KEARNEY – From start to finish, it was all Bearcats between Kearney and Bellevue East Thursday evening at Kearney High School. The Bearcats won 70-44 over the Chieftains to start their season 1-0. Click here to listen to the broadcast.
Both teams entered the season looking to build off of their 2020-21 seasons. Kearney went 13-9 the previous year, and returned significant players from the team who’s season ended in the first round of the district tournament.
The Bearcats’ Head Coach Drake Beranek mentioned that he wanted to see his team’s shooting ability show-out early, and so it did. Senior Jack Mundorf got the scoring kicked off with a three pointer in the first quarter after nearly two minutes of scoreless play. From there, Kearney continued their advantage by piling on two more three pointers in the opening minutes – one each from Parker Wise and Cole Feddersen. Kearney also saw big plays coming from senior Will Vanderbeek on both the offensive and defensive fronts. Vanderbeek contributed four points in the quarter and had two blocks as well. Bellevue East was only allowed six points in the first eight minutes, trailing 17-6 at the end of the first quarter.
The Bearcats slowed their offensive momentum as Bellevue East began to clamp down on the outside shots, switching defenders and rotating regularly to prevent any cohesion in Kearney’s offensive attack. The Bearcats still added 13 however and limited the Chieftains to 9 in the second quarter. Entering halftime, Kearney led 30-15.
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Kearney erupted for an offensive explosion in the third quarter, on fire from inside looks across different scorers. The Bearcats added 22 points in the third quarter, and continued to limit possessions for Bellevue East and allowing 13 points.
The fourth quarter saw many rotational pieces enter for the Bearcats, as Kearney won 70-44.
Kearney saw contributions from Vanderbeek with 16 points, Mundorf finished with 13, Feddersen had 10, Wise ended with 7, freshman Ben Johnson had 6 points, senior Jack Dahlgren ended with 5, senior Kaden Miller had 3, sophomore Karter Lee had 3, and Ty Lightle and Colt Strake finished with 2.
Kearney will take on Lincoln Southwest on Saturday afternoon at Papillion-LaVista South at 3:45 PM. Pregame coverage will start on KGFW at 3:30 PM with Austin Jacobsen on the call.