Kearney Catholic boys pull away late against Broken Bow

KEARNEY — The Kearney Catholic boys earned a confidence-building win on its home court Thursday, defeating Broken Bow 41-37 after a big fourth quarter.

Neither team had much of an advantage in the opening three periods, with the teams separated by a mere point with 4½ minutes remaining.

Owan Axmann made a big basket to extend the lead to three, and then the Stars’ defensive game plan flexed its muscle.

“We were trying to take away their shooters all game and we kept doing that,” Kearney Catholic head coach Bob Langen said. “After that, rebounding and pushing the ball were the keys when we could throw the ball ahead and get to the basket that was a difference maker.”

After the Stars held their own on the defensive end, Quinten Hogeland, who spent most of his night on the low block, showed his range from the deep with a 3-point bomb.

Broken Bow answered, but a slowed-down possession found Hogeland in prime position to extend the lead to six. The defense prevented an answer from outside, and the Stars rode out the victory.

“Once we had that lead we were able to milk the clock without turning the ball over,” Langen said. “Which was good to see because we weren’t great at that early in the year.”

Hogeland led the Stars with 12 points, Brant Christner had nine, and Axmann and Landon Edeal both added seven.

KCHS girls let game slip away after turnovers

Kearney Catholic lost by just two in its 48-46 defeat at the hands of Broken Bow, with the difference ultimately being untimely turnovers.

After Broken bow took a two-point lead in the final minute, Kearney Catholic had three turnovers as the result of bad passes going out of bounds.

“You can’t do that against good teams,” KCHS coach Rick Petri said. “We forced passes we shouldn’t have, you have to relax and play, and want to have the ball in your hands. Sometimes I think we panicked and wanted to have the ball out of our hands right away.”

Kearney Catholic opened the game on a 10-3 run, but Broken Bow soon expressed the ability to match the Stars basket-for-basket, tying the game up at 12.

The push and pull continued in the second quarter, before the Stars opened up a brief seven-point advantage in the early third that was quickly cut down to a tie at 34.

In the fourth quarter, big plays from Callie Squiers tied the game at 44 with under two minutes to go. Squiers had a game-high 26 points.

“She was tremendous tonight offensively and defensively,” Petri said.

Broken Bow struck next, on a MaKinley Tobey layup with 38.8 seconds left.

Free throws extended the game, with Kearney Catholic getting one last chance down two after a missed foul shot, taking a timeout with 3.2 seconds to go.

Two inbounds passes went for turnovers, ending the game as a Stars loss.

“We’ve kind of been way all year — hust can’t quite do the little things as well as I like to see, but that’s something we’ll continue to work on so hopefully we can win games like these,” Petri said.