Wildcats thump Chadron, hang on against Wall

Heading into last Saturday afternoon’s game against the visiting Wall Eagles, Custer High School boys basketball head coach Paul Kelley knew the Eagles would rely heavily on bombing away from the three-point line.
Boy, did they ever.
The Eagles made 11 three-pointers—six from Emmet Dinger—to give the Wildcats all they wanted and then some in the ’Cats’ 66-58 win.
“When you get hot, you get hot,” Kelley said. “I thought in the beginning of the game we gave up some uncontested threes. At the end of the game I thought they hit some tough shots. You can’t ask for more than that from your defense.”
Custer started the game sluggish, which Kelley said could likely be traced back to the fact that the Wildcats had little trouble with the Eagles at the Lakota Nation Invitational when they defeated them by 28.
“That’s been our MO when we throttle a team early in the season, we have a tendency to get lax,” Kelley said. “We talked about it. Give Wall some credit. They are a better team than they were a month and a half ago.”
At the four-minute mark of the first quarter the score of the game was Wall 8, Brady Virtue 6, as Virtue had all six of Custer’s early points off drives to the hoop.
Custer had difficulty making a basket early in the game, as evidenced by a sequence where the Wildcats missed four consecutive point-blank shots at the rim, followed by a missed layup.
The Wildcats fell behind 17-9 in the first quarter before Virtue buried a corner three-pointer, and managed to cut the Eagles lead to three by the end of the first quarter.
Wall continued to maintain a lead early in the second quarter thanks to a pair of Dinger three-pointers, but Custer was able to take the lead for the first time moments later after a Cade Lehman three-pointer followed by a Rhett Lowe hoop off a Kyle Virtue assist. The Wildcats took a four-point lead into the half after Lehman picked the pocket of Wall point guard Teelan Kjerstad and was able to dive and poke the ball ahead to a teammate for a Cody Dirkes layup.
It appeared Custer might have been poised to put the game away early in the third quarter, as the Wildcats began to pull away, going up seven off a Dirkes basket off a Lowe assist.
Wall scored the next five points, however, but Lehman hit a three-pointer to put Custer back up five.
Custer maintained a six-point lead until another Wall three-pointer barrage, including Kjerstad pulling up from about 23 feet out for a three-pointer to cut the Custer lead to 50-49.
To start the fourth quarter the Wildcats went back up six after an Ayden Petz three-pointer off a Brady Virtue assist, and led by eight following a Lehman drive and bank shot.
The Eagles were able to cut the Wildcat lead back to four after yet another Dinger three-pointer, but from there were forced to foul, with Custer making just enough free throws down the stretch to secure the win.
Kelley said he was disappointed in the number of Wildcat turnovers in the game, as well as the team’s free throws. The Wildcats were only 10 of 22 from the line, and as a team are now under 60 percent from the line for the season.
“The positive is we are still making more free throws than our opponents attempt, but you’re not always gong to have that,” Kelley said. “We have to do a better job when we get to the free throw line.”
Kyle Virtue scored 14 points and pulled down 15 rebounds in the game, while Lehman had 14 points, Brady Virtue had 13 and Dirkes had 10.
The Wildcats dominated on the glass, pulling down 54 rebounds to Wall’s 30, but only shot 27 percent from three-point range.
“If you’re making them, shoot them,” Kelley said. “If not, don’t live by it.”
On Jan. 21 the Wildcats hosted the Chadron (Neb.) Cardinals, blasting the visitors from the south 78-32.
The Wildcats shot 61 percent from the field in the game, including an 11-17 effort from three-point range.
“I wish you could bottle up some of those things and save them for another day,” Kelley said. “At one point I felt sorry for Chadron. They were changing things up, our kids were just on fire.”
The Wildcats dominated every aspect of the game, outrebounding the Cardinals 33-12, and scoring 23 points off 16 Chadron turnovers. The Wildcats led 57-21 at halftime before turning the game largely over to its junior varsity players in the second half.
Kyle Virtue scored 22 points on nine of 10 shooting despite playing only 19 minutes. He was also perfect from three-point range, making all four of his attempts.
Not far behind in scoring was Lowe, who had 20 points of his own in only 22 minutes, while also dishing out eight assists and collecting five steals.
“We moved the ball well. When we find a rhythm we are pretty good. When the ball gets sticking on offense it takes us out of that rhythm,” Kelley said. “With eight games remaining before regions we have to do a better job to find that rhythm.”
The game was played at the Hermosa School gym, and the team wore Hermosa Hornets jerseys.
The Wildcats, 10-2, played Rapid City Christian last night (results were not available at press time) and do not play again until next Tuesday, when they head to Douglas for an 8 p.m. game.
“Douglas is (Class) AA so it will probably be a little more physical,” Kelley said. “They have some good athletes. We just have to go out and play.”
Custer    16    19    17    14    —66
Wall    19    12    18    9    —58
Custer—Ayden Petz 2-6 1-2 6, Cade Lehman 5-16 1-5 14, Rhett Lowe 3-9 3-6 9, Jackson Wiles 0-1 0-0 0, Brady Virtue 6-8 0-0 13, Cody Dirkes 5-9 0-2 10, Kyle Virtue 4-12 5-8 14. Totals: 25-61 10-22 66.
Wall—Emmet Dinger 9-21 2-3 26, Dawson Hadcock 3-9 0-0 7, Jace Mohr 1-5 0-0 3, Austan Kjerstad 0-3 0-0 0, Teelan Kjerstad 7-20 2-2 20, Carter Sundall 0-3 0-0 0, Younger Amiotte 1-1 0-0 2. Totals: 21-62 5-7 58.
Three-point goals: Custer 6 (Lehamn 3, Petz, B. Virtue, Ky. Virtue), Wall 11 (Dinger 6, T. Kjerstad 4, Handcock). Rebounding: Custer 54 (K. Virtue 15), Wall 30 (Amiotte 9). Steals: Custer 14, Wall 10. Assists: Custer 21 (Lowe 7), Wall 17. Turnovers: Custer 19, Wall 16. Total fouls: Custer 15, Wall 17. Fouled out: none.
Custer    28    29    15    6    —78
Chadron    12    9    3    8    —32
Custer—Ayden Petz 3-6 0-0 6, Cade Lehman 2-2 0-0 5, Rhett Lowe 8-12 0-0 20, Jackson Wiles 1-6 0-0 3, Brady Virtue 3-4 0-0 6, Cody Dirkes 4-5 2-2 10, Mason Dirkes 0-0 1-2 1, Jayse Noem 0-2 0-0 0, Kyle Virtue 9-10 0-0 22, Zachary Cooper 1-1 0-0 2, Carter Boyster 1-4 0-0 3. Totals: 32-52 3-4 78.
Chadron—Thomas Smith 3-8 0-0 8, Trae Owsley 3-5 0-1 6, Brady Daniels 1-3 0-0 3, Tyson Pourier 0-2 0-0 0, JT Obando 0-1 0-0 0, Kole Carnahan 1-2 0-0 2, Eliu Paopao 0-2 0-0 0, Derek Bissonette 2-6 0-0 4, Talon Jelinek 1-3 0-0 2, Tobin Rust 0-1 0-0 0, Tobin Landen 3-6 1-2 7. Totals: 14-39 1-3 32.
Three-point goals: Custer 11 (Lowe 4, K. Virtue 4, Boyster, Wiles, Lehman), Chadron 3 (Smith 2, Daniels). Rebounding: Custer 33 (K. Virtue 6, Dirkes 6), Chadron 12. Steals: Custer 12 (Lowe 5), Chadron 3. Assists: Custer 24 (Lowe 8, K. Virtue 5), Chadron 10. Turnovers: Custer 8, Chadron 16. Total fouls: Custer 8, Chadron 3. Fouled out: none.