The Chadron Cardinals wrapped up the home slate Friday night for girls and boys basketball against the Sidney Red Raiders. The boys teams pulled off a massive upset for the second straight time by defeating Sidney 71-63 while the girls played well but fell 63-33.
The crowd was electric inside the Bird Cage as the boys opened the night against one of the best teams in C-1. The game was tight throughout the first quarter with Sidney leading 15-13. The Cardinals responded in the second quarter, racing to a 35-29 lead at half. Sidney came out of the locker room hot but only led by two at the end of the third 52-50. Chadron would not be stopped in the fourth quarter, out-scoring Sidney 21-11 to pull off the massive upset by a 71-63 final. Brady Daniels led the Cardinals with 31 points on the night. Thomas Smith and Tobin Landen were behind him with 11, Derek Bissonette had 10 and Talon Jelinek had eight.
There were seven ties and five lead changes during the game but the Cardinals took the lead for good early in the fourth quarter.
The girls game saw the Cardinals responding well from their loss to Douglas back on Tuesday. The Cardinals kept the game close during the first half with Sidney leading 29-14 at half. The Red Raiders pressie kept up during the second half as they pulled out to a 63-33 final score. Rylan Barry and Jezy Alcorn had a team high six points on the night. Jacey Turman finished with five. Jove Griese and Reese Ritterbush each had four points while Gracie Calkins finished with three, Sophie Watson with two and Brooklyn Hoffman scored one point to wrap up the scoring.
The Cardinals girls finish the regular season with an 11-12 record while the boys sit at 12-10. Next up for the girls is the C1-10 subdistrict first round where they take on Hershey on Monday in Bridgeport. The boys will wait a week until their next matchup when they go to Lakota Tech.
We will have the girls game on Monday with pregame set for 4:45 with tipoff at 5 from Bridgeport. You can hear the game on AM 610 KCSR.