Headed to State

HARTINGTON — The Cedar Catholic girls basketball team had their hands full Friday night.

The underdog Summerland Bobcats had been ahead for nearly all of the game and the one player the Lady Trojans were keyed on stopping — senior stand-out Brenna Wagner was running all over the court as she hit 13 of the Bobcats’ 15 first-half points.

Brooklyn Kuehn wasn’t about to let the Bobcats’ spoil her team’s dream of returning to State, though.

“I knew it was either win or go home. It’s my senior year and I just really wanted it to end with a trip to Lincoln and my team going to State,” she said.

The Lady Trojans seemed to have a lid on the basket, but they just kept battling, until things started to go their way.

“This was a battle to the very end for both teams,” CCHS head coach Craig Wortmann said. “Not a lot of shots were falling and both played very well on the defensive side of the ball. We struggled to find our way offensively in the first half. We just didn’t move well together to get the shots we wanted. Then when we did move the ball we just didn’t hit our shots.”

As the game progressed, Cedar started to connect.

It was far from an ideal performance for the Lady Trojans who trailed 25-19 heading into the fourth quarter, before taking control in the final frame.

Cedar made 17-of-21 from the free throw line with Brynn Wortmann hitting all 10 of her foul shots.

Keuhn led the way with 18 points from an array of makes.

“It took a true team effort to win this one. The girls showed some real grit to battle back in the fourth quarter,” Coach Wortmann said. “They stuck with the game plan and continued the ball pressure long enough for our offense to get going.”

So now having survived an upset bid, the Lady Trojans go to Lincoln as a different core of players from a year ago.

“These are very similar teams as we only lost three seniors last year,” Coach Wortmann said. “I feel the seniors are leading the way and using the past experiences to help get through these tough games.

“South Platte is a team we have not seen yet and will need to play very good defense but that will be the key for us next week. If we can play together and battle to the end we can make some noise in the tournament.”

Kuehn emphasized the sense of urgency she and the fellow seniors felt as the clock ticked away against Summerland.

“We just couldn’t get into a rhythm and coach called timeout and it was like ‘we have to pull something out here,’” Kuehn said. “None of the girls were ready for this to be our last game. We were all so determined to go to state. They had one girl we just couldn’t shut down and we knew going in she was going to be a good player. They were also completely shutting Brynn out so it came down to how we were going to get our points without her.”

Kuehn decided to score a myriad of ways and hit for six of her points late to help secure the rally.

She admits to feeling a bit panicky and desperate as Summerland’s lead held firm until the later going.

“I went to the free throw line and one of the girls told me, ‘all you have to do is make one of them,’ (to clinch it) and I was super nervous: That’s a lot of pressure right there,” Kuehn said. “I made it and that’s when we knew we were going to state.”

From Kuehn’s perspective, many of the players are back from last year, but the current roster has a different make up and approach to the game and that has parlayed into a bigger record and more eyes on them as a favorite.

“A lot of new girls had to step up and they had to play some big and important roles and they’ve been able to do that really well,” Kuehn said. “Our team communicates and gets along super well. All of our girls last year also grew a lot as players and knew we didn’t want to experience the same feeling as last year of losing in the second round.”

Also, in the ages of COVID-19, when the summer became more about chasing basketball titles than going to malls, get togethers and the like, simply because of what they could or could not do, Kuehn believes winning is rewarding the work the Lady Trojans put in during their offseason.

“Every time we lose a game, we get upset with ourselves and last year it would be more like, ‘OK, they were a good team, so it’s alright that we lost,’” Kuehn said, noting this team takes losing more personally this season. “We put so much time into it that at this point we should be winning. We have had a lot of things taken away and there are a few things we get to have. For our senior year, there are only a few things we can go in and win.”

Cedar 6 5 8 17 —36

Summerland 9 6 10 5 — 30

SCORING

Cedar - Brooklyn Kuehn, 18; Brynn Wortmann, 12; Megan Heimes, 4; Laney Kathol, 2.

REBOUNDS

Cedar - Megan Heimes, 8; Brooklyn Kuehn, 5; Brynn Wortmann, 4; Gracie Dickes, 3; Laney Kathol, 2; Jordyn Steffen, 1.

ASSISTS

Cedar - Brynn Wortmann, 1.

STEALS

Cedar - Brooklyn Kuehn, 2; Makenzie Arens, 1; Jordyn Steffen, 1; Gracie Dickes, 1; Laney Kathol, 1.

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