The Lady Cardinals beat Alliance 46–24 on Thursday night in Alliance.  The Cardinals turned out their lowest scoring effort this season, but still won big.  By halftime the score was 26–10.  Chadron  scored 20 more points to win by 22 points.

Peyton Hinn put in 16 points to lead the Lady Cardinals in scoring.

The Chadron boys were held to only 31 points, in a 51-31 lost to the Alliance Bulldogs.

The Cardinals were able to keep the score close until halftime trailing only by eight at the break, 23-15. But Chadron was outscored in the second half; the Bulldogs went on to score 28 more points resulting in a 51-31 loss to Alliance.

Matt Lordino and Spencer Eliason were the only Cardinals in double figures; Lordino scored 12 while Eliason scored 11 points.

The Chadron State College basketball teams will make the long trip to New Mexico this weekend. They will play the Highlands University quintets in Las Vegas on Friday night and the Western New Mexico Mustangs in Silver City on Saturday night. The round trip is about 2,000 miles by bus.

Friday’s doubleheader starts at 6 p.m. and Saturday’s games begin at 5:30.

The Highlands Cowgirls are 3-11 overall and 3-7 in the conference. After opening their conference slate with wins over Colorado Christian, Colorado Mines and Western State by a total of eight points, they have lost seven games in a row.

Two of the setbacks have been by just four and three points, but the losses to Metro State and Fort Lewis were by 29 and 20, respectively.

The Cowgirls feature the conference’s leading scorer, 5-foot-8 junior Alyssa Lopez, who is averaging 17.9 points. She averaged 18.3 points last year while sharing the RMAC lead. Lopez also was named the RMAC Academic Player of the Year this past week.

The Highlands men are 5-9 for the season and 3-7 in the conference. The Cowboys are paced by 6-7 junior Mannie Cass at 16.8 points, including an eye-popping 29 of 57 from 3-point range. He’s also 56 of 68 for 82.4 percent from the free throw line.

Next in line for the Highlands is 6-4 Lavelle McDade, who is averaging 13.4 points.

The Western New Mexico women went 0-24 last year, but they beat the University of the Southwest 77-56 in this year’s season-opener. Their only other victory was by a 63-50 score over Adams State on Friday night. Morgan Woltman, a 5-10 senior, scored 18 points to lead the Lady Mustangs over the Grizzlies. She’s also the team’s top scorer for the season at 12.6 a game.

The Mustangs’ men are 4-10 for the season and 3-7 in league play. All three conference wins have been at home. They were over Colorado Mines and Colorado Christian on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 and CSU-Pueblo on Dec. 14.

The Mustangs have lost their four RMAC games in January, all on the road. At 15.6 points a game, Chad Carter, a 6-6 senior, is the only WNMU player averaging in double figures, but three others are averaging between 8.4 and 9.6

Chadron State’s Zac Bargen leads the RMAC men with a 17.6-point scoring average. The Eagles’ Kattie Rantais third among the women at 16.7.

Lincoln – The Illinois defense held Nebraska to its lowest offensive output of the season, as the Fighting Illini escaped the Devaney Center with a 62-52 women’s basketball win over the Huskers on Thursday night.

Nebraska slipped to 12-6 overall and 2-3 in the Big Ten, while Illinois improved to 10-7 and 3-2 in the conference.

Nebraska trailed 27-20 at the half after shooting just 24 percent (6-25) in the opening period. The Huskers were just 2-of-10 from three-point range and turned the ball over 16 times, while being outrebounded 23-22.

The Huskers were able to hang in against the Fighting Illini by holding Illinois to just 11-of-36 shooting (30.6 percent), including 3-of-13 from long range. Nebraska also outscored Illinois 6-2 at the line, while Illini starters Adrienne GodBold and Alexis Smith both committed three first-half fouls.

Illinois jumped out to a 9-0 lead in the first two minutes, but after GodBold was whistled for her second foul, Nebraska answered with a 14-0 run to take a 14-9 lead. The Illini settled down to regain the lead behind eight first-half points from GodBold and six points and eight boards from Karisma Penn.

Hooper led all scorers with 10 first-half points, while Cady added six points and five boards. But Lindsey Moore and Hailie Sample were the only other Huskers to find the scoring column with just two points apiece.

The Huskers return to Big Ten road action when they take on Minnesota Sunday in Minneapolis. Tip-off between Nebraska and the Golden Gophers at Williams Arena is set for 5 p.m. with live national television coverage by the Big Ten Network.

On Friday, January 18th and Saturday the 19th, Chadron will host a Wrestling Invitational to be held at the Nelson Physical Activity Center on the Chadron State College campus.

The action starts on Friday at 11:00 with the first three rounds of wrestling.  On Saturday the doors open at 9:00 for the semifinals and championship rounds.

This Invitational includes 30 teams from 4 different states.  One of the teams being Cheyenne East who won a tournament back in early January that Chadron finished fifth in.

Come support the Cardinal Wrestling team on Friday and Saturday. The cost of admission is $ 6.00 for adults for an all-day pass, and $ 5.00  for students.

       John L. Smith…who was the interim head football coach at Arkansas this season…is coming to the RMAC as head coach at Fort Lewis. Smith succeeds Cesar Rivas-Sandoval…who unexpectedly resigned last week after 3 seasons. He’ll start March 1st, with defensive coordinator Ed Rifilato continuing to oversees day-to-day operations until then.

Smith has been head coach at 5 other D-1 schools besides Arkansas…Idaho, Utah State, Louisville, Michigan State, and…at least officially…Weber State. Smith had just left an assistant’s job at Arkansas last spring to take over at Weber State when Arkansas brought him back as interim head coach following Bobby Petrino’s resignation.

While he has no ties to Fort Lewis itself, Smith does have strong ties to 3 key individuals. Skyhawks AD Gary Hunter was the AD director at Idaho when Smith was there, and FLC President Dene Kay Thomas was associate dean at Idaho and helped the athletic department set up an academic advising and support unit.

His third connection to the Skyhawks is Rifilato, who played for Smith at Idaho and was director of football operations under him at Louisville in 2002…turning down an offer to go with Smith to Michigan State to instead come to FLC as offensive coordinator.

Smith…Big 10 Coach of the Year in 2003 and a veteran of more than 40-years of D-1 coaching, including 1986 as an assistant at Wyoming…freely admits there are big challenges at Fort Lewis, which has just 10 winning seasons in 50-years as a 4-year school.

.       Only one of his 11 predecessors at the school…a list that includes Rifilato and Gary Barnett, who went on to greater fame and success at Northwestern and Colorado…had a winning record, and the Skyhawks went 0-10 last fall for their 6th-straight losing year.

Still, he’s excited about dropping down to D-II and coming to Durango because he says he’ll be coaching for the real reasons he got into the profession: helping kids get an education and making a difference in their lives, not trying to get them into the NFL.

Smith is an avid outdoorsman who’s climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and run with the bulls in Pamplona, so he’s also excited about living in the Rocky Mountains after having spent the past decade-plus living away from the mountains. Smith is also the uncle of 49ers quarterback and former overall #1 draft pick Alex Smith.

     The Panhandle and Minuteman Athletic Conferences are having their tournaments this week.  with play-in games. In the Panhandle Conference play-in games last night…both featuring Edgemont against Hay Springs…it was Edgemont coming out on top in both…taking the girl’s contest 32-31 and the boys 43-32.

The Panhandle Conference tournament semifinals are Friday and the finals on Saturday, both at Crawford High School.

Friday’s schedule starts with the Crawford-Edgemont girls at 2:00, followed by the Sioux County-Edgemont boys at 3:45, the Sioux County girls against Hemingford at 5:30, and finally the second boys game at 7:15, Hemingford versus Crawford.

Saturday’s time schedule will be the same, with the girls 3rd-place game at 2:00, boys 3rd-place at 3:45, girls championship at 5:30, and boys championship at 7:15.

The MAC tournament had first round games at the homes of the higher seeds, with the semifinals and finals moving to Sidney Middle School. The semifinals are Thursday…alternating girls and boys action…with the finals on Saturday.

For the girls semifinals, Creek Valley…which beat South Platte 56-32..will play top-seeded Potter-Dix…which had a bye…at 3:00….while at 6:30, Garden County…a 42-15 winner over Banner County…will play #2 seed Leyton…an even easier 50-9 victor against Minatare.

The first boys semifinal game is at 4:45, matching #1 seed Leyton and Potter-Dix…a first-round 64-53 overtime winner against Garden County. The second semifinal offers Creek Valley…who topped Banner County 38-30…versus Minatare…an easy 67-38 winner over South Platte.

Saturday’s schedule has the girl’s 3rd place game at 3:00, followed by the boys 3rd-place game at 4:45, the girls championship game at 6:30, and the boys title game at 8:00.