Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Michael Smith attempts a shot in a game against the Wildcats on Monday night. Smith had 8 points in the game.
Creek Valley's Austin Soucie, right, guards Banner County's James Sandberg on Monday night in Chappell. The Storm won, 85-10.
CHAPPELL – The Creek Valley High boys basketball team is headed to the Minuteman Activities Conference Tournament semifinals after blasting Banner County, 85-10, on Monday night.
"I think all of our players are very competitive," Storm head coach Roger Behrends said. "Therefore, they show up and play hard every game."
The Storm (7-6) dominated every aspect of the matchup, from tipoff to the final buzzer. The entire Creek Valley roster got on the scoreboard.
Behrends said he was proud of all 14 players.
"They played hard and executed the offense well," he remarked.
The Storm's Keith Everitt tallied 20 points, followed by 10 from Colin Brott. Four Creek Valley players had 8 points on the night: Brett Godfrey, Michael Rahe, Michael Smith and Gage Koenen.
"I felt like it went basically the way we expected," Everitt said. "We just wanted to come in and execute. We didn't want to play below what we were capable of."
Banner County (0-11), with only one player on the bench during Monday's game, didn't score until a minute into the second period, making it 39-3. By halftime, the score was 51-6.
While the Wildcats hit a pair of buckets in the third, they were scoreless in the final period.
The game was defined by dozens of Storm fast breaks the length of court after picking off Banner County passes. Twelve Creek Valley athletes recorded steals, with Godfrey chalking up 11.
"I feel like the main thing [on Monday night] was just to get ball movement, get a rhythm," he said.
The court time allotted to players coming off the bench gave them some experience going into Thursday's semifinal, he added.
Creek Valley will take on Garden County (6-5) at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday at Sidney Middle School.
"We treated it as preparation," Everitt said of the Banner County game, "getting in the mindset to work our way toward the conference championship – because it's something we haven't done for five years. This year, we're more than capable of doing it if we execute like we did [on Monday]."
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