The Nemaha Central Middle School boys basketball team traveled to play the Royal Valley Panthers on Monday, January 9. These games were the second night of competition for the Thunder boys and they were hoping for another clean sweep.
The Thunder 8th grade A-team started the first quarter slowly, scoring only 6 points, while the Thunder defense allowed the Panthers to score 16 points. The score at the end of the first quarter was 6-16 with the Thunder trailing. Starting the second quarter, the Thunder was making a comeback. They were able to score 17 points while holding the Panthers to only 6 points. Going into halftime, the score was 23-22 with the Thunder taking the lead.
After halftime, the Thunder came out scoring 8 points but they let the Panthers score 10 points. At the end of the third quarter, the score was 31-32 and the Thunder was down. They continued to work hard on defense and in the end, it rewarded them. The Thunder came out strong in the fourth quarter and continued to work hard against the Panthers. The Thunder team kept the Panthers to only 2 points the whole quarter, while also scoring 7 points themselves. The Thunder team came away with a close win with the final score of 38-34.
Isaac Heinen said, “I think we played great defense against a good team and came out with the win.”
After that close A-team win against the Panthers, the 8th grade B-team game started. The Thunder started off slow on offense only scoring 2 points but they kept the Panthers to 4 points. The score at the end of the first quarter was 2-4. The Thunder boys came out strong in the second quarter scoring 8 points and only letting the Panthers score 2 more points. The score at halftime was 10-6 with the Thunder in the lead.
Leaving halftime and entering the third quarter the Thunder slowed down and were only able to score 2 points as their defense worked hard and kept the Panthers to 4 points. At the end of the third quarter, it was 12-10 with the Thunder barely holding on. Going into the fourth quarter the Thunder's defense started to crumble as they allowed the Panthers to score 11 points. The Thunder tried to keep up but only scored 2 points. The score at the end of the game was 14-21 and the Thunder B-team lost their first game of the season.
The 7th grade A-team boys game started off with a low-scoring first quarter against the Royal Valley Panthers. The Thunder team scored 2 points in the first quarter but allowed the Panthers to score 4 points. The Thunder boys were down 2-4 at the end of the first quarter. In the second quarter, the Thunder team was still struggling to score but the Panthers managed to hit a few baskets. The score entering halftime was 5-10 with the Thunder down.
Starting the third quarter, the Thunder hoped to catch up to the Panthers. They scored 5 points, but sadly, the Panthers were able to score 6 points to keep the lead over the Thunder. The fourth quarter arrived and the Thunder came out strong. Both teams were able to put 9 more points on the board. In the end, the Thunder team wasn’t able to pull through and lost with a score of 19-25
Cormik Hajek said, “We could’ve played better, but there were moments of hard work.”
After the 7th grade A-game, the 7th grade B-team game started. The Thunder started off strong, scoring 12 points. Their defense worked hard keeping the Panthers to only 6 points. In the second quarter, the Thunder continued to work hard on offense and defense and scored another 12 points while holding the Panthers to 5 points. The seventh grade B-team game was only 2 quarters due to athlete numbers, so the game ended with a score of 24-11.
Even though the Thunder teams didn’t all win. They still worked hard and ended the night with a couple of the teams remaining undefeated. The Thunder team hopes to continue improving throughout the season and looks forward to playing the Panthers again.
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