Bison hoopsters will get shots at 'hot' teams

McCOOK, Neb. — There’s plenty of momentum to be taken from the McCook basketball foes this weekend.

The Bison girls (5-9) record meet two seven-win teams in 7-3 Hastings Friday night and hosting 7-5 Minden on Saturday.

“Yes both teams are very good,” coach Amy Scheil confirmed. “Hastings is very athletic and Minden has really improved throughout the season so far.”

Hopefully, the winning trend will stop against Bison girls aiming for their first win since Dec. 31 over Chase County.

Meanwhile, the Bison boys (5-8) visit 6-4 Hastings Friday night before hosing the Minden Whippets on Saturday.

Though those Whippets are just 4-8 overall, they’ve gone 3-2 since Dec. 29 while surpassing 66 points during all those victories.

“Hastings has a good balance of size and speed. that could present some matchup issues for us,” McCook coach Joe Imus observed.

“Minden is a team that played 10 guys last year and bring back nine. We’ll have to take care of the ball against their press.”

Some Bison basketball highlights:

— Senior Ty Stevens has hit 69.5% of his two-point shots at 57 for 82 while averaging 11.5 points per game, matching senior Mark Arp for top scoring honors.

— Stevens’ 79 rebounds are almost equally divided between offense and defense (39, 40). Amazingly, senior Isaiah Stoddard owns the same ratio among his 47 rebounds (23 offense, 24) defense) to rank second on the team.

— Senior Tiara Matson’s averaging almost seven rebounds per game (88 in 13 contest) plus she also leads the Bison with 31 assists, 48 pass deflections and 30 steals which rank second behind only sophomore teammate Shawna Wilkinson’s 38 steals.

— Wilkinson continues averaging a team-best 11.4 points per game.

— Junior Sierra Kotschwar has blocked 12 shots in 13 games besides averaging exactly five rebounds.