‘STANGS END SPARTANS’ SEASON

Trailing Silver Lake by nineteen points at halftime of last Saturday’s District D2-8 final, Ansley-Litchfield Head Coach Matt Drew dug into the trove of Sherman County sports lore to inspire his team. “When I was a senior, Loup City scored the last [seventeen] points of a district final to tie Overton and send the game to overtime, so I gave them that story,” Drew said of the message he provided his team at halftime of the district final clash between the Spartans and the Mustangs. “I told them to try and shoot their way back into it. I told them that we are not going to give up.” Drew’s halftime trip down memory lane—a reference to Loup City’s 63-59 victory over Overton in 2002 that ended with both teams earning spots at state and a rematch under the former wildcard system—may have provided the Spartans with an offensive spark, but it wasn’t enough to help Ansley-Litchfield earn a return trip to Lincoln. Silver Lake outscored the Spartans 36-32 in the second half to secure the 65-37 victory. “It just wasn’t meant to be,” said Drew. “Going into it, I was more confident than you would think, so it was just disappointing.” After a scoreless first minute on the court at Lynn Farrell Arena at Hastings College, Owen Cunningham scored the first point of a game when the junior made a free throw. That bucket, and a shot by Luke Bailey just over a minute later, helped the Spartans hold on to an early 3-2 lead in the game. However, the Mustangs would never again trail in the contest. Cunningham made the Spartans’ final bucket of the first half— Ansley-Litchfield went scoreless in the second quarter—with just over three minutes remaining in the opening period, and the Black and Gold headed into the locker room facing an uphill battle in the final sixteen minutes of the contest. “Their 1-3-1 was much better than what I thought it was, and they made it very hard for Luke to get to his spots,” Coach Drew said of the Mustangs’ strategy to limit the Spartans’ top scorer to just five points in the game. “We need the game to go a certain style, a certain way, for us to be successful, and they kind of outdid us on that part.” After intermission, the Mustangs made it easier for their fans to start booking hotel rooms in the capital city when Landon Duester hit an early bucket from the paint. The Silver Lake junior was held scoreless in the first half but dropped a dozen in the final sixteen minutes of the game to lead all scorers. Three other Mustangs—Lane Conway, Beau Bonifas, and Casey Conway—all ended the game in double figures as well. Despite the Mustangs buttressing their lead early in the half with Duester’s deuce, Ansley-Litchfield was not deterred. In the third quarter, the Spartans had their strongest period of the night. Led by a pair of three pointers from Chayton Jensen, Ansley-Litchfield scored eighteen points in the third. Unfortunately for the Black and Gold, that success would be dampened by Bailey receiving his fifth foul midway through the frame and being forced to exit the game. Cunningham would later foul out early in the fourth, and the Spartans were forced to start clearing their bench. “They played with energy, and they did what we asked of them,” Coach Drew said of the substitutes that filled in for the Spartans’ starters that were forced to come off the court. “They did what they could for us. “However, we needed Luke out there. He just got a little frustrated and it kind of snowballed. He wasn’t getting many calls and it just didn’t go great.” Lauding the Spartans’ reserve players for the “energy” they provided the team late in the game, Drew pointed out that Ansley-Litchfield was able to put some points on the board in the second half In the fourth quarter, with the game out of reach and the Spartans’ foul trouble continuing to be a burdensome issue, Ansley-Litchfield began launching shots from the perimeter, and for a moment, those shots started to fall. Daevon Magner, Landon Schulte, and Lane Slocum combined for four straight second half triples. Schulte led the team in the fourth quarter with five points, with the junior forcing a turnover in transition, making the bucket, and then drawing a foul. The Spartan’s free throw clanked off the rim, and the Mustangs dribbled out the last five seconds of the game. Magner led all scorers with nine points. The sophomore scored a pair of three pointers in the fourth quarter and had completed a three-pointplay in the third. Cunningham netted seven points, Chayton Jensen scored six, and Bailey, Shulte, and Slocum all finished with five. With the Mustangs cutting down the nets and celebrating just steps away, in the hallway under the concourse at the Hastings College arena, Coach Drew said that the guys that represented the Spartans on the court this season had a lot to be proud of. “I think Luke said it best in the locker room: We were better than maybe anyone thought that we were going to be,” the coach said. “Everyone stuck with us and didn’t give up, they didn’t quit. “District runner-up, that is nothing to be disappointed with.”