Arapahoe boys finish fourth at Cattle Trail
MCCOOK - The Arapahoe boys basketball team picked up a victory in the first round, but saw its Cattle Trail Tournament end with a fourthplace finish after consecutive losses to quality foes over the weekend.
The Warriors controlled Tuesday’s first round game against Wauneta-Palisade from the outset and pulled away in the third quarter for a 46-3o victory.
Friday, Arapahoe fell in an early hole, but battled through the third quarter and remained on the edge of striking distance before Dundy County-Stratton poured on the points late in a 66-34 victory that knocked the Warriors to the third-place game.
In Saturday’s consolation contest, Hitchcock County dominated the opening quarter and buried the Warriors early as the Falcons led 19-1 after one and rolled away to a 51-30 win.
With a 1-2 tournament, Arapahoe is 2-2 this season, entering a pair of games this weekend.
Against the Broncos, the Warriors built a 14-5 lead after a quarter and maintained a 22-14 edge at half before blowing the game open with a 15-point third quarter for a 37-19 lead through three. Austin Roush led a balanced offense with a double-double of 12 points and 12 rebounds while Grant Taylor scored nine and Cord Frink added eight. Tyler Miller scored six and Reilley Einspahr added five points, six assists and four steals. Frink had two steals and two assists and Nolan Meyers had two assists while Taylor added two steals.
Friday, The Tigers jumped in front with a 20-point first quarter, but Arapahoe used a solid second-quarter to trim a 14-point deficit to 29-18 at the break. DCS controlled the third, but couldn’t shake the Warriors until the Tigers poured in 23 fourth-quarter points for a 32-point victory.
Einspahr led the team with 11 points and Taylor scored nine, but no one else had more than three.
Roush had 11 rebounds and Meyers had seven while he and Ander Wasenius each had two assists. Roush had three steals and Taylor had two.
In the consolation game, Hitchcock County jumped all over the Warriors in the opening eight minutes as the Falcons led 19-1 after a quarter.
Arapahoe clamped down on defense in the second, holding the Falcons to just six points in the period, but the Warriors could only slice one point off the lead by halftime, trailing 25-8 at the break.
Arapahoe put its best offensive quarter together in the third, scoring 16 points, but again the Falcons had answers and maintained a 15-point lead to the fourth, where they rolled away to the 21-point win.
Frink drained five threes for the Warriors and led the team with 15 points in the loss while Einspahr, Wasenius and Taylor each added four points.
Frink and Einspahr each dished two assists and Roush and Meyers each pulled down four rebounds.
