Scottsbluff Red teams came to the Parish Center on Saturday for a pair of contests with St. Agnes in junior high boy’s basketball action. Both squads came away with wins. The Crusaders topped the visitors in the first contest which was a varsity match up. St. Agnes jumped to a 14 to 0 lead at halftime and cruised to a 33 to 15 win. With the victory, the Academy improves to 3 and 4 on the year. A late rally by the Bearcats in the finale helped the Bluffs down SA 23 to 22. The junior varsity club’s record is now 4 and 4 for the season. Tee Johnson’s 9 tallies led the Alliance O in the varsity battle while scoring 5 points each in the JV game were Gavin Mahoney and Declan Kirchner.
St. Agnes pitched a shutout in the first half and led 14 to 0. The Academy scored 10 points in the first period, getting points from Emerson Trumble, Chief Cody, Mason Conyers, and Johnson. Period two had the action slowed with SA just tally 4 points. Buckets by Conyers and Cody made the halftime score Alliance 14 Scottsbluff 0.
Alliance’s domination continued in the third as the Academy netted 8 tallies and the Bluffs had 5. A bucket by the visitors is how the third began. SA countered with deuces by Johnson, Tatum Devlin, and Ashton Weingart to lead 20 to 2. A trey by the guests was next and the quarter came to a finish with another 2 by Devlin. Heading to the fourth, the Crusaders were up 22 to 5.
Action was tight in the finale with SA scoring 11 and the Cats getting 10 tallies. Six points by Crusader Liam Pena pushed the Academy lead to 28 to 8. The game ended with both squads getting on the board. A three by Johnson and a 2 by Kirchner accounted for the scores for the Crusaders.
Final St. Agnes 33 Scottsbluff 15
SB 0 0 5 10 15
SA 10 4 8 11 33
Scoring for the Crusaders Conyers 4 Cody 4 Johnson 9 Trumble 2 Weingart 2 Kirchner 2 Pena 6 Devlin 4
Scottsbluff had a big rally in the JV contest in getting the win at 23 to 22. The guests outscored SA 16 to 5 in the fourth period. St. Agnes shutout the guests in the first and thanks to tallies by Tristin Hansen, Kirchner, and Pena lead 7 to 0 after one. Quarter #2 had the Bluffs scoring 7 while the Academy netted 6. Alliance got three pointers by Max Bailey and James Benzel and led 13 to 7 at half.
A Kirchner trey and a free throw by Hansen were the long tallies in the third and the contest went to the fourth with SA leading 17 to 7. Slowly, the Cats began to rally. SB scored 4 in a row to slice their deficit to 6. Mahoney stopped the spree with a bucket to put the score at 19 to 11 but back came the guests. The Bluffs scored 10 straight and led by 2 with 2 minutes left. The Academy then got the ball back into the hands of Mahoney whose three put the hosts up 22 to 21. The battle ended with another 2 by the Bluffs and a turnover by the Academy.
Final SB 23 SA 22
Bearcats 0 7 0 16 23
Crusaders 7 6 4 5 22
Scoring for the Academy Hansen 3 Weingart 3 Kirchner 5 Mahoney 5 Bailey 3 Pena 3
Alliance will play Monday in Hemingford against Morrill in the opening round of the Panhandle Conference Tournament