Saturday afternoon belonged to the Class B No. 7 Bennington boys basketball team.
The No. 9 Blair Bears faced the Badgers on the road and lost, 67-45. The visitors fell to 6-4 in defeat.
“I think they just played harder than us,” BHS coach Chris Whitwer said. “They definitely wanted it more. They were more locked-in and focused.”
Physicality also played a role, he added. Bennington earned tough rebounds and dictated the Bears' positioning with its offensive movement.
As a result, Blair fell behind 18-10 during the second quarter. The visitors responded with seven straight points — five from sophomore J'shawn Unger and two more from Luke Ladwig — but their efforts were relegated by the 13-0 Badgers run that followed.
The seventh-ranked team in Class B led No. 9 33-19 at halftime and 48-30 after three periods.
“(The Badgers) definitely deserved to win,” Whitwer said. “They played a lot better and a lot harder than we did, so we've got to fix that going forward because this next stretch is going to be tough if we play like that.”
Unger and Ladwig each scored 16 points for Blair, while Trey Bird led Bennington with the same tally. The Bears next play 7:30 p.m. today at Wahoo — Class C1's No. 2, according to the Omaha World-Herald.
