Bearcats lose heartbreaker on Friday

BOYS PREP BASKETBALL: NEWMAN CATHOLIC 60, NORTH BUTLER 57 | WEST HANCOCK 73, NOTH BUTLER 46

Bearcats lose heartbreaker on Friday

Reid Lammers puts up 19 in loss to Newman Catholic

After leading by six or more points — twice — in the fourth quarter, the Bearcats couldn’t put the Knights of Newman Catholic away and fell in the final seconds, 60-57.

Senior Reid Lammers came alive in the second half, scoring 15 of his 19 points in the final stretch.

In a state tournament-like atmosphere, the gym in Greene was filled with raucous crowds from Mason City and North Butler.

In the waning seconds, Newman Catholic was able to put away a pair of sealing free throws and gave the Bearcats their first loss of the year.

Head coach Dave Brown said when it came down to it, a few too many errors were the downfall. “We just made a few too many mistakes, and they capitalized on them,” Brown said. “There were some coaching errors, and I told them that, that I should’ve taken a timeout or so. But that’s what happens. But we were really happy with the kids’ effort. We had no issues with that.”

Brown said Lammers exemplified what it means to be a key player in crunch time.

“That’s what the good players do,” Brown said. “He came out of halftime, made some good shots and made some hard buckets. But that’s what the good players do.”

A physical West Hancock team didn’t help the Bearcats’ weekend. In 73-46 loss, success was still noticeable for Brown.

“We fought really hard with them,” Brown said. “And coming out of halftime, we weren’t sure how they would respond to being down by so much, but we came out and owned the first two or three minutes of the second half.”

Heading into halftime, the Bearcats were down 35-19 after being up 19-16 at the end of the first quarter.

Despite going 0-2 on the weekend and sitting at 1-2 overall, Brown said there have been worst starts to a season. And with that in mind, there team is staying positive.

“We’ve had worst starts; starting 0-4, 0-6,” Brown said. “And we’re 1-2, very close to being 2-1. So we’re OK and looking ahead to this week.”

This week, North Butler has Top of Iowa Conference opponents in Central Springs and Saint Ansgar.

Brown said if the Bearcats hope to battle with the top teams in the conference, these games are must-wins.

By Stephen Koenigsfeld sports@charlescitypress.com