North Central attended a high school basketball extravaganza in Highmore last Saturday. The NC boys would defeat Lyman 57-50 in that event, while the Thunder girls were  sustaining a 43-27 setback to Jones County.

The Thunder boys had to overcome a 7-14 first quarter deficit. They survived for a 46-46 regulation tie. NC then scored 11 in the OT, and Lyman, only four.

The Thunder boys had three double figure scorers in that encouter led by Raynor Sprague with his 13 points and five assists. He included one trey. Next would be Dawson Walz with 12 points and Zane Haar also got into double figures with 11 points.

Cole Beitelspacher and Tim Rucker each tallied six points. Brady Beitelspacher included four points, followed by Cooper Oxner with a trey for his three points. Jade Jacobs would complete their ledger with his two points.

They totaled 17 deuces with two treys and 17 accurate free throws.

Lyman responded with 11 points apiece by Aksel Ehlers and Conway Collins. Their third leading scorer would be Dawson Vollmer with seven points. Five more players would score. Their offense consisted of a blend of two-point baskets and treys plus 10 accurate free throws.

The Thunder captured nine offensive rebounds and 33 defensive boards with a balanced team effort. Walz had a double-double with 12 rebounds. Cole Beitelspacher and Rucker each had eight boards. The Lyman quint had seven offensive boards and 19 on the defensive side of things. The Thunder only had 15 turnovers and so did Lyman. Nine of Lyman's mistakes were directly caused by Thunder steals.

GIRLS

The NC Thunder girls indeed dropped a non-conference 43-27 outcome to Jones County last Saturday in Highmore.

But they were led by Amree Vander Vorst with 13 points including three treys. Next would be Ella Batie with her seven points, followed by Alaina Dosch with six points and Ashton Heyne with a free throw.

Jones County's leading scorer would be Sunny Valberg with 11 points and Sophie Dowling also got into double figures with her 10 points. Five more JC players got into their scoring column that day.

The JC team obtained a 16-6 first-quarter lead and led 24-12 at intermission. They would also lead 35-19 with a quarter to play.

The Thunder rebounders were led by Dosch with seven rebounds and the JC top rebounder turned out to be Tonya Iverson with 11 boards. The Thunder had 11 turnovers. They were able to total eight baskets that included those three treys and added eight free throws. The JC team netted 16 baskets and 11 free throws with only one miss.

The Thunder boys and girls will play Northwestern in a league doubleheader on Friday, Feb. 9 in Mellette. The boys go on the road to Wakpala on Monday, Feb. 12.