In their final outing of the LouPlatte Conference Basketball Tournament, the Centura girls’ basketball team managed to make an early statement.
Saturday afternoon, on their home court, Centura jumped out to a 20-0 lead against Arcadia/ Loup City. That early advantage over the Rebels was the springboard that the Centurions needed to notch the 47-26 victory and finish the conference’s annual fray sitting in third place.
In the first eight minutes of regulation on Saturday, Centura managed to score fourteen unanswered points. That period was punctuated by a bucket from Lucy Chelewski with forty seconds to play and a three-pointbasket from Centura freshman Kelly Fanta at the buzzer.
Leading by double- digits, the Centurions continued to blister Arcadia/Loup City on the offensive end. Just over two minutes into the second quarter, Kassidy Hurt caught the Rebels in transition and took the steal to the iron, cementing the home team’s early lead.
The next points would be Arcadia/Loup City’s first of the contest.
The Centurions fouled Olivia Fitzgerald, who stepped up to the free throw line and knocked down both shots. A minute later, the Rebels scored their first points from the floor when Fitzgerald landed a hook shot from the paint.
Those four points from the senior sparked a 9-0 run by Arcadia/ Loup City.
Before the end of the first half, the Centurions scored seven more points, with Chelewski making a free throw to help her team head into the locker room leading 28-13.
Arcadia/Loup City matched its first half point total in the final sixteen minutes, while the Centurions scored twenty-one.
Taya Taukiuvea put on a clinic opposite the Rebels. The Centura freshman scored eighteen points in the game, while Davis netted sixteen. Five other Centurions—including Chelewski, Fanta, Hurt, Emma Parr, and Jenna Fanta—combined for the rest of the Centurions’ offensive production.
Arcadia/Loup City was led by Tayler Obermiller, who had seven points, while Fitzgerald finished with six.
