Sidney boys stumble at Scottsbluff

SCOTTSBLUFF, Neb. – Like a good heavyweight fight, it took a little while for the Sidney and Scottsbluff boys' basketball teams to get a feel for each other on Saturday night.

After trading punches in a sloppy opening eight minutes, the Bearcats' Dru Kuxhausen landed a few knockout punches that Sidney ultimately couldn't recover from. Scottsbluff posted a 70-56 victory in front of a loud and packed home gym, snapping the Red Raiders' 12-game winning streak.

Sidney slipped to 17-3 this season – with two of those losses coming at the hands of the rival Bearcats – while Scottsbluff improved to 14-4.

And a lot of that was because of Kuxhausen's sharpshooting in the second quarter.

After Sidney opened a 9-8 lead after the opening quarter, Kuxhausen took over. He scored 20 points in the second period, hitting six 3-pointers. That helped stake Scottsbluff to a 36-30 lead at halftime, and it never trailed from there.

"He's a real good player, just a pure shooter," said Sidney head coach Erik Kohl about Kuxhausen, who is just a sophomore. "He's a kid who in the gym all of time just working hard. He was on tonight."

Three Scottsbluff players combined for 59 of its 70 points, with Kuxhausen leading the way with 26. Teammates Trent Harris and Landon Walker added 18 and 15 points respectively.

Sidney played just seven players in the contest. Center Jared Ross was out with an illness and reserve guard Ryan Birner was sidelined with an ankle injury.

"We gave it everything we had tonight and just came up short," added Kohl, whose team lost for the first time since it dropped a game at Fort Morgan (Colo.) back on Dec. 19. "Sometimes you're real disappointed after a loss, but I'm really proud of our guys for the effort they gave tonight. We played a great team in a very loud, tough environment."

Tyler Wintholz paced Sidney with 22 points. Lane Harvey added 11 and Jake Heeren chipped in 10.

"We'll be looking forward to seeing (Scottsbluff) again," Wintholz said. "It'll be a revenge game.

"We will just try to build momentum from here in our next few games before we get into Districts," he added. "We'll be OK."

Harvey, the lone senior in the Red Raiders' starting lineup on Saturday, expects to tangle with the Bearcats again in the next few weeks.

"I'm a little disappointed in the outcome tonight, but we did get them once this year already," Harvey said. "We're going to see them again if we want to go to state this season.

"Tonight, we missed a lot of easy shots," he added. "If we make those, it's a whole different ballgame."

After Scottsbluff pulled ahead the 36-30 advantage at the intermission behind Kuxhausen's hot hand, the Bearcats continued to apply the pressure in the second half. They opened leads as large as 13 points in the third quarter and 17 points with about 2 minutes left.

The Red Raiders battled foul trouble most of the evening, In fact, Sidney was whistled for 18 fouls, compared to just 10 for Scottsbluff. The Bearcats were 14 of 17 from the free-throw line on the evening, while Sidney was 5 for 8.

The Red Raiders return to action at home on Friday night against Chadron (13-5).