The Nemaha Central Middle School Thunder basketball team traveled to Sabetha to face the Bluejays in one final game on Monday, February 21. All teams looked to end their season with one final win against their cross-county rival.
The eighth-grade A-team’s game started slowly with the Thunder only scoring a three, while Sabetha one-upped them and scored 4 points. The second quarter went back and forth as both teams couldn’t buy a bucket. Sabetha and NC were both able to score 5 points to end the half leaving the score 9-8 favoring Sabetha.
As the second half of the eighth-grade A-game started, the Thunder looked to get back in the game after a slow start whereas the Bluejays sought to keep the lead. NC responded with 8 points but Sabetha was hot scoring 13 points. Sabetha held the lead 22-16 and NC knew they had to get back in the game to win. So as the fourth quarter started, NC desperately scored 13 needed points. Sabetha kept holding on to a tiny lead scoring 7 points as the game was nearing the end. With a few seconds left in the game, it was tied at 29 apiece. The Thunder needed one more shot to win the game. The Thunder shot the ball and missed but an NC player rebounded and put it back up as time expired. A close battle had come to a thrilling end as the Thunder came away victorious, 31-29.
The next game was the eighth-grade B-team game. It was a slow start with both teams showing good defense. NC only scored 4 points and held the Bluejays to only 2 points. The next quarter saw similar things for the Bluejays only scoring 2 points. NC continued to put up shots, which resulted in 9 points. This concluded the first half with NC leading, 13-4.
Third-quarter action saw both teams knocking down some shots. The Thunder extended their lead with 7 points, as Sabetha, still trailing, scored 4 more points. At the end of the third quarter, the score was 20-8. The Thunder kept pounding points out and scored 6 more. The Bluejays couldn’t score any points and fell to the Thunder with the final score of 26-8. This added the final 2 wins for the very successful eighth-grade teams.
Cole Lyons said, “It’s always great to beat our county rival, Sabetha.”
Both the NC and Sabetha seventh-grade-A teams stepped onto the court with a chance to end their season with a win. NC started off scoring 8 points, while Sabetha only scored half of that and trailed going into the second quarter. NC had a good start to the second quarter scoring 8 points and Sabetha retaliated by scoring 6 points of their own. NC led heading into halftime, 16-10.
NC came out after halftime fired up, scoring 11 points in the third quarter, while Sabetha only scored 5. NC dominated the fourth quarter scoring 11 points again. Sabetha scored one less from the previous quarter with 4 points. NC came out with the win with a final score of 38-19.
"It felt great to destroy Sabetha," said Isaac Heinen.
The seventh-grade B-game started off with NC coming out hot scoring 8 points right off the bat, while Sabetha only scored 2 points. Sabetha had a great second quarter coming out strong scoring 10 points, while NC had a rough second quarter scoring only 2 points. Heading into halftime the score was 10-12 with NC trailing.
Both teams had a slow third quarter with NC only scoring 4 points and Sabetha 3. The score at the end of the third quarter was 14-15 with NC coming close to taking the lead. Sabetha popped off in the fourth quarter, breaking down the NC defense. Sabetha scored 8 and NC just couldn’t get the ball to fall coming up short with only 4 points. The final score was 18-23 with Sabetha coming out on top.
These last wins ended the Thunder’s successful season. The eighth-grade-A team ended up with only one loss outside of the league and finished the season undefeated in league play. The seventh-grade-A team also ended their season undefeated. The B-teams won the majority of their games, only losing a couple along the way. Congratulations to all Thunder teams on a great season of basketball!
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