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Lady Wildcats run into a pair of strong non-conference foes

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PIERCE — After an up-and-down 1-1 opening week to the season, the Hartington-Newcastle Lady Wildcats basketball team ran into two tough foes last week.

The Lady Cats ended up in two tough defeats – Humphrey St. Francis (73-23) and Pierce (50-21) – to fall to 1-3 on the year.

Alivia Morten and Kayden Jueden paced HNHS with nine and seven points against St. Francis, while Jueden scored a team-high eight points in the Pierce contest.

The Purple Pride went up against a one-player wrecking crew when the Flyers came to town, HNS Coach Josh Morten said.

“St. Francis is a very good team in Northeast Nebraska,” Morten said. “Allison Weidner is a very good player and makes the team all around for them very good. She does so many things great.”

Earlier this month Wiedner signed a letter of intent to play college basketball for the Huskers.

Despite the home defeat, the Lady Cats did have some bright spots, Morten said.

“We were able to do some things well throughout the game but just couldn’t get the ball to go into the hoop. Their press really didn’t have effect on us which was one of the main things we focused on going into the game. We did turn the ball over too many times on unforced errors. We have to clean things up with our passing and ball handling.”

The Pierce game saw a hoped-for offensive bump but the Lady Wildcats come up short.

“Again, in this game we need to find some scoring from people,” Coach Morten said. “We did quite a few things that are good and improving on, but we need to find ways to score.”

Morten said the defense needs to be more consistent, as well. “Our defense at times was a little stagnant. The

“Our defense at times was a little stagnant. The girls were moving very well and allowing them to get open shots on the perimeter. We allowed them to hit quite a few threes. We just weren’t moving well enough on defense.”

Despite fierce pressure from the Lady Fliers, Morten was pleased with how his team handled the ball.

“We limited our turnovers in the game to a respectable amount, but we shot poorly from the field and couldn’t connect on any of our three-point shots,” he said.

The Lady Wildcats will hope to bounce back this week after playing Tuesday against Tri County Northeast, they will wrap the slate with a game against Walthill.

Delayne Sudbeck, one of the seniors among the Lady Wildcats, is still feeling a high-level of optimism about the youth on the squad.

Sudbeck is a golfer for the Cedar Catholic-HNHS co-op squad, so she missed the shared experience among the many volleyball players that made a nice run this last campaign that now make up the hoops squad.

“We have to find our groove with our younger girls, but it is nice that we have four of our starters back,” Sudbeck said.

The team has to start coming out firing right out of the gate, she said.

“For us, it’s been the first quarter where we don’t score more than four or five points. We need to get past that. It’s finding girls who are willing to take the ball and score with it. It’s early enough in the season. We usually get things figured out after the holiday tournament. It stinks now that we aren’t winning or scoring now like we would like, but everything will fall into place and we will be just fine.”

Sudbeck is recognized by Coach Morten as being one of the more fired up players on the squad that likes to keep the team’s hopes high.

“Golf, you are by yourself and so when I am hard on myself no one really knows about it,” Sudbeck said. “But with girls basketball, tearing each other down doesn’t make it any fun. This is the only sport which I get to do with my classmates and my friends from my school, so I try to be positive to lift everyone up and make it fun.”

Hartington-Newcastle 2 9 4 8 - 23 Humphrey St. Fran 19 27 14 13- 73

Humphrey St. Fran 19 27 14 13- 73

SCORING HNS - Alivia Morten, 9; Kayden Jueden, 7; Mani Lange, 2; Keanna Korth, 2; Olivia Grutsch, 2; Delayne Sudbeck, 1. HSF - Allison Weidner, 43; Hannah Baumgart, 11; K Stricklan, 9; Alissa Kosch, 8; Kylee Wessel, 2. REBOUNDS HNS - Delayne Sudbeck, 4; Keanna Korth, 2; Olivia Grutsch, 2; Alivia Morten, 2; Mani Lange, 2; Kennadi Peitz, 1. ASSISTS HNS - Alivia Morten, 1; Kayden Jueden, 1; Delaney Sudbeck, 1. STEALS HNS - Kayden Jueden, 2; Mani Lange, 2; Keanna Korth, 1.

SCORING HNS - Kayden Jueden, 8; Alivia Morten, 4; Keanna Korth, 4; Lauren Howell, 3; Delayne Sudbeck, 2.

REBOUNDS HNS - Kayden Jueden, 6; Alivia Morten, 6; Keanna Korth, 2; Zoey Gratzfeld, 1; Lauren Howell, 1; Mani Lange, 1.

ASSISTS HNS - Delayne Sudbeck, 1.

STEALS HNS- Kayden Jueden, 2; Mani Lange, 2; Alivia Morten, 1; Delayne Sudbeck, 1.

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