Neidigh jumper pushes WHS past Bloomfield
Feb. 9—In a game as tight as the Hatchets and Bloomfield (8-11) had on Friday night, it was no surprise that the team that would make the last bucket would be the team that came out on top.
And fortunately for Washington fans — that was the Hatchets.
A Brant Neidigh basket in the final :05 proved to be the dagger in WHS's 49-47 victory in the Hatchet House.
The win was the fifth in a row for WHS and moved them to 11-8.
Neidigh ended up the WHS leader with 13 points, but Colton Stowers added 11 and Cordell Turner had 10. Ole Kroeger had a hard- fought eight points, while Cooper Wright and Kaleb Waller had three each. Senior Chris Meredith also scored.
"Kaleb (Waller) came in and played great defense and hit a big 3 for us. Cordell was really aggressive as well. We have to have guys come in and play their roles for us and we need that to be successful," said WHS coach Gene Miiller. "It was nice to have Brant in double figures too, his scoring has really been coming along lately."
There were just two buckets in the first 4:00 as Bloomfield's Blake Neill and Hatchet Stowers traded 3-pointers. Neidigh and Ole Kroeger pushed WHS to a 7-5 lead, but Neil quickly made it 10-7, before Kellen Luce added a Cardinal triple to end the quarter up 13-7.
Neill continued to do the damage for Bloomfield, with two treys as the Cards were able to build up a 24-13 lead halfway through the second quarter. Neidigh cut it back to 24-18 with a pair of baskets and a free throw but Bloomfield would go into the half up 27-20, as they hit seven 3s in the first 16 minutes.
Bloomfield came out quickly in the third with the first four points and WHS called a timeout just 1:30 into the half, down 31-20. After the TO, Stowers answered with a triple and Cordell Turner with a free throw. Kroeger added the next four points as WHS trimmed the lead back to four. Free throws allowed the Hatchets to move back to 33-36, has they headed into the final eight minutes.
Washington's Waller tied the game on the first possession of the fourth with a 3-pointer, while Stower nailed a triple to give WHS its first lead since the first quarter. Kroeger added a long jumper and WHS was up by five. Bloomfield tied it at 43-all with just under four to play. WHS took a three-point lead after a basket from Turner, to make it 46-43. Turner had eight points before the basket but they had all come from the free throw line. Bloomfield pulled back to within one with 1:41 left but a free throw from Meredith extended it to 47-45. Cardinal Hunter Abner tied it with :32 left, but WHS was able to get the ball back and Neidigh was able to get a jumper in the lane with :05 left to get the win.
Cardinal sophomore Blake Neill led all scoring with 25 points.
In the JV contest, WHS won 51-45. Levi Burkemper led with 13, Brody Isza had 12, Trey James had 10, while Aiden Boyd had nine, Jon Roy four, and Jack Brower three.
WHS takes on South Knox on Feb. 16.
