Sports

’Cats get much-needed win over Comets

Published by admin on Thu, 02/06/2020 - 9:21am
After the Custer High School boys basketball team was trounced by top-ranked St. Thomas More Jan. 16, head coach Paul Kelley was optimistic about the future, pointing out all 11 of the Wildcats’ remaining regular season games were winnable.
Two weeks later, the Wildcats are 2-2 since that loss, but came up with a crucial win in the race for home court advantage in region play when they traveled to Hart Ranch last Friday and came away with a 59-56 win over the Comets.

Hanes places first at Belle

Published by admin on Thu, 02/06/2020 - 9:20am
 
Brennan Hanes finished first in the 145-pound weight class at the Belle Fourche Invite over the weekend to lead the Custer Wildcats to a fourth place finish among 21 teams in the tourney. 
Hanes, who is 29-12 on the season, won by 4-3 decision in the championship round over Tyler Voorhees of Rapid City Stevens. 

Grace pins Finn, places first at Winner Invite

Published by admin on Thu, 01/30/2020 - 9:16am
Although still banged up and with only 11 wrestlers taking the mat, the Custer Wildcats still managed to pull out a seventh-place finish among 13 teams at the tough Winner Invitational Tourney over the weekend. 
Burke-Gregory came out on top in the meet scoring 206 team points. It was followed by Parker (193), Wagner (174.5) and Bon Homme-Scotland (172), Winner (157) and Philip Area with 129 points. The Custer squad amassed 79 points for its placing. 

Boys fall to Red Cloud, crush Newell

Published by admin on Thu, 01/30/2020 - 9:15am
By Jason Ferguson
 
A look at the box score from the Custer High School basketball team’s game last Saturday can be a little misleading. The Wildcats dominated the Red Cloud Crusaders on the boards 48-29 and went to the free throw line 26 times as compared to 18 for the homestanding Crusaders.
So where did things go wrong?
One big number—25—as in 25 percent shooting.

Girls lose on three at the buzzer

Published by admin on Thu, 01/30/2020 - 9:14am
By Jason Ferguson
 
If you wanted to pit two evenly matched teams against each other on the hardwood, it appears you couldn’t do much better than the Custer High School girls basketball team and the Newell Irrigators.
For 32 minutes last Thursday evening the teams went back and forth, with a six-point lead being the largest advantage either team took throughout the game, most of which saw each team leading by three points or fewer.

Top-ranked St. Thomas More blitzes Wildcats

Published by admin on Thu, 01/23/2020 - 9:07am
As has been the case for many teams in the Black Hills Conference over the past decade or so, the Custer High School boys basketball team was standing on the tracks when the train came through last Thursday evening at the Armory.
The train is in the form of the St. Thomas More Cavaliers, who continued their dominance over Custer — and the Black Hills Conference in general — in a 64-27 win in which the Cavaliers looked every bit the undefeated and top-ranked team in Class A that they are.

Girls clip Eagles, fall to Cavaliers

Published by admin on Thu, 01/23/2020 - 9:04am
It was a break-even week for the Custer High School girls basketball team last week, as the team defeated Wall 53-31 last Friday, rebounding from a 49-15 defeat at the hands of St. Thomas More last Tuesday.
The Wildcats were never able to pull away from the Eagles in Wall, but head coach Mick Patzlaff said he never felt the team was in danger of losing either, paced by 16 points from Josey Wahlstrom, one of three Wildcats in double figures in the game, as Kelsey Herman added 12 and Kellyn Kortemeyer had 11.

Wrestlers place fourth at BHC

Published by admin on Thu, 01/23/2020 - 9:03am
Plagued by illness and injuries which have even affected the team’s head coach, the Custer High School wrestling team still managed to capture fourth place at the Black Hills Conference tournament in Spearfish last Saturday. 
Led by Micaiah Grace (170), Irail Griffin (152) and Pierce Sword (120) who each took first place in his weight division, the team racked up 133 points to finish behind Spearfish (187 points), Belle Fourche (157 points) and Lead-Deadwood (135 points). 

Better late than never for ’Cats

Published by admin on Thu, 01/16/2020 - 8:41am
 
The Custer High School girls basketball team led its game against Sturgis last Saturday for all of one minute and 15 seconds of game time.
Fortunately, for the Wildcats, it was the final 1:15 of the game.
A Kellyn Kortemeyer basket at the 1:15 mark of the fourth quarter put the Wildcats ahead of the visiting Scoopers 40-39 and two Josey Wahlstrom free throws with 30 seconds remaining provided the final points of a 42-39 Wildcat win in a game in which the Wildcats trailed by as many as 11 points.

Wildcats run record to 7-2

Published by admin on Thu, 01/16/2020 - 8:40am
The Custer High School boys basketball team got out to a hot start and double-digit lead before spending three quarters staving off a Sturgis comeback attempt in its 45-41 win over the Scoopers last Saturday evening at the Armory.
The ’Cats fell behind at the outset of the game but were in front halfway through the first quarter thanks to a 15-0 run that began with a Jace Kelley three-pointer and included two more Kelley three-pointers as well as an EJ Gonzalez triple that made the score 17-6 in favor of Custer.