bruning 3-5 0-0 6P, 4R, 1S.

WINSIDE: Samantha Gubbels 0-1 0-0 0P, 1S; Katelyn Jaeger 0-0 0-0 0P, 2R, 2A; Hadley Sellin 2-5 0-2 4P, 4R, 1A, 1S, 1B; Jerzi Carlson 2-6 0-0 4P, 3R, 1A; Hadleigh Schutt 2-11 1-2 5P, 9R, 1S; Adrianna Miller 1-1 0-0 3P; Ellie Topp 1-3 1-2 3P, 6R, 2B. H-N (7-4) 7 8 13 19 - 47 BLO (5-8) 16 9 7 12 - 44

HNS: Mani Lange 1-2 1-2 3P, 1R, 6A; Alejandra Reyes 0-0 0-0 0P, 1A; Lauren Howell 0-2 0-0 0P, 1R, 2S; Olivia Grutsch 1-6 0-0 2P; 7R, 3A; Zoey Gratzfeld 6-15 0-0 13P, 11R, 1A; McKenzie Bruning 8-15 0-0 19P, 7R, 3S; Maddie Steffen 3-9 3-4 10P, 5R, 2A, 1S.

BLOOMFIELD: Madison Abbenhaus 7-15 2-3 17P, 9R, 5A, 1S; Miley Pinkelman 0-0 0-0 0P, 1R; Avery Bargman 3-6 0-0 8P, 2R, 1A; Tenley Gilsdorf 1-7 0-0 3P, 2R, 2S; Kora Poppe 3-16 5-7 13P, 4R, 2A, 4S; Olivia Lauck 1-4 1-2 3P, 2R, 1A, 1S; Peyton Eisenhauer 0-1 0-0 0P, 1R.