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Lady Wolves hold strong; boys struggle with low percentages

Chase Lenz

If you want to see some "howling" good hoops, you should check out the MHC Lady Wolves!  They have been on a 4 game winning streak heading into Friday's match-up vs. the 12-8 Wauneta-Palisade Broncos as their last regular season game before sub-district play begins. As this is written, the Lady Wolves are 11-8 on the season. This has placed them 2nd in the D1-11 Sub-District playing South Loup onTuesday, February 16th at Gothenburg High School. 

Head coach, Kim Stengel feels that some of the success of the team comes down to finishing plays. She states, "We talk a lot about finishing plays on both ends of the court. Securing the rebounds and getting stops on the defensive end and working the ball until we get the shots we want on offense." 

The Lady Wolves have put together some nail-biters the past few games. One of the best runs of the season was against Wallace in RPAC play. Down 14 points with 3:30 to go in the 3rd quarter, things began to click. With the ever-roaring MHC boys behind them the whole time, these girls put together a 30-2 run, winning by 14 points!

"I am so proud of everything these girls have put into making this all work. We have had a few injuries, but these girls all step up and continue to fight. I feel that they trust and have confidence in each other on the floor and that is essential as we head into post-season play." says Coach Stengel.

The boys have had a rough season thus far and are 3-14. However, they have made a lot of progress since the beginning of the season. The boys have gelled together as a whole and are working hard preparing for their sub-districts later on in February. The boys competed well against the 9-10 Maxwell Wildcats and outscored them 51-49 off of a buzzer beater at the last second. After a loss to Wallace 28-40, Wolves head coach, Jeff Ellis, stated “We’ve been putting a lot of attention towards our struggles shooting the basketball, with our low percentages from the field each night. . . November to March isn't the time to improve those percentages, it’s March to July in the off season.” Coach Ellis related this as part of a fundamental culture change that must take place for the M-HC basketball program to have success in the future. Ellis commented on the Wolves’ defense stating “we feel like defensively the last couple of weeks we have given ourselves opportunities to be in ball games heading into the fourth quarter. We have held most of the recent teams close to if not right at 40 points a night.” All in all both schools have come together well and have made a huge effort to come together as a team and they are still continuing to work hard as the most critical time of the season comes around. Go Wolves!!