BOYS = Sabetha 54, Holton 41

It was a battle of 2-0 teams in their Big 7 League opener on Friday night in Holton, but the Sabetha Blueajys dominated from start to finish and three games into the season have already matched their win total from all of last season. Matthew Garber burried a couple early treys in route to a 20-point night as the Jays turned a 17-8 first quarter blitz into a 27-10 second quarter lead and never looked back.  Holton never got any closer than eight points. 

Sabetha made 12 of 15 free throws in the fourth quarter including 8 from Garber to make sure Holton would not get back in the game. The Jays went 17 of 25 from the charity stripe while Holton made 10 of 13 on a night they struggled to score the basketball and missed several open shots and attempts near the rim. Still, a 10-3 run in the third period pulled the state ranked Wildcats within 38-30, but after a Sabetha timeout, the Jays got the lead back to double-figures heading into the fourth quarter. 

David Rokey added 15 points for Sabetha while Christian McAfee chipped in 8 and fellow sophomore Marcus Baumann added 7. Holton was led for a third straight game by Tyson Synder with 11 points while Jaylen Turner had 8 and so did Kobe Black, who came off the bench and played well for the Cats, including their first points of the game. Jake Zeller added six on two of the Cats five triples. 

Sabetha joined Hiawatha, Royal Valley and Nemaha Central with a 3-0 start to the season as the Big 7 boys went 13-2 against non-league foes to begin this campaign.

GIRLS = Holton 27, Sabetha 24

This game was certainly closer as both teams struggled mightily to score the basketball. Sabetha led 7-2 after one period, only to see Holton use a 10-2 second quarter to take the 12-9 lead at halftime. The Lady Cats still led by three after three quarters and built the biggest margin of the night to 23-16 with four minutes to play.  Sabetha answered with an 8-0 run fueled by two triples from Mary Lukert to take a 24-23 advantage. Yet, Holton scored on their next trip with a bucket from Brooke Flewelling with 1:20 to play, and Holton added a putback of a missed free throw with eight seconds remaining for the final score of 27-24.  Emily Krebs got a good look at a potential trey to tie the game but the shot was just short as Sabetha dropped to 0-3 on the season. 

Holton is now 2-1 after back-to-back wins and was led by Lindsey Wisdom with 8 points including the put-back in the final seconds. Tiarra Dodd played well and scored 6 points as did Grace Etzel who hit two trifecta's off the bench. Sabetha got 10 from Lukert in her first game back from injury this season while Jadyn Dorn hit a pair of first quarter treys and finished with 9 points. 

Sabetha has two home games against Riverside and Jeff West before the Christmas break while Holton will play their final two December contest at Jeff West and Hiawatha.