The season came to an end for the CWC men’s basketball team in Sheridan Thursday night as they fell to South #2 seed North Platte 91 to 78. Central came out hot and grabbed an early lead. NorthPlatte, however, racheted up the defense while fast breaking on turnovers and built a 13 point halftime lead, 47-34. The second half played dead even as The Knights advance to the semi finals with the win.
Central was without two players who were serving the second of their two game suspensions. David Simental did play after severely turning and ankle last week that kept him out of the play in game vs LCCC Saturday.
James Woods led the Rustlers tying his career high at CWC with 21 points. He was 3 for 9 from the three point line and hit 6 of 6 free throws. Connor Nelson scored 19 with 17 from Devin Rottweiler who had 9 rebounds.
After the game, Coach Brad Schmit gave credit to the Knights, “ Props to North Platte. Their defensive pressure and offensive system wore us down. Our guys battled but didn’t have enough juice to get the win.”
The Rustlers finish the year at 11 and 20. Coach Schmit felt good about the season overall, “The culture I wanted to build in my first year happened. We play hard, we compete, and we play as a team. I’m excited for the Spring with these guys and for the 2019 recruiting class.”
The Knights are now 4-0 vs Central with three of those games coming in post-season play.