BLAIR, NEBRASKA (2025 January 8, Wednesday)
Morgan Archer, Story and Photos
Don Harrold, Editor
blairtoday@mail.com – Facebook
The Blair Bears varsity boys basketball team dropped a hard-fought home game to the Bennington Badgers on Jan. 7, with a final score of 44-62. The loss drops the Bears to 3-5 on the season and the Badgers to 5-4.
The Bears came out strong with junior Bo Meier (#34) winning the tip-off and hitting a 3-pointer to come out on top to start the game. Bennington seniors Austin Kaiser (#1) and Jace Fitzgerald (#5) each made a layup. Blair’s freshman Brevin Leggott (#12) quickly responded with another two layups in return. The Bears ended the first quarter 16-15, with Bennington trailing.
“Our emphasis this week was coming out strong and bringing energy throughout the game,” Meier said.
Bennington’s sophomore Blaize Jung (#4) started the second quarter with a layup, putting them above the Bears. The Bears’ freshman Kalan Steinback (#32) responded with a layup and a 3-pointer, making the score 23-28, Bennington up. Leggott made a deep three from the logo to end the first half 26-30, with the Bears trailing.
“We were trying to be super physical, and that worked in the first half. [We] kept it close,” senior Cooper Sorensen (#10) said. “Then in the second half, our defensive intensity went down a little bit.”
However, Bennington’s senior Tyler Zach (#21) scored first in the third quarter, making one of his two free throws. Meier responded with two layups to cut Bennington’s lead to 5 points. The Bears continued to fall behind Bennington and ended the third quarter 35-44.
“They’re a really good team, so we had to come in confident, and I think as a team we were,” Sorensen said.
Leggott started the fourth quarter strong by hitting a three from the corner. Later in the quarter, the Bears’ Sorensen caught a defensive rebound and passed to senior Easton Bosanek (#22), who then made a three-pointer. Despite the Bears’ defense, they ended up down 44-62.
