2/2/2012 9:35:04 AM
Boys' LVC semifinals should be fun
When it comes to tonight’s semifinals, we’ll see two re-matches in the boys’ bracket. Sandhills/Thedford and Mullen should know each other very well by now. They have played twice already this season. In fact today’s meeting will be the third meeting of these two teams in 27 days. The Knights won the first game convincingly 65-33 and then won the second game in last week’s Sandhills Conference semifinals in North Platte 49-37. Perhaps the third time will be the charm for Mullen. They will look to Josh Vinton for another good game in the post. Against Anselmo-Merna he scored 12 points and was a factor on the boards for the Broncos. Ben Carson and Matthew Furrow will also be go-to guys in tonight’s game.
The Knights have played extremely well as of late. If not for a last second three-pointer by Brady last week, the Knights would have won the Sandhills Conference Tournament. They will be hungry at the opportunity to get to the LVC title game and know they can’t overlook Mullen. The Knights will look for big games out of Cole Taylor and Tyler Lee down low, and also to Matt McLeod and Ty Sierks on the perimeter.
On the other side of the bracket, South Loup and Twin Loup feature some of the best athletes on the floor in our area. When these two teams last met, neither team was in top form, so tonight we’ll get to see the real South Loup against the real Twin Loup. To say that Twin Loup is on fire is an understatement. They have won eight of their last nine games and are led by a talented core of athletes led by Guy Fenske. Fenske’s play will be a big factor in determining the outcome of tonight’s game. Jack Gibbens is very strong underneath the basket and they also get solid play from players off the bench. The Wolves players know their roles and play very fast.
South Loup, much like Twin Loup likes to play an up-tempo game. They too have great athletes. Aaron Stryker is the leader of this team. He is usually the leading scorer on this team and had a nice game against Arcadia in the quarterfinals. He scored 17 points, including 4-for-4 at the charity stripe. Tanner Cline and Drew Bowers also played well scoring seven points each. This game will likely come down to free-throw shooting down the stretch. South Loup shot 69 percent in their last game, while Twin Loup shot 60 percent against Litchfield.
