KEARNEY – The Kearney High Bearcats finished out a week-long four game stretch with a pair of contests against the Links of Lincoln High School.
Both Bearcat teams entered Friday looking for their tenth win of the season, but only the Kearney boys would reach the double digit mark on Friday with a 66-56 victory over Lincoln High. The Kearney Bearcat women would fall at the hands of an impressive Lincoln women’s team, falling in a low-scoring 53-44 contest.
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The Bearcat women were bolstered by the return of leading scorer Tatum Rusher, who did not play in the previous night’s contest at North Platte due to illness. The Linc defense was solid, keeping Rusher to three points in the first half, in lieu of a 23-16 halftime deficit.
The second half was all Kiana Wiley and Lincoln High, who scored eleven of her twenty points in the second half to lead all scorers. Rusher would get back into form in the second half, finishing off the night with sixteen points, and leading the Bearcats in scoring. Kearney fell to 9-8 on the season.
The Kearney High boys would start off with a hot start, leading the contest 17-7 after the first quarter and 35-20, with Jack Dahlgren scoring 10 of his 20 points in the half to lead the Bearcats.
Lincoln would start off the third quarter with inspired three point scoring from Elvis Nguyen and two dunks from Colin Nick to cut the deficit to six points, but the Bearcats would start to pull away in the final quarter for the victory. Kearney improved to 10-7 on the season.
The Bearcats have a week of well-deserved rest before a huge rivalry game against Grand Island Senior High at Kearney on February 4th. Games are at 6 and 7:45, with the Landmark Implement Pregame show starting at 5:45 on KGFW.
Story provided by Alex Hammeke, KGFW Sports.
