See-saw battle tips against Sidney

Rarely are two teams so evenly matched as Sidney and Scottsbluff. If they played the game a 1,000 times each team just might win 500 of them.

As it was the Bearcats erased a 9-point fourth-quarter deficit to down the Red Raiders 57-50 at Western Nebraska Community College's Cougar Palace in a semifinal game of the 2014 District B6 Boys Basketball Tournament Monday.

And so, for the season, the teams split their four games.

As expected of this pair, the contest was tight throughout--with a few moments of exception.

Sidney jumped out to leads of 8-0 and 11-2, largely on the shooting touch of the Raiders' all-time leading scorer Paxton Ehler. But Scottsbluff reeled them back in to trail by only 13-9 after one.

"It's almost always that way," said senior NIck Castner. "Before the game we knew how tough this was going to be. This is a really tough district."

So tough, in fact, that three teams in B6 (Sidney, Gering and Scottsbluff) finished the regular season rated in the top seven by the NSAA points list.

The Raiders held just a one-point lead at the half and found themselves behind for the first time all night in the opening moments of the third quarter. But they rallied to finish the period on a 9-0 run, grabbing a 6-point advantage.

Lane Harvey's three-point play gave Sidney a 9-point cushion with 7:43 to play.

One of the things the Bearcats are known for is their collection of dangerous shooters. On Monday night they got hot at just the right time.

After Harvey gave the Raiders their 44-35 lead early in the final stanza, the Bearcats finished out the game on a 22-6 stretch, which began with momentum changing three pointers from freshmen Andru Kuxhausen and Dillon Hernandez. In between Hernandez dropped in a layup.

Trenton Harris, who led the Bearcats in scoring with 14 points, tallied 8 in the final 5:16.

"It's tough, but that's the way it is," said Logan Lewis. "We arguably have the best district in the state. We can't all go. But everybody played hard. We've given ourselves no reason to regret anything."

Indeed, the profile of this game resembled a tug of war. One side would gain some momentum before the other gathered it back. It was a struggle that either side could win.

Perhaps fittingly, the Raiders 8-0 start was largely powered by the three-point shooting touch of Ehler. He holds or shares the Raiders records for threes in a game, season and career. He followed Tyler Wintholz's layup with a pair of treys to ignite the Sidney offense. Later in the opening quarter Ehler would hit another bomb.

Sidney brought its 13-9 lead into the second quarter before the Bearcats took their first advantage of the night with a 5-0 run powered by their talented freshmen duo. Landon Walker dropped in a pair of foul shots before Kuxhausen hit his first trey of the evening.

Though the Raiders found themselves behind for the first time, the fight never left them. They were reignited by a three pointer from Cutter O'Connell and then a nice move by Wintholz in the paint to capture an 18-14 edge.

Before time expired in the quarter, there would be six three pointers - three by each team. O'Connell accounted for two of the Raiders long-range hits and Ehler the other.

The Bearcats' Harris pushed a two pointer through the iron to open the second, Sidney then reeled off 6 straight. The Raiders never allowed Scottsbluff to get on a run in the third. In fact, the Bearcats never scored more than one consecutive basket. Sidney on the other hand, finished out the third with 9 uninterupted points to take a 41-35 lead.

Ehler was responsible for most of the late damage in that run. He scored 7 of the 9 which he began with a pretty reverse layup. He followed that with his fifth three pointer of the game before Harvey sank a flying layup. With just over 30 seconds left in the third, Wintholz held the ball in his folded arms waiting for the clock to drain most of its final seconds. He then got the ball to Ehler who drove home a layup as time expired.

"It kind of stings but it's been great competition all year," said senior Lucas Rosenbaum. "This has been a great season really. A successful season."

The seniors the Raiders will lose for next season include Ehler, Castner, Rosenbaum and Lewis. As he did often this season Ehler led all scorers with 23 points. Wintholz had 10, Harvey 7 and O'Connell 6.

Scottsbluff moves on to the finals against Gering. The winner will advance to the state tournament in Lincoln.

Linescore

Sidney 13 15 13 9 - 50

Scottsbluff 9 18 8 22 - 57

Raiders Scoring

Paxton Ehler 23

Tyler Wintholz 10

Lane Harvey 7

Cutter O’Connell 6

Logan Lewis 2