The Nemaha Central Middle School boys basketball team played Jeff West at home on Thursday, January 12. The Thunder team had high hopes that they would win these games.
The Thunder eighth grade A-team’s game started off with Jeff West scoring first. The Tigers stayed aggressive and were able to outscore the Thunder in the first quarter, 2-7. After the Thunder team debated their next move, they really put up some offense but not enough defense allowing the Tigers to keep the lead with a halftime score of 11-13.
Going into the third quarter, the Tiger team was keeping the game smooth by maintaining their steady score. The Thunder team was starting to slip back to the first quarter with their score starting to tumble to the Tigers leaving the score at 15-20 with Jeff West still in the lead. Now for the final quarter, the Thunder prepared themselves for whatever it takes to win this game. Unfortunately, the Thunder team wasn’t prepared enough for the Tigers. The Thunder tried to put equal amounts of pressure on the Tiger’s offense, however, the Tigers still maintained their steady rhythm for the win with a final score of 17-27.
The Thunder's next game was the eighth grade B-team against the Tiger’s eighth grade B-team. The Thunder came out flat and shots were not falling, while the Tigers scored several ending the first quarter 0-9. Before the second quarter began, the Thunder team decided that the opposing team was a real challenge. The Tigers didn’t find much of a challenge against the Thunder. The second quarter ended 0-15 with the Thunder still not scoring a single point.
The third quarter began and the Thunder team hoped to make a comeback. The Thunder picked up the pace against the Tigers by out-scoring them this quarter making the score 11-20. The Thunder team hoped to keep this pace up but ended the fourth quarter scoreless while Jeff West scored 5 more points. The final score was 11-25 with Jeff West winning the game.
Graham Korber said, “We tried our best but in the end, we didn’t come through on top.”
The Thunder seventh grade A-team started off strong against Jeff West with a whopping 12 points in the first quarter. Jeff West scored 3 points to end the first quarter 12-3. In the second quarter, the Thunder flawlessly made 9 points separating themselves from Jeff West entirely by showing their dominance. Jeff West managed to make 2 points. Going into halftime the score was 21-5.
The Thunder stayed aggressive and scored 8 more points in the third quarter, while Jeff West added 5 more points to their score. NC was strong again in the fourth quarter scoring 12 more points and the Tigers had their best quarter scoring 7. The Thunder still picked up the victory with a final score of 41-17.
Noah Hilbert remarked, “We played hard, but we could’ve done better.”
The seventh grade B-team game only had a total of two quarters between the Thunder and the Tigers. The game started slowly for both teams but the Thunder took the lead scoring 4 points as Jeff West trailed behind with 1 point. In the final quarter, both teams made it count. NC scored 10 points and Jeff West made 8 points, which was not enough to win the game. The final score was 14-9 for another NC win.
Jeff West was some great competition for the eighth grade teams and they can't wait to play them again to try for the win. The seventh grade teams cruised through play with the Tigers for a couple of wins.
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