7February 2017SportsRocks rumble through midseason

By Tate VunCannonEditor

Boys’ basketball dominates competitionBy Layne Schroeder

Staff Reporter

As the Nebraska winter weather continues to change unpredictably, one thing remains constant: the Scotus girls’ basketball team is playing in a close basketball game. The girls are currently 12-7 heading into tonight’s matchup against Lakeview. Almost every game they have played in thus far has been tightly contested.

“Playing in nail biters consistently isn’t necessarily a great thing, but we never hang our heads or stop fight-ing,” junior guard Maggie Feehan said. “We need to be able to widen the scoring gap between us and the other team.”

A few of those games where the Shamrocks strug-gled to widen that scoring gap was at the Holiday Tour-nament played at Lakeview High School on December 29th and 30th. In the first round, Scotus faced Twin River, a team ranked in Class C-2 at the time. The Sham-rocks defeated the Titans 48-46 in overtime.

A crosstown rivalry

game was set up for the following day after Lakev-iew defeated Schuyler in the other semifinal. Once again, the Shamrocks were able to take down a respected foe in overtime, 44-41.

“Winning the Holiday Tournament opened a door for us,” sophomore for-ward Bailey Lehr stated. “It showed us that when we work hard and stay positive we can win.” The month of January proved to be one full of ups and downs for the girls’ basketball team. They earned wins against ranked oppo-nents in St. Paul and How-ells-Dodge, and also gave up games against C-1 #1 and #2 Bishop Neumann and Lincoln Christian, 54-21 and 70-18, respectively. Feehan was able to gain perspective in the losses.

“We know Neumann and Christian are on a much high-er level than most teams,” Feehan stated. “In order to reach that level, we need to work harder so we can com-pete in games like that.”

Going into the confer-ence tournament with a re-cord of 10-5, the Shamrocks faced a familiar foe, Grand

Island Central Catholic, in the first round on January 24th. The game was a different story this time around, as the Lady Crusaders were able to pull out the win 53-46 in the Dowd Activity Center.

“That loss was as hard on the team as any other loss,” junior post Jadyn Taylor said. “I think we will continue to work harder and harder to get better every day because of it.”

In the second round of the Centennial Conference Tournament, the girls’ basket-ball team was able to avenge a previous loss in their 46-38 victory over Archbishop Bergan.

Following another loss to a Class B team in the Crete Cardinals, the Shamrocks got back into action on February 2nd at home against Aquinas Catholic. A strong sec-ond-half performance from the Shamrock defense led the girls to a 40-30 victory.

“We all hate the feeling of losing, so it was good to get back on track against Aquinas,” Bailey Lehr com-mented.

As the team looks forward to the quickly-ap-proaching postseason, the

young Shamrocks have a singular focus.

“We want to go to state,” senior Emma Strecker stated.

TaTe VunCannon/Media STaffJunior Grace Wickham drives to the basket against Grand Island Central Cath-olic on January 24th. Wickham scored four points in the Shamrocks’ loss to the Crusaders.

“That’s everyone’s goal on the team. I want us to keep working hard and competing at practice so we can accom-

plish our common goal.”The girls will play again

tonight at home against Lakeview.

Kaylee TonnigeS/yearbooK STaff

Senior center Dalton Taylor soars above three Lincoln Christian defenders as he aims to make a jumpshot. The Shamrocks beat Lincoln Christian with a final score of 74-64 en route to their 11th straight win.

Bonus photos from winter sports

aMberly ParKer/roCK boTToM STaff

Junior Trey Dallman Swims the backstroke at the Grand Island dual on February 2nd. He placed 3rd in the event.

brady Miller/Media STaff

Senior Tyler Brandenburg works his opponent to his back at the Lakeview Tri-angular. The Shamrocks beat the Boone Central Cardinals 68-6 and Lakeview 56-15.

The Scotus boys’ basketball team has not failed to impress so far this season. Scotus is currently 16-1 after defeating No. 1 Bishop Neumann at home on February 3rd in a final score of 53-37. The win avenged the previous loss to Neumann on January 27th, just a week earlier.

The Shamrocks are getting it done on both ends of the floor with an aver-age margin of victory of 20 points. The boys are also holding opponents to 38.6 points on average.

Senior shooting guard Cody Mroczek, who has had a varsity jersey since his freshman year, may have some answers as to why the team has had success thus far.

“We have good chemis-try and work ethic. We put a lot of work in over the sum-mer and it showed when we went out to Denver and beat some of the defending state champions in Colorado,” Mroczek said.

Some of the younger players on the team are play-ing an important role in the victories as well.

“It took the younger guys a while to adapt to the intensity and speed of our style of basketball, but they have really gotten used to it,” Mroczek added.

Senior guard Tate Vun-cannon has also played an important role in the Sham-rocks’ success.

“We play really solid team defense, and we don’t care who scores the points every night. The only thing we are focused on is winning. This group of seniors that I’m a part of, we’ve played with each other since 5th grade,” Vuncannon said.

Vuncannon is just one of the five seniors in the starting lineup for the Shamrocks.

“We have really good team chemistry, and we all want the same state title more than anything in the world. I don’t think any other past team has had the level of chemistry we do, and that’s what will push us over the top,” Vuncannon added.

At 16-1, there is certain-

ly no doubt that the Sham-rocks can contend for a state championship. First year head coach Tyler Swanson is doing his best to help the Shamrocks achieve that ulti-mate goal.

“This team has very high potential and could be the best in C-1, but we must play with better pace, and continue to improve at the little things. When you do the little things right, you are able to win a state championship,” Swan-son said.

Swanson was an as-sistant coach for four years before assuming the role of Head Coach for Scotus. In that span, the Scotus basket-ball team has played in two state semi-final games and one state championship.

“Our main goal for the rest of the season is to finish the regular season off strong. Winning the rest of the regular season will put us in position to go after our goal of winning a state champion-ship,” Swanson added.

The Shamrocks will look to continue on their path of success on February 7th when they play Wahoo at home.