Photos/Sandra Johnson

The Tiger basketball team finished their regular season with a loss in Wright Friday night before wining their home finale over Guernsey-Sunrise on Saturday.

Lusk has held the upper hand against the Panthers recently, yet the teams got off to fast starts last Friday night. The score was 14-14 after one quarter, before the Tiger defense clamped down. NCHS outscored Wright 12-3 in the second and set what appeared to a solid game-winning pace.

That quickly deteriorated in the second half as the Panthers went off for 17 third quarter points. While Lusk’s defense slept, the offense did just enough to keep it interesting. After three quarters the score was 39-34 Lusk hanging on to a slim lead.

In the fourth quarter, Lusk got tentative with the ball while Wright continued to drop in long range threes. The offense managed just five fourth quarter points and the defense watched the home team come from behind to win 51-44.

NCHS Scoring: Trent Johnson 8, Charles Kleinberg 7, Andrew Niziol 6, Dakota Castle 6, Jerit DeGering 4, Zach Gill, Michael Coon 4, Ryan Prather 3. Rebounds- Coon 6. Johnson 4.

NCHS: 13/36 FG, 12/18 FT, 2/9 3pt, 30 REB, 13 TO, 18 PF.

WRIGHT: 11/30 FG, 11/21 FT, 6/13 3pt, 33 REB, 16 TO, 16 PF.

Saturday was parent’s night for the two seniors, Zach Gill and Andrew Niziol, on this year’s squad and one last go against the Guernsey-Sunrise Vikings. While it certainly should have been a fairly easy win, the Tigers came out with no rhythm and not shooting the ball very well. NCHS committed seven turnovers and was down 8-5 after one period.

The game remained ugly as the Vikings employ a slow paced game that relies on outside quickness and thug mentality in the paint. Michael Coon scored the last four points of the second quarter to tie it at 17 after G-S led.

Trent Johnson hit a triple right away in the third quarter and from there the Lusk defense turned it up. NCHS doubled up the Vikings in the second half 30-15 to pull away for the 47-32 win.

NCHS Scoring- Coon 17, Johnson 11, Mason 6, Castle 6, Kleinberg 3, Gill 2, Niziol 2. Rebounds- Coon 10, Johnson 7, Gill 5, Niziol 4. Assists- Johnson 4.

NCHS: 19/46 FG, 3/6 FT, 2/19 3pt, 46 REB, 14 TO, 10 PF.

G-S: 11/32 FG, 1/ 2 FT, 3/15 3pt, 33 REB, 23 TO, 10 PF.

The Tigers now face Tongue River in the first round of the 2A East Regionals. This year’s tournament is scheduled for Douglas High School, Feb. 25-27. Thursday’s tip-off is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. All tournament brackets and admission prices are available online at www.whsaa.org.

The JV and C-squad finished their seasons last weekend. The JV beat Wright 53-50 and G-S 56-23 to finish with an 11-9 record. The C-squad wrapped up their season with a 62-59 win in Douglas on Feb. 16, to finish with a 4-9 record.



For the complete article see the 02-24-2010 issue.

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