The Chadron High boys and girls both placed 5th at the Western Conference basketball tournament with victories on Saturday, the boys 67-50 over Sterling, CO, and the girls 48-38 over Alliance.
Sterling got off to a strong start by scoring the first 8 points of the game, but the Cardinals quickly responded with a flurry of 3-point shots to take the lead for good by the end of the period.
Sterling made a run early in the 3rd quarter, but faded after 2 of their leading scorers fouled out. Chadron pulled away in the 4th quarter with the final 17-point margin their biggest of the game. The Cardinals are now 12-6.
The Chadron girls started the week with a 48-28 victory over Alliance on Senior Night, pulling away in the 2nd half and Saturday’s tournament win followed the same pattern, just speeded up.
The Lady Cards gave up 16 points in the 1st quarter, but then turned up the defense and limited Alliance to just 4 points in the 2nd quarter and 18 in the 2nd half as they improved to 11-8.
Coincidentally, the Chadron and Alliance girls will play each other for the third time and the boys the second in just over a week on Tuesday in Alliance.
Scottsbluff and Sidney faced off for both titles and came away with a split. The Sidney girls remained undefeated with a 51-42 victory, but the 2-seed Scottsbluff boys rallied in the 4th quarter for 67-60 victory.
The 3rd place games matched North Platte and Gering, and the result was another split with a pair of 1-point games, North Platte winning the girls 36-35 and Gering the boys 69-68.
Sterling took the girls 7th place game 53-33 over Mitchell, but the Mitchell boys came away with 60-59 victory over Alliance.