Wakefield hands Wildcats a big setback

WAKEFIELD — It was definitely not the ideal way to enter the Christmas break when the Hartington-Newcastle boys basketball team trekked over to Wakefield.

The Wildcats came out on the sour end of a 60-28 defeat and dropped their fifth straight contest and were now in fix-it mode.

The Cats got a restart on the season Monday against Stanton in the Stanton Holiday Tourney.

But the Wakefield game definitely had head coach Nick Haselhorst thinking.

“We didn’t play well in all aspects of the game,” he said. “Our communication, energy and execution were poor. We need to play with focus, discipline and energy, and we need to improve in all aspects of the game.”

Junior do-everything Jake Peitz acknowledged that the team has struggled out of the gate, but also admits that his freshman year saw the same opening weeks to the season and the Wildcats ultimately made a state run.

“We are a little worried, but hopefully during this break we have figured something out and got our heads back in it to come back a stronger team,” Peitz said. “We have good leaders in the locker room and we all have the same desire to go out and win the games while playing as a team. 

“That state team had only two seniors on it, but we had very good leaders on it. We have two seniors this year, too. I just see a lot of the same things I saw when we made state. The coaches don’t give up and we just all are trying to make it a positive season.”

Peitz said the Wildcats have to work harder in practice so that it flows over into the games. 

Wakefield                16    20    13     11 — 60

Hartington-Newcastle    4    5    13    6 — 28

    HNS    Wakefield

FG    11-29        ---

3PT    0-9        ---

FT    6-12        ---

Reb    17            ---

TOs    16            ---

SCORING

HNS - Jake Peitz, 11; Kobe Heitman, 10; Benett Sievers, 4; Seth Pinkelman, 2; Riley Sudbeck, 1. 

REBOUNDS 

HNS - Bennett Sievers, 5; Kobe Heitman, 4; Turner Dendinger, 4; Seth Pinkelman, 2; Jake Peitz, 2.

ASSISTS 

HNS - Riley Sudbeck, 2; Seth Pinkelman, 1; Turner Dendinger,1; Bennett Sievers, 1; Isaac Bruning, 1. 

STEALS 

HNS - Turner Dendinger, 3; Seth Pinkelman, 3; Kobe Heitman, 2.

Stay in the know!

To get news alerts on your cell phone, get the Cedar County News app in the ITunes store or  in the Google Play Store.