The Chadron Cardinals rang in the 2025 calendar year Saturday night when they welcomed in the Scottsbluff. It was a rough night for the Cardinals as Scottsbluff took the girls game by a 63-44 score and the boys game by a 70-46 final.
The girls game was all Scottsbluff from the beginning as the Bearcats dropped 26 points, 14 from Ava Reed in the first quarter to run out to a 26-10 lead. The Cardinals fell behind even further in the second quarter, going into the half down 39-20. Scottsbluff continued the hot shooting in the third quarter getting the lead out to 57-29 going into the fourth quarter. The Bearcats slowed down in the fourth quarter with the Cardinals out-scoring the Bearcats 15-6 to get the final score to 63-44 Scottsbluff.
Ava Reed had a game high 27 points for Scottsbluff while Reese Ritterbush had a team high 15 for the Cardinals.
Also scoring for Chadron was Jezy Alcorn and Sophie Watson with 11 points each, Jacey Turman had four, while Cali Hendrickson chipped in two and Gracie Calkins with one.
The boys game was tight at the beginning with Scottsbluff leading 18-16 after the first quarter. Thomas Smith and Brady Daniels had a huge part in keeping the eye-grabbing upset dreams alive with Daniels scoring five and Smith having four in the quarter. The Bearcats showed why they are a top five team in the state during the second quarter by running out to a 19-9 quarter to take a 37-25 lead into the half. It was all Scottsbluff in the second half with the Bearcats out-pacing the Cardinals 33-21 to finish off a 70-46 win.
Thomas Smith led the Cardinals with a team high 13 points, Brady Daniels was right behind him with 12. Creighton Ryan and Tobin Landen each chipped in five points with Talon Jelinek and Tobin Rust right behind them with four each. Haiven Catches and Tyson Pourier got in late and each had a field goal to finish two.
The Cardinals girls dropped to 4-4 this season while the boys fell to 2-6.
Next up for the Cardinals is a trip to Hot Springs, South Dakota on Tuesday. Girls are set to start at 5:30 with boys to follow.