OMAHA – The Kearney Girls Basketball team finished off the Omaha Northwest girls basketball team with plenty of reserve players seeing varsity time, winning Saturday afternoon 68-32. Click here to listen to the broadcast replay.
The Bearcats entered Saturday afternoon’s matchup with Omaha Northwest at 1-2 on the year having fell to Lincoln High at home the night prior. Kearney was aiming to get back to .500 on the season to continue to angle their way for better seeding in the upcoming Heartland Athletic Conference Tournament at the end of December. Meanwhile, the Northwest Huskies began the day 0-3 as head coach Joseph Nash is in his second season rebuilding the program.
As the contest kicked off, Kearney was able to move the ball well and find some attacks inside as senior Maddy Province began the contest scoring the opening bucket. The Bearcats continued their scoring throughout the opening quarter, as they had five different scorers in the opening eight minutes. Northwest’s Jessica Houston aimed to keep the Huskies in the game as long as possible however, adding in five points in the first quarter.
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Kearney’s Tatum Rusher had had a slower start to the season than by her usual standards, but the senior found her rhythm early leading all scorers with 9 points at the end of the first quarter. Bearcats led 17-11 as Northwest was able to keep within reach.
The Bearcats second quarter was dominated with defense, as Kearney limited the Huskies to only one score from Houston while they added 12 points. Haidyn Skeen knocked in a free throw, while Kiara Dutenhoffer arrived off the bench with force – creating big stops, extra offensive opportunities with rebounds, and adding two points herself. Addie Helmbrecht began to look more in-tune with the offense as she added six points in the second quarter as well. Kennidy Garner continued the scoring with a triple, as the Bearcats led 29-13 at the half.
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The second half was controlled by Kearney but not without some small runs brought on by the Huskies. Northwest saw sophomore Abriya Watkins knock in seven points while Houston contributed another four, but Kearney was still able to outpace the Huskeis 16-13 in the third quarter. Rusher continued her efforts with a three pointer and another three points, Garner knocked in another triple, and Dutenhoffer found four points as well. Head Coach JD Carson brought in sharpshooter Paige Mailahn to knock in a three pointer off the bench, and Kearney rolled into the fourth leading 47-26.
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The fourth quarter saw more time for reserves and different rotations for the Bearcats, as Mailahn connected on three more three-pointers in the final minutes and seven total Bearcats contributed with each member of the team seeing action in the contest. Kearney would roll to a win 68-32 in the Metro.
The Bearcats improved to 2-2 on the season before taking on another road test to Omaha this weekend traveling to Omaha Buena Vista on Friday while facing Papillion-LaVista at home on Saturday.
Kearney had contributions from Rusher with 17 points, 12 from Mailahn, Helmbrecht finished with 10, Garner dropped 10 points, Harley Straka concluded with 6 as did Dutenhoffer, Province finished with 4, Kelsey Hatcher had 2, and Skeen ended with 1 point.
