Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper

Sidney boys post pair of key victories

Raiders now 4-1 after wins vs. Chase County, Sterling

The Sidney High School boys' basketball team downed the Sterling Tigers on Saturday night, 47-31, to push its record to an impressive 4-1 to start the season.

It was Sterling's first loss of the year, falling to 3-1.

Sidney's suffocating defense and impressive rebounding helped them post the win..

Sidney held Sterling to a meager 31 points, which is 25 points under its season scoring average of 56 points per game.

Six-foot, four-inch junior Tyler Wintholtz led all scorers with 14 points. Wintholtz also grabbed six rebounds. Wintholtz got help from juniors Jake Heeren and Cutter O'connell, who combined for 15 points and 10 rebounds.

"My mindset was to play the best defense we can and the offense will come to us," Wintholtz said. "We improved on our defense and rebounding. The focus going into our next game is to take pride on defense again and just focus on winning more games."

Sidney held Sterling, who was averaging 15 points per game in the first quarter, to only 15 points in the first two quarters combined.

Sterling juniors Chas and Davis Lebsock combined for 20 points and four rebounds. The Red Raiders allowed a mere 16 points in the second half keeping Sterling well under their second half average of 27.7 points per game this season.

"This was a tough game," said Sidney head coach Erik Kohl. "It was a slow-paced, grind-it-out game possession by possession. We got stronger as the game went. It was nice to pull out and find a way to get a win."

The Raiders next game will be Thursday night at Alliance, which is coming off a 63-54 loss to Gering. Alliance is 1-4 this season.

The Raiders will have to game plan to stop 6-2 senior guard Jordan Mills. Mills is leading the Bulldogs in points, rebounds and assists. The senior is having an impressive season tallying a stat line of 15 points per game, eight rebounds and 2.3 assists per contest.

"Next week we have Alliance and then Fort Morgan (Colorado) after that," Kohl said. "Those are two more good teams. We've had really good challenging opponents. All our opponents will be challenging this December, so we have to close out strong. It's going to be important to keep our focus. We have two road games and it's always tough to play on the road so we have to be ready Thursday and Friday."

In its other action over the weekend, Sidney defeated Chase County 63-54 on the road.

 

Reader Comments(0)