MINDEN- The Minden Whippets secured a sweep of their rival Holdrege Dusters Friday night, winning both the girls, 57-28, and boys contests, 56-54.
In the girls game, Minden took an early lead and never looked back against the Holdrege as they walked away with a 57-28 victory in their rivalry matchup Friday night.
Early on it seemed the Dusters had the momentum, forcing the Whippets to turn the ball over on their first two possessions of the contest. That momentum would quickly flip, as the Dusters would go on to then turn the ball over on their next two possessions as well, allowing Minden’s Matti Kamery to knock down a three that opened scoring for the Whippets.
Holdrege wouldn’t get their first points until the second half of the first quarter after the Minden bench was called for two technical fouls. Emily Stutzman came to the line and knocked down three of the four attempts to give the Dusters their first points of the game.
The Whippets would never look back at the Dusters, cruising to a 14-5 lead at the end of the first quarter and eventual 29-13 lead at the half. They would also score on their first six possessions of the second half while not allowing the Dusters to score during their run. The defensive pressure of Minden suffocated Holdrege throughout the contest, forcing errant passes galore as the Whippets capitalized and ran away with the rivalry victory, 57-28.
Minden was paced by Kamery who finished with 22 points followed by Kinsie Land with 14. Myla Emery (8), MaKenna Starkey (6), Kaylynn Jorgensen (4) and MaKenna Betty (3) rounded out the scoring for the Whippets.
For Holdrege, they were led by Avery Hurlbert and Gabby Rooks with six each for the Dusters. Emily Stutzman (5), MaKenna Fulmer (3), Keeley Vaughn (3), Ellie Pelster (3) and Carson Sundquist (2) also contributed for Holdrege.
The Dusters (8-7) will hit the road to take on Broken Bow in the first round of the Southwest conference tournament on Tuesday at 6 p.m. You can catch that game on KUVR with pregame beginning around 5:45 p.m. Meanwhile, the Whippets (11-2) will host the winner of the Cozad-Valentine contest on Tuesday night as well.
The boys contest was a back-and-forth affair that had all of the makings of a typical rivalry matchup. It would be the Minden Whippets who would prevail by playing a complete game, 56-54.
It did not take long for the fireworks to start in the first half, as the emotions of a rivalry contest showed up in the form of a flagrant foul committed against Holdrege’s Garret Johnson, who came to the line and knocked down all three of his attempts. The Dusters would cruise to a 15-12 lead at the end of the first.
Then the Whippets took over the second thanks to a huge performance from Kade Dorszynski, who knocked down three from beyond the arc to help give Minden a 30-23 lead at the half.
The down but not deterred Dusters came out in the second half and made a game out of it. They would rally back from being down at the half to gaining a lead of upwards of nine in the second half.
The rallies wouldn’t end with Holdrege though, as the Whippets came out in the second half of the fourth and took advantage of the Dusters giving up plenty of opportunities at the charity stripe, knocking down six freebies in the fourth quarter alone. None were bigger than the one that was converted out of Dorszynski’s hand with less than 10 to go in the fourth, as he would break the tie 55-54 before knocking another down with 0.5 seconds left to put the dagger in the final score, 56-54.
