Holton 54, Nemaha Central 51 in Overtime

It was a battle of 0-2 teams in the Big East and neither team led by more than seven points with a handful of lead changes in Holton's home opener. Both teams struggled to make winning plays down the stretch but despite committing 31 turnovers, the Holton girls got a trey from Kaiya Taylor to go ahead 52-50 with 27 seconds left and Elizabeth Schuster sealed the win by knocking in a pair of free throws with six seconds remaining to give Holton their first win and drop the top 10 ranked Nemaha Central girls to 0-3.  

Holton trailed 18-16 at halftime and 32-27 entering the fourth quarter but battled back to tie the score at 34 and then 41 before a bucket by Lora Larison and free throw by Taylor to take a 44-41 advantage. However one of the five returning senior starters for Nemaha Central Cami Dalinghaus hit a triple with eight seconds left to tie the game at 44. Following a timeout, Holton proceeded to throw the ball away and then fouled Nemaha in the backcourt with a foul to give, but then fouled again with less than a second left and gave the Thunder two free throws. Nemaha was just 4-10 at the line in the final 12 minutes and missed both freebies to win it in regulation. 

Schuster scored 16 points for Holton while Taylor and Brooke Willcott both chipped in 11. Larison added 8 points as Holton made 11 of 15 at the charity stripe and improved to 1-2 on the season, beating the Lady Thunder for the first time in five games and just the second time in the last 15 meetings. Holton will travel to Perry Lecompton before hosting Rossville next week to complete the December schedule. 

Nemaha Central had 21 turnovers themselves, but made just four of 20 some three-pointers and shot just 50 percent at the foul line. Cali Honeymon scored 18 points but made just 2-8 foul shots while Dalinghaus scored 10. Emma Hermesch hit three treys and scored nine for the second straight game but fouled out with three minutes left in regulation and Reagan Gerety had eight points as well before the Thunder fell to 0-3 and lost to Holton for just the third time in the last decade. 

After falling to Centralia and Hanover, Nemaha Central host another Twin Valley League team on Tuesday in Valley Heights before wrapping up the December schedule at Jeff West.