The North Butler girls and boys basketball teams will host Nashua-Plainfield for senior night and regular season finale Tuesday on 99 The Wave. The N-P girls won 41-33 and the Huskies boys held on for a 45-44 win in the first meeting on December 21.
The North Butler boys (6-14, 4-9 TIC-East) will look to end the regular season on a win after losing four in a row, including a 73-47 loss to Osage on Thursday. The Bearcats defense shouldn’t be underestimated holding opponents under an average of 50 points per game at 48.2. Ryan Austin leads with 10 points and 7.2 rebounds per game.
Bearcats Head Coach Austin Guerrero on the impact of seniors Ryan Austin and Kamdon Boos, and rematch with Huskies.
“Those two guys have set the tone for our basketball team and they take two different areas with one being a post in Austin and Kamdon Boos being our guard leader. I think they’ve done a good job for us, even when times haven’t gone where we wanted them to go this season. They’ve helped bring the team back together, continuing to push us forward with the culture we’re trying to build and continuing to get better every day,” says Guerrero. “That was an up and down game. I thought Nashua, kind of sped us up to a new level we hadn’t seen yet to that point in the season. That was the game that led us straight into Christmas break, so we’ve been chomping at the bit to get back at them.”
The Nashua-Plainfield boys (12-8, 6-7 TIC-East) have lost three straight games, including a 58-52 loss to West Fork on Friday. The Huskies attack as a pack with 15.6 assists per game. Jase Hansen and Matthew Malven each average 15.6 points per game.
The North Butler girls (3-16, 2-11 TIC-East) will look to put a stop to five-game slide in their final home game. The Bearcats fell to Osage in their last game 56-17 on Thursday. The Bearcats will look to increase scoring, after averaging 27 points or less in the last five games. Zoey Thompson leads with 9.8 points and 7.4 rebounds per game.
North Butler Head Coach Jordan Nolz on improving execution in preparation for postseason.
“The main focus for us is applying what we’ve learned and executing. We’ve really struggled to execute a lot on our sets, whether it’s in-bounds plays or just our offensive sets in general,” says Nolz. “In basketball, if one girl doesn’t go through the correct motion in your offense, it clogs everything up. We’re really looking to execute in our practices and hopefully translate that into games. So we can get some open shots and not some unforced turnovers, which has really been the case for us recently.”
North Butler seniors Kimberley Edeker and Addy Spain will be recognized.
The Nashua-Plainfield girls (10-10, 5-8 TIC-East) lost 60-38 to #15 (2A) West Fork on Friday. The Huskies are efficient in takeaways with 18.8 stalls per game. Kadence Huck leads with 17 points per game.
Coverage on 99 The Wave will begin just after 6:05 p.m. followed by the opening tip at 6:15 p.m. in Greene.
