Wildcats fall in regular season finale

RANDOLPH — After beating a very good Laurel-Concord-Coleridge team in its last outing, Hartington-Newcastle lost its final regular season contest, 49-44 to Osmond-Randolph on the road Feb. 16 before heading into SubDistrict action this week.

The Osmond-Randolph Hawks got revenge on the Hartington-Newcastle Wildcats in the regular season finale for both teams Friday.

The two teams had played on Feb. 1 in the Lewis & Clark Tournament with the Wildcats taking home a 51-39 win.

Things played out differently on the Hawks’ home court this time around. O-R came out of the gates hot and led 7-0 midway through the first, and led 17-10 after the first frame.

Logan Lienemann nailed a trey at the buzzer at the conclusion of the first quarter, in which he scored eight points.

Hartington-Newcastle had a surge late in the second quarter to close the gap to 26-23 entering the halftime locker room.

In the first 2:16 of the third quarter, H-N jumped out to a 10-0 run and forced the Hawks to use a timeout early in the second half.

O-R was able to ride three-pointers by Owen Severson, Lienemann, and Xander Brown to lead at the end of the third quarter break 36-35.

Riley Sudbeck and Brayden Lammers led the way for the Wildcats with 15 points each in the contest. Sudbeck completed a double-double by pulling down 13 missed shots, Lammers just missed his doubledouble with nine boards.

Cole Heimes added 12 points and had a couple of steals and Cole Rosener had a bucket, four rebounds and two assists.

O-R’s record improved to 6-15 as the Wildcats fell to 8-12.

Hartington-Newcastle was set to take on Wynot Feb. 20 with the Wildcats seeded third and the Blue Devils seeded second.

The game will be played in Walthill, which is the top seed in the tournament. The Blujays were scheduled to play Lyons-Decatur Northeast in the tournament opener.

The winners from the opening round will meet in the sub-district final Feb. 22 in Walthill with tipoff slated for 7 p.m.

HNS 10 13 12 9 — 44 O-R 17 9 10 13 — 49

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

HNS (8-12): Cole Heimes 4-12 2-2 12P, 3R, 1A, 2S; Austin Sudbeck 0-1 0-0 0P; Keatyn Arens 0-0 0-0 0P, 2R; Cole Rosener 1-7 0-0 2P, 4R, 2A 1B; Ayden Rosener 0-2 0-0 0P, 1R, 2S; Brayden Lammers 7-10 1-4 15P, 9R, 2S, 1B; Riley Sudbeck 6-16 0-1 15P, 12R, 1A, 1S; Lincoln Grutsch 0-0 0-0 0P, 1R.

OSMOND-RANDOLPH (6-15): Owen Severson 1-6 1-2 4P; Ryan Engel 2-3 2-4 6P; Hunter Buchanan 3-40-0 6P; Xander Brown 2-8 3-4 9P; Brayden Shearer 2-5 0-0 4P; Baylen Guenther 1-1 0-0 2P; Logan Linemann 3-4 3-4 12P; Luke Harder 2-6 2-2 6P.