Lady ’Cats improve to 5-3 with Boyd County win

HARTINGTON — Hartington-Newcastle used a second-half performance to turn back Boyd County Dec. 19 3722 in Hartington.

The Lady Wildcats outscored the Lady Spartans 14-2 in the third quarter to go up 26-14 and then added three points to the advantage in the final eight minutes to end up with the final score.

“We played really well, especially in the second half,” Hartington-Newcastle coach Grant Rolfes said. “I thought our defense took another step in this game led by Mani Lange.”

Lange was put in charge of taking care of Boyd County’s Page Drueke, who she held to just seven points in the contest and she still managed to score eight points herself, including a couple of three-pointers and a couple of free throws.

“We had good help defense behind Mani,” Rolfes said. “But she did a great job holding her to only seven points in the game.”

Maddie Steffen and Zoey Gratzfeld led Hartington-Newcastle with 11 and 10 points, respectively, but it was the defensive effort, holding the Lady Spartans to just 22 points on the evening, that made the difference. “Offensively, we were pretty balanced, which is always nice,” Rolfes said. “But I was really happy with our defensive effort against a talented team and a talented player.” Gratzfeld ended up with a doubledouble after adding 11 rebounds to her point total. McKenzie Bruning pulled down seven missed shots and Lauren Howell and Olivia Grutsch each had four. Lange added four assists and five steals to her solid evening on the court. The Lady Wildcats are set to travel to Stanton Dec. 28 and Dec. 29 for the Stanton Holiday Tournament. Hartington-Newcastle is scheduled to take on 0-7 Lutheran High Northeast in the opening round on Dec. 28.

Stanton and Neligh-Oakdale are on the other side of the bracket with the winners set to play each other on Dec. 29 and the two teams defeated in the opening round will square off in a consolation final on the same day preceding the championship finals of the tournament.

Boyd County 6 6 2 8 - 22 HNS 7 5 14 11 - 37 P=Points, R=Rebounds, A= Assists, S=Steals, B=Blocks.

BOYD COUNTY (0-7): Paige Drueke 3-8 1-2 7P, 4R, 5A, 3S, 1B; Destiny Bennett 0-2 0-0 0P, 3R, 1S; Sabrina Ziebro 1-3 0-0 2P, 7R, 1A; Lanie Lechtenberg 1-7 0-2 2P, 4R, 2A; Jaylee Lechtenberg 0-4 0-0 0P, 2R; Elizabeth Bernt 2-4 1-2 5P, 1R, 1S; McKenzie Snyder 2-8 0-0 4P, 5R, 1B; Addison Birmeier 1-2 0-0 2P, 3R; Claire Reiman 0-1 0-0 0P, 3R.

HARTINGTON-NEWCASTLE (5-3): Mani Lange 2-8 2-2 8P, 2R, 4A, 5S; Lauren Howell 0-5 0-0 0P, 4R; Olivia Grutsch 1-7 0-0 3P, 4R, 2A, 1S; Zoey Gratzfeld 2-8 6-6 10P, 11R, 1S; McKenzie Bruning 1-10 3-4 5P; 7R, 3A; Maddie Steffen 5-13 1-1 11P, 3R, 3S.