2010 STATE TOURNAMENT GAME NOTES
(3/12/10) LINCON (KBRX SPORTS) -- The Ewing Tigers were up to their old tricks on Friday as they bounced the Hay Springs Hawks 61-to-48 behind solid shot selection, and good free throw shooting. That puts the Tigers back into the D Two State Championship Game on Saturday evening at 5:00PM.
The Tigers shot well all day long, scoring 18 points in the first period while hitting eight-of-11 shots from the floor in first quarter.
Second quarter was much of the same.
While the Tigers built a 38-to-24 lead late in the half, they rained home eight-of-11 inside the arch and closed the quarter hitting eight-of-12 free throws.
It would appear that the Tigers would close the half up by 14 but Hay Springs' Trenton Kuhn hit a buzzer beater from 60 feet away giving the Tigers and 11 point lead at half at 38-to-27.
The third quarter was trouble for the Tigers.
Trenton Kuhn started right where he left off as he poured in 11 points in the third period and the Tigers saw their lead dwindle down to 51-to-43 at the end of three quarters.
Midway through the fourth quarter, the Tigers fans were not breathing very easy.
Hay Springs had cut the lead to eight, when Austin Kaczor came up limping after a missed three by the Hawks.
Kaczor exited with 6:24 to play and the Tigers clinging to an eight point lead, but his fellow Tigers responed to the call. Despite not scoring during Kaczor's time away, the Tigers did not allow the Hawks a basket either so when Kaczor returned after being attened to by Athletic Trainer Stephaine Gilson of Avera St. Anthony's Hospital, he found his Tigers still in front by eight.
That stalemate may have sealed it as the Tigers scored six points in the final four plus minutes, they only allowed the Hawks three more points and sealed the win 61-to-48.
Austin Kaczor led the way with 25 for the Tigers. Chad Rokhar tossed in nine while Josiah Switzer scored eight and Troy Thramer knocked in five.
The Tigers shot 19-of-32 inside the arch, three-of-14 behind the arch and 14-of-19 from the free throw line. That put the Tigers at 47% shooting from the floor and 74% from the free throw line.
The Tigers rebounded well again. Off eight offensive boards the Tigers tossed in an additional ten points off the glass.
"I thought our bigs worked big," said Coach Greg Appleby after the ballgame. "I thought Troy Thramer was really good today. Yesterday's performance I didn't think was aggressive enough but him and Chad (Rokhar) combined for 16 and I think that is what I put on the board after we got beat by Axtell, you guys gotta get 16 somehow someway and they battled in their on the offensive boards. They do all the dirty work and don't get alot of credit for it."
Lars Backward led the Hawks with 17 despite only scoring three in the second half, while Trenton Kuhn hit for 16.
"We had to switch up some defenses on him (Lars Backward)," said Appleby. "I didn't think we could give them the same look everytime, but we went with our staple the one-three-one, then we went to what we call a three-one chaser, and put Philip Thramer where ever he was at, and I thought Thramer did a great job. Lars is a stud and he can shoot it."
Hays Springs drops to 24-and-two on the year and heads for consolation action tomorrow at Lincoln Southwest and meet the Hayes Center Cardinals.
The Ewing Tigers are now 25-and-one and headed to the Bob on Saturday to take on Hampton in the D-Two State Boys Championship, after the 25-and-one Hawks fought off the Hayes Center Cardinals 74-to-63 in overtime.
Game time for the Tigers is 5:00PM with the Dr. Pepper Pre-Game Show and the Special T's and More Starting Line-Ups at 4:30PM on 102.9FM KBRX and on the web at www.kbrx.com.
(3/11/10) LINCOLN, NE (KBRX SPORTS) -- The Ewing Tigers may have made the fans a bit nervous with a slow start on Thursday morning in the D2 Boys State Quarterfinals at Lincoln Southeast High School, but as the Tigers got their legs about them the five point short coming at the end of the first quarter turned into a 58-to-43 handling of the Heartland Lutheran Red Hornets.
The Tigers did not start quickly allowing the Red Hornets to pull in front early and lead all the way to the 3:16 mark in the seccond quarter.
Five different Red Hornets would score in the first eight minutes but the Tigers would stage their rally starting at the second quarter.
The Tigers would go off for 18 in the second quarter.
Chase Funk would hit two three-pointers while Philip Thramer and Austin Kaczor would toss in four each and the Tigers led into the locker room 27-to-24 after taking their first lead at 3:16 to go in the second quarter.
From that point on it was all Ewing.
The Tigers would outscore the Red Hornets 16-to-ten in the third and 15-to-nine in the fourth as simply won going away 58-to-43.
Austin Kaczor would lead the way with 14 points while Philip Thramer and Josiah Switzer would score 12 each.
The big key for the Tigers may have been Chad Rokahr scoring nine points all of offense rebounds while he and his helping hoar held 6' 8" Senior Cole Kowalski to just ten points scoring nearly five below his average while no other Red Hornet got into double figures.
Ewing hit 13-of-20 from the free throw line for a solid 65% while Heartland Lutheran connected on just two-of-four free throws as Ewing committed just six fouls in the entire game.
The Tigers run their record to 24-to-one and head for the Pershing Center for a Friday afternoon semi-final with 24-and-one Hay Springs.
Game time is 2:30PM with the Dr. Pepper Pregame Show at 2:00PM on KBRX, O'Neill and www.kbrx.com.
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