Wildcats fall to Peetz; enter Regionals at #13

The second ranked squad in 1A's District 4 basketball action finished in the same fashion as the runner-up following last week's post-season tournament. The Fleming Wildcats held the second spot behind Briggsdale to enter the week's play; they defeated Prairie in round one and took a loss to Peetz in the Championship putting them at #13 as they enter Regionals.

District play opened on Friday night for the Wildcats when they took on third seeded Prairie. Fleming and Prairie met in mid-January on the Wildcats home court. Fleming took a narrow, 43-41, victory in that contest.

The Wildcats opened strong in last week's outing with the Mustangs and went up by nine in the opening quarter. Prairie chipped a single point off that lead in the second, but trailed 27-19 overall.

Fleming went on to increase their lead by another seven points throughout the second half and cruised to a 58-43 victory to advance to Saturday's District Championship.

A senior trio of Kolten Houser, Nolan Japp and Blake Feather led the Wildcats on the scoreboard against Prairie. Houser scored 20; Japp and Blake Feather added 14 and 12, respectively.

Seniors Harry Harms and Braylen Feather led under the net. Both players brought down 10 rebounds.

Saturday's Championship contest brought the Peetz Bulldogs to the court to take on the Wildcats. Peetz entered Districts at number four and took down top-ranked Briggsdale to make their way to the Championship and the underdogs didn't stop there.

Peetz took control of the scoreboard early and jumped to a five-point lead over the Wildcats by the end of the first quarter. They would go on to add another 12 points to that advantage to go up 33-16 by half time.

Scoring between the two teams evened out in the third quarter at 17-all, but Peetz maintained a hefty 50-33 lead. The final minute efforts by the Wildcats fell short; they outscored Peetz 9-3 in the fourth, but remained down 53-42 at the final horn.

Individual stats for the game against Peetz were not reported as of press time.

The Wildcats now move into a 32-team Regional bracket this week. As the number 13 team, they're set to take on the Springfield Longhorns who enter at number 20. That game is set to take place on Friday, March 3 at 2:30 p.m. at Stratton High School.

The winner of Friday's Fleming versus Springfield contest will advance to round two on Saturday against the winner of number four Stratton versus number 29 Prairie. That game is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. at Stratton.