WAUSA – The Wausa boys basketball team ended up taking third in the 2024 edition of its own Post Holiday Tournament.
Wausa (6-5) opened up tournament play on Jan. 4 by losing 63-24 to the undefeated and state-rated Lutheran High Northeast Eagles, but bounced back two days later with a crushing 63-16 victory over the Niobrara/Verdigre Cougars (0-12).
Against Lutheran High Northeast, the Vikings trailed by 13 at halftime before things got out of control.
“We tried to switch some things to start the third quarter, but Lutheran did a good job beating our traps,” Wausa head coach Tim Schindler said.
The Vikings bounced back by jumping all over Niobrara/Verdigre 23-2 after eight minutes and it was cruise control from there.
Junior Brady Bloomquist (nine points) and freshman Matthew Schindler (eight points) led Wausa in the opening tournament game while junior Colton Baue (19 points), Schindler (16 points) and sophomore Preston Schlote (seven points) sparked the Vikings in the bounce-back victory.
“I feel like they came out with more aggression and they jumped on us really quick and made the shots that they’re supposed to make, and we couldn’t make any shots,” Wausa senior Cashe Carlson said of the tournament opener. “We just did not execute very well.”
Carlson noted the Vikings had won three straight games prior to the tournament and were starting to feel some rhythm before the contest against Lutheran High Northeast.
“They just jumped on us really quick and then we kind of just fell apart,” Carlson said. “I wouldn’t say we lost confidence; we were confident going into the game. We knew it was going to be a dogfight no matter what. They’re a really good team. I’m not excited about the loss against Lutheran, but at least we came out of the weekend 1-1.”
Carlson noted the Niobrara/Verdigre game gave Wausa a chance to experiment with the Vikings’ press and get ready for the postseason, which is a little over a month away.
“We could see if we could throw out a press on someone, jump on someone quickly, or it was just good practice for new things that we’re trying to put into our game play,” Carlson said. “I feel like we’re good enough to win our subdistrict still.
“We’ve lost some games, but our record isn’t showing anything of who we actually are,” he said. “Are we going to eventually find ourselves offensively? I mean, we want to have an overall game and not just play really good defense and not be able to score and end up winning.”
Wausa was scheduled to play at Neligh-Oakdale on Jan. 9 and then is set to hit the road again to take on Osmond/Randolph on Jan. 12 and host Elkhorn Valley on Jan. 16.
“We are starting to find a rotation for our guys,” Coach Schindler said. “We have a lot of guys that have different strengths for different games. So, finding a consistent rotation has been taking a while to figure out.”
