LEXINGTON – The season is starting to wind down and the districts are starting to take shape as teams prepare for their run to the state tournament.
Before the district tournament, the Lexington basketball teams began their first games of the annual East-West Shootout.
The girls remained at home in Lexington while the boys are on the road this year, as the teams opened up the shootout against Scottsbluff.
The girls struggled to shoot the ball, but were solid on defense as they opened up with a 43-30 win over the Lady Bearcats.
The Maids prevailed earlier in the season over Scottsbluff at the GNAC tournament, winning that contest 52-33.
The Bearcats came out quickly nailing a three pointer to take an early 3-0 lead. The Maids were phased by the quick deficit, jumping back on top and leading 5-3. The Maids found themselves in a not-so-familiar position after the first quarter, trailing the Lady Bearcats by four. The five points in the first quarter is the lowest first quarter this season for Lex.
The Maids got the offense rolling in the second quarter, and this time the defense by junior Hailey Mandelko and seniors Renee Otero and Bridget Seberger held the Bearcats to four points in the second quarter as the Maids led at the half 19-13.
Lexington came out on fire once again in the third quarter, improving each quarter, this time outscoring the Bearcats 18-11 in the third to extend their lead to 37-24.
Two quick three pointers from Scottsbluff quickly cut the lead to single digits, but that was all that the Bearcats could manage in the final quarter, as the Maids took the first game of the East-West shootout.
Mandelko led with a game-high 14 points, while Bridget Seberger and Katherine Longly each had eight points. Sydney Seberger also chipped in for seven points.
Scottsbluff was led by the team of Mak Westphal and Bianca Renteria, with Westphal scoring 13 and Renteria putting in 11 points.
The Maids improve to 14-4 on the season while the Lady Bearcats drop to a respectable 13-6.
The Maids took on a feisty Gering squad Friday night in preparation for their highly anticipated match-up with No. 3 Alliance (17-2) on Saturday afternoon. The games with Gering and Alliance will be in the Feb. 17 issue of the Clipper-Herald.
The boys had to make the long trip to the panhandle for the Shootout this season, as they opened their three-game series with the Bearcats.
The Lexington boys basketball team came up big down the stretch Thursday night to topple Scottsbluff 62-55 in the first day of the East West Shootout at Scottsbluff High School.
Scottsbluff rallied to take the lead toward the end of the third quarter; however, Lexington put together a rally of its own in the final minutes to prevail.
“We didn’t play well with the lead tonight,” Scottsbluff coach Tony Siske said. “We put up some bad shots and turned the ball over at some inopportune times. [Lexington] took advantage of it every time, getting shots down the stretch. We wanted to press and try to trap them. We did that, but we didn’t do it well. We also wanted to speed them up a little bit, but we didn’t do a very good job in our press.”
Siske said his team will quickly move past the setback, especially since the Bearcats will be in action again tonight at home against McCook in the second day of the Shootout.
“We’re not going to dwell on this loss too much,” Siske said. “We’re going to come back fresh and ready to play McCook.”
Siske said earning a win today won’t be easy.
“With McCook, we’ll have to rebound better than we did tonight,” Siske said. “They’re a big team; we’ve got to be stronger and box out every time. We’re going to need everyone. Rich Williams came off the bench tonight to give us a bit of a boost; we’re going to try to get him some more experience and see at districts if he can give us a few more minutes.”
Zach Clemens led Scottsbluff’s scoring effort with 13 points, followed by Michael Hoppes with 12.
Scottsbluff held a 40-38 lead at the end of the third quarter. Lexington, though, went back in front 52-51 with just over 3 minutes left to play.
Scottsbluff couldn’t regain the lead as a number of fouls and turnovers hindered their offensive output. The Bearcats scored just four points in the last 3 minutes.
Lexington coach Eric Young said his team is used to playing in close games.
“I think this is the ninth game that we’ve won in single digits,” he said. “We executed down at the end. The kids did a nice job taking care of the ball, which is what we needed to do.”
Lexington senior Andrew Rios put up 21 points, followed by Aaron Luther with 12 and Stefan Baker with 11.
“Rios did a nice job tonight, shooting the ball from the outside,” Young said. “He’s usually a penetrator, so we don’t often get those outside shots. We have a good group of seniors leading the charge. Every night it seems like we have a different top scorer.
“Basketball is a game of runs, and these kids keep their heads in close games like this one. Scottsbluff made a run with about three minutes left in the game, but the kids kept their cool and made some shots where we needed to and knocked them down. We executed where we needed to.”
Angela Scanlan of the Scottsbluff Star-Herald contributed to this story.