A look back at the first half of the Banner County boys' season

The Banner County Wildcats have had a hard start to their season, walking away from the first half with only one victory.

In the season opener at home against Garden County on December 6, 2013, the Wildcats fell by four points with the score resting at 49-45.

The Wildcats started off strong in the first quarter of the game, trailing Garden County by only one point at the end of the quarter. However, Garden County was able to keep the Wildcats to only eight points in the second quarter, keeping a nine point lead over Banner County heading into the second half.

The Wildcats came into the second half outscoring the Garden County squad 10 to 9 and were able to score 12 points to Garden County’s eight in the fourth quarter. However, the push in the second half just wasn’t enough to let them walk away with the win.

It was a strong showing from the Wildcats with junior Tyson Dahlgrin scoring 16 points hitting 38 percent for the night, with seven rebounds and one steal.

Junior Mike McKown, who led the squad last year, scored nine points throughout the season opener hitting 40 percent on the night with four steals, two blocked shots and two rebounds.

In their second game of the season, the Wildcats struggled and ultimately failed to keep the Potter-Dix Coyotes at bay, losing 64-45. Senior Brenton Soule walked away with 5 points hitting 67 percent with two blocked shots, six rebounds, and one steal.

The game started off in the Wildcats’ favor leaving the first quarter with a two point lead over the Coyotes. Things quickly shifted by the end of the second quarter with the Coyotes’ defense holding the Banner County boys to four points in the second quarter and scoring 21 of their own to end the first half with a 15 point lead over the Wildcats.

Banner County was able to recover slightly in the third quarter putting 14 points on the board, but their defense let the Coyotes increase their lead to 19 heading into the fourth quarter which ended with both teams scoring 17 points and the Coyotes walking away with the victory.

The game against Minatare on December 10 was another one that went out of the Wildcats’ grasp, ultimately ending the game down 56-38. Senior Ben Hostetler scored seven points in the game hitting 43 percent with five rebounds and one assist.

The Minatare squad pulled away from Banner County early in the first quarter, heading into the second quarter with a six point lead. Though the Wildcats tried to rally to chip away at Minatare’s lead, they entered halftime down 30-17.

The second half did not have a good start for the Wildcats who were only able to put five points on the board against the Minatare defense while the Minatare offense was able to increase their lead to 20 points going into the fourth quarter.

The Wildcats were able to finally outscore the Minatare squad in the final quarter of the game, but it served little to put them on top as the Wildcats were defeated 56-38 at the buzzer.

The December 20 game against the Leyton Warriors got away from the Wildcats early on with Leyton pulling away by 20 points in the first quarter with the Wildcats only putting six points on the board.

Leyton almost completely shut down the Wildcats offense in the second quarter with Banner County only able to put three more points on the board while the Warriors put on 13 of their own.

The Wildcats pushed coming out of halftime keeping the Leyton offense to 12 points in the third quarter while hitting 11 shots of their own. However, Leyton was able to get around the Wildcats’ defense once again in the fourth quarter scoring 19 points and sealing their victory of 70-30 over the Banner County squad.

Dahlgrin flaunted his shooting ability in the December 21 game against Creek Valley putting 34 points on the board for the Wildcats, hitting 68 percent for the night.

The game against Creek Valley was a tight one for the Wildcats ending the first quarter down by four points with the score resting at 28-24 in Creek Valley’s favor. The two teams completely shut each other’s offenses down, not allowing any shots to fall in the second quarter.

The Wildcats came out swinging in the second half putting 20 points on the board and keeping the Creek Valley offense to 12. The fourth quarter showed Creek Valley rallying once again to keep the Wildcats at 13 points while scoring 17 of their own, sending the game into over time.

The teams remained tied throughout first overtime round, each putting seven points on the board. However, Creek Valley was able to get by the Wildcats defense to score eight points to the Wildcat’s seven in the second round of overtime, walking away with a 72-71victory over the Banner County squad before the break.

The Wildcats came into the new year facing off against Crawford on January 3.

The first quarter was a slow start for Banner County as Crawford pulled away by four points ending the quarter with a score of 14-10. However, the squad almost completely shutdown the Crawford offense in the second quarter, gaining a lead of five points and keeping the Crawford squad to three for the rest of the half.

Coming out of halftime the Banner County boys pulled away from Crawford even more, putting 11 points on the board and keeping Crawford to five to enter the final quarter with an 11 point lead.

The final quarter showed Crawford start to rally by putting nine points on the board, but they just couldn’t keep the Wildcats’ offense at bay, leading the Wildcats to walk away with their first victory of the season 44-31.

Dahlgrin was the top scorer for the Wildcats against Crawford, walking away with 25 points, 16 rebounds, and six steals for the night.

The game against Sioux County was a tense one on January 4 for the Wildcats.

Both teams ended the first quarter tied at 17 points with the Sioux County defense adjusting in the second quarter to keep Banner County unable to score for the rest of the first half and going into halftime with a nine point lead.

The Wildcats were able to put 13 points on the board in the third quarter, fighting back against Sioux County to end the quarter only down by 3 points at 33-30.

The fourth quarter once again found the teams tied in the points scored for the quarter with each walking away with 12 points. Sioux County walked away with the win for the night at 45-42.

Dahlgrin and Hostetler were the top scorers for the night with Dahlgrin walking away with 15 points and Hostetler walking away with 14 points.

The Wildcats will return for their first home game in 2014 on January 11 where they’ll face off against Hemingford with games starting at 1:00 p.m.