Raiders fend off Longhorns

Despite holding two 16-point leads in the second quarter, Sidney Red was forced to survive a furious comeback by the Chase County Longhorns to win a 56-49 non league contest Friday night.

In front of the home faithful at Cabela's Athletic Facility, the Red Raiders (2-2) sent the Class C1 Longhorns (3-1) to their first defeat of the young season.

During the second quarter when buckets by Tyler Wintholz and Lucas Rosenbaum were answered by Chase County, Sidney twice held their biggest leads of the game.

When the visitors ended the first half on a three pointer and a three-point play, shrinking the Raiders' lead to 10 at 31-21, it was a foreshadowing of things to come in second 16 minutes.

"I think it was more us than them," said the Raiders Lane Harvey. "We started taking quicker shots and rushing more than we had earlier."

Chase County senior Isaac Sorensen opened the second half with a three pointer from the top of the key. It was the beginning of what would soon become a tie ball game. The Longhorns began the run as Sidney answered the Sorensen three and another by Travis Luhrs with shots from inside the arc.

Paxton Ehler followed Sorensen with a duece on a nice inbounds from Wintholz and then Harvey drove in for a layup in response to Luhrs.

The Longhorns picked up the pace with a 7-0 run to bring the contest to 35-34 for Sidney. Though Wintholz interupted the run with a foul shot, Trey Milner's two tied the contest at 36 in the final minute of quarter three.

Rosenbaum salvalged the quarter for the Raiders when his bucket allowed them to enter the final eight minutes with a 2 point lead.

Though the deciding fourth quarter was a see-saw affair much of the way, the Raiders began to pull away over the final three minutes. Sidney was aided in its late surge by their skill at the line, making 12 of 16 attempts.

"I can't remember the last time I hit six straight free throws," said Logan Lewis who went 6-8 from the line. "That's a key for us. If we can make our free throws and win the rebound battle we're going to be pretty successful."

Chase County was actually able to take its first lead of the game at 44-43 by sinking a foul shot with 3:55 to play. But the Longhorns lead lasted just 20 seconds, as Sidney responded with a vengence.

With the game on the line the hosts reeled off 9 straight points, including 3 points from Wintholz and 2 by Harvey.

Ehler dropped in the other 4 from the free-throw line.

By the time the Raiders final push was over only 1:10 was left in the game. Forced to foul, Harvey and Lewis eached dropped in a pair of free ones before Lurhrs ended the game with a three pointer.

"We've been working on our foul shooting at the end of practice when we're tired," said Harvey. "That will help us at the end of games when we need to sink our shots when we're most tired."

Ehler scored a foul-line jumper 27 seconds in to set the Raiders off towards their large first-half leads. After a Longhorns response, Harvey both started and finished a Raiders 11-2 run. His opener came after stealing the ball in Raiders court and charging back the other way for an easy two. Harvey then finished the run by taking a Rosenbaum kick-out pass behind the arc for a trey.

Though Chase County broke up the run, Cutter O'Connell finished Sidney's first quarter scoring with a three pointer from the left side. When the horn sounded the Raiders lead was 16-8 after eight minutes.

Sidney extended its lead by racking up the first 7 points of the second frame. Wintholz was twice good from the foul line and then followed with a layup. Ehler concluded the run with a three for a 23-11 advantage.

Boys Basketball

Sidney 56

Chase Co. 49