Hayes Center Defeats St. Francis
On Friday, January 22nd, the St. Francis High School basketball teams traveled to Hayes Center for competition. The varsity girls lost a very close contest while the boys team was defeated by a strong Hayes Center team.
In girls action, the Lady Indians quickly jumped out to a 7-0 lead, but Hayes Center battled back to tie the game at the end of one quarter, 8-8. Hayes Center completed a 14-1 run by besting the Lady Indians 8-14 part way through the second period. The Lady Indians came back to tie the game at 14-all, but trailed by one (20-21) at halftime.
Jodi Hilt hit a trey with 39 seconds left in the third period to tie the game again at 26. The Lady Indians trailed 26-29 at the third quarter break.
In the fourth, St. Francis fell behind 27-31, but Jayle McCauley made a basket to tie the game at 31, and followed with a free throw to give the Lady Indians their first lead in a while (32-31). Hayes Center forged ahead again with 1:40 left in the game (32-34). The Lady Indians forced a Cardinal turnover with 1:06 remaining. The Lady Indians called time out with 52.6 seconds left to set up a play. The shot was unsuccessful and Hayes Center rebounded the ball. St. Francis fouled with 29 ticks remaining. St. Francis rebounded the missed free throw but turned over the ball with 9.1 seconds to go. St. Francis fouled on the inbound pass. Hayes Center made one free throw to go ahead 32-35. Hayes Center missed the second free throw, but the Lady Indians failed to grab the rebound and were forced to foul again. Again, the Cardinals made one of two to take a 32-36 lead. St. Francis called time out with 5.1 seconds to go. Shayla Hilt hit a trey at the buzzer to cut the lead to one. The Lady Indians lost a close contest 35-36.
Christina Hilt led the Lady Indians in scoring with 13 points. Jodie Hilt scored eight.
The Indian boys team ran into a very tough opponent from Hayes Center. The Cardinals came into the game with an undefeated record and ranked #3 in the Nebraska D2 points standings. The Hayes Center boys did not take long to establish their dominance on the court and jumped out to a 9-23 first quarter lead. St. Francis had 3 treys in the quarter. The Cardinals led 20-42 at halftime.
Using aggressive man-to-man defense, an up-tempo offense, and a deep bench, the Cardinals went on a quick run to open the third quarter and jumped out to a 21-57 lead with 3:15 remaining in the third. The Cardinals led 25-65 at the end of three quarters of play. The Cardinals went on to win the game by a score of 40-75.
Messersmith led the Cardinals in scoring with 28 points. Clifford scored 12 and Wach added 11. Matt Raile led the Indians with 13 points. Trent Raile added eleven.
Coach Beims had the following comments on the game:
"We went to Nebraska last Friday to play a really good Hayes Center team. They have a group of seniors that know how to play the game. They defend well, they rebound well, and they don’t make mistakes. It was obvious to anyone watching the game that they understood how to play and are much more instinctive when they play. We on the other hand, are methodical at times, and are a little too mechanical. We defend as a means to keep the other team from scoring, but instead kinda chase our men around until they put up a shot and we run our offense like it’s a dance routine instead of looking for opportunities to score out of it. As a team we lack the little intangible things that make good athletes good basketball players (and there is a difference.) The only way to make that transition is to keep practicing, and play the game. We just have to keep getting a little better every day."
The junior varsity Lady Indians were defeated by Hayes Center 7-33 in two quarters. In junior varsity boys action, the Indians fell behind early and trailed 10-34 after one quarter. Hayes Center led 16-43 at halftime. St. Francis battled back in the second half to cut the advantage to 32-47 after three quarters, and lost the contest by a 50-58 score. Dylan Peter scored 19 points to lead the Indians in scoring. Cody Killingsworth scored 9 and Jonathan Butler added eight. Lawson scored 13 to lead the Cardinals.
Next action for the teams will be on Tuesday, January 26, when they host Weskan in St. Francis.
