The regular season is nearing a close as the Chadron Cardinals welcomed in the Douglas, Wyoming Bearcats to town Tuesday night for a girls/boys doubleheader. The Bearcats took the girls game 74-17 while the boys took down the Bearcats 67-59 on the heels of a Brady Daniels triple-double.
The girls game featured the first ever meeting between Kelsey Scott, the head coach of Chadron High and her younger sister Kassidy Johnson, the head coach of the Douglas Bearcats. The Bearcats jumped on the Cardinals early, leading 27-5 after the first and 50-12 at half. The Bearcats controlled the second half, winning 74-17. Gracie Calkins led the Cardinals with four points, Cali Hendrickson and Sophie Watson had three each. Jezy Alcorn, Beau Behrends, and Rylan Barry each had two while Jacey Turman had one for the Cardinals.
The boys game was wild, intense, in an old-school Chadron environment as a packed Birdcage backed the Cardinals en-route towards a victory. It was a very tight first quarter with the Cardinals leading 13-9. The lead switched hands multiple times early in the second quarter before the Cardinals got hot. The Cardinals went on a large run aided by the three ball and lights out shooting at the free throw line. The moment the game changed was late in the second quarter when the Bearcats coach was issued two technical fouls in quick succession leading to four made free throws by Brady Daniels. That gave the Cardinals a 10 point lead, extended to 20 at the end of the half when Thomas Smith banked home a buzzer beater from 35 feet to give the Cardinals a 39-19 lead at the half.
The Bearcats came out of the half swinging, cutting the Cardinals lead down to one score but the Cardinals pulled away late, winning 67-59.
Thomas Smith led the Cardinals with 24 points, Brady Daniels was right behind him with 20. Tobin Landen joined them in double-figures with 12. Derek Bissonette had eight and Talon Jelinek rounded out the scoring with three. The Cardinals tied their season best with 10 made threes with Smith having six of them,
The Cardinals girls are now 11-11 while the boys sit at 11-10. Next up is the home finale on Friday with Sidney coming to town. Action will start at 3 for JV with boys varsity at 4:30 with the girls to follow.