HCHS outlasts Kuemper boys 73-66

 HARLAN (Feb. 4) -- The Kuemper Catholic boys did not resemble anything close to a 4-13 basketball team in their visit to Harlan Tuesday night.
 Falling behind 8-0 out of the gate, the Knights never did lead but pushed HCHS most of the way before the Cyclones finished off a 73-66 non-conference win to sweep the season series.
 Kuemper (4-13 overall, 3-6 Hawkeye Ten) knocked down 12-of-28 three-pointers to keep the game close. HCHS countered by shooting 10-of-23 from long range, grabbing 17 offensive boards and opening the final period with nine straight points to build a 62-52 advantage that held up during the final four minutes.
 “Any time you get a win in the Hawkeye Ten you’re happy, especially the way Kuemper played tonight. We took a heck of a shot from them on our home floor,” said HCHS head coach Mitch Osborn.
 “We’d get a little cushion and then they’d come back. But I told our guys... this was a game that worried me because their record is very deceiving. They’re way better than their record indicates because their non-conference games are brutal.”
 The Cyclones’ work on the offensive glass paid dividends during their key 9-0 run at the start of the fourth. Connor Bruck hit a third-chance trey to start things off, Michael Heithoff scored off an inbounds play and Johnathan Monson (who had 10 o-boards) tipped in a missed free throw and hit the front end of a 1-and-1 to make it 62-52. The Knights would hit three trifectas in the last four minutes - cutting the margin to four at one point - but the Cyclones took care of the ball in their delay game and converted 11 of their last 16 free throws to ice the W.
 “They were a 27 percent three-point shooting team on the season and they hit 12 on us tonight and they had to be about 50 percent. It felt like they couldn’t miss,” said Osborn.
 Kyle Berg scored all 14 of his second-half points from close range but six other Knights had at least one trey. Will Schenkelberg hit four threes for his 12 points while John Mayhall and Kyle Feauto combined for five threes and scored 10 apiece.
 Kuemper shot 51 percent overall but made only 2-of-5 free throws and was outrebounded 39-21 by the Cyclones, who finished 19-of-28 at the foul line and turned the ball over just three times to the Knights’ 11.
 Bruck continued to lead a balanced Cyclone scoring ledger, hitting 4-of-8 treys and tallying 19 points. He also had a team-high four steals. Monson totaled 18 points, 14 rebounds and seven assists while Heithoff had 16 points and Michael Erlemeier added eight. The Cyclones (12-4) will now travel to Lewis Central (10-6) on Friday (Feb. 7) to battle for first place in the conference.