Sidney knocks off Minutemen sixth consecutive win

Add another win for the streaking Sidney boys basketball team as their 60-40 effort over the Lexington Minutemen at Cabela's Athletic Facility on Saturday was sixth in a row.

With wins in nine of their last 10 contests the Raiders record now stands at 10-3. The Minutemen, another Class B squad which plays in District 5, fell to 5-8. For Sidney, the run is said to be a school record for boys basketball.

Sidney was never in serious danger against Lexington. Tyler Wintholz's two and Paxton Ehler's trey got the home team off to quick 5-0 lead. The Raiders trailed only once briefly after that.

"We've been playing better but we still need to keep improving," said Wintholz. "We could box out better and play better overall defense, and we'll be working on that."

Ehler hit another three pointer later in the first quarter and Lucas Rosenbaum completed a three-point play to highlight the Raiders output. The frame ended when Lane Harvey used his shortstop arm to hit Logan Lewis with a long pass for an easy fast break.

The Raiders led by as many as 7 in the opening period, but the score was a narrow 15-12 when the horn sounded.

Lexington managed their only lead of the game in the second quarter, albeit briefly. A pair of free throws by Lexington's Trevor McKeone put his team in the lead at 18-17 with 5:50 left in the half. The advantage held for just 95 seconds, however, as Lucas Rosenbaum and Ehler hit consecutive threes to put Sidney ahead for good.

Soon after, Wintholz converted a nice pass from Harvey underneath and Logan Lewis closed out the half with a free throw.

"(Lexington) is a lot better than their record shows. They've lost to some really good teams," said Lewis. "We played a good game tonight. We played as a team and found open shots. I don't think many of our shots were contested and we contested all their shots."

Ehler, whose long distance touch was in fine form all night, opened the second half by draining his fourth three of the game. Later, after being fouled from behind three-point line, he sank 2 of 3 from the line.

Ehler's personal 5-0 run marked the third time in two nights that a quarter had been opened by one player scoring the Raiders first 5 points. Rosenbaum pulled the trick in the the second quarter. The previous night at Ogallala Lewis scored Sidney's first 5 of the game.

By the time the third frame was over Sidney's lead had advanced to 46-32.

"They're a big team and they're a tough team," said Ehler. "There were times when we had combinations of Logan, Nick (Castner) and Jake (Sager) in at the same time to counteract their size. Our big guys did a nice job tonight."

Cody Frerichs opened the final frame with a three pointer and Cutter O'Connell finished it with one. For Sidney five players were able to hit from down town during the game--Ehler four times, Rosenbaum, Harvey Frerichs and O'Connell.

Ehler's 20 points led the seven Raiders who scored during the game. The others were Wintholz (13), Rosenbaum (8), Lewis (7), O'Connell (4), Frerichs (3) and Sager (2).

Sidney will entertain Bridgeport on Friday night at 7 p.m. The Raiders will be off on Saturday after the originally scheduled game with Sterling had been postponed for three days. The Raiders will now visit Sterling on Tuesday with a sophomore game starting at 4 p.m. The girls will keep their date with Scottsbluff on Saturday with a tip off scheduled for 3:30 p.m.

Boys Basketball

Sidney 60

Lexington 40

Saturday