Friday evening we had a barrage of threes-pointers and area basketball players having a ton of fun. There may be a touch of bias with Cambridge being my hometown, and some nostalgia going to these games as a kid, but the CSO All-Star game is always one of my favorites.
It was also an opportunity to have an event on the floor that was just refinished at Cambridge.
The CSO All-Star Game began in 1985 and used a Class C vs Class D format. As time evolved, the format changed to an East vs West format. More recently, the footprint of the schools expanded to include all Nebraska schools along or south of the interstate and along and west of Hwy 183.
In the girls' game, the East won by a final score of 77-55. In the first quarter, both teams had things rolling on offense and the East led 20-19. In the second period, both teams continued to shoot the ball well. And the West trailed by 10, 39-31.
In the second half, the East Girls team continued their dominance on offense, posting 38 points, all while holding the West to 24 points en route to the win.
The MVP for the West was Gracee Goings of Wauneta-Palisade. She posted 12 points. For the East, Brylyn Springer of Cambridge was named the MVP with 19 points.
Also on the West side, Peyton Cox of Wauneta-Palisade and Emma Hall of Hershey went for nine and eight points.
On the East, Addison Siebels of Alma had 11, Riley Scott of Alma had 10, Ann Bose of Southern Valley had 10, and Jalen Kent of Cambridge added seven.
For the boys' game, it was a much closer affair with a lot of shooting, the East prevailed 90-86.
It took a little bit for the offenses to get going in this one, but once they did, the teams got rolling. After the first quarter, the East led 19-13. The West struggled to stop the East in the second period too, and it was 42-29 at the half. The East hit nine three-pointers in the opening half to help take a commanding lead.
In the second half, the three-pointers kept falling for the East, including Kooper Koehn of Gothenburg hitting eight in the half, and had nine for the game a new CSO All-Star Game record. They scored 48 points in the half. The West, made it interesting throughout the second half and scored 57 points as Jeremiah Ingison of Maywood-Hayes Center scored all 20 of his points.
The West MVP was Caden Rezac of Ogallala with 19 points. Kooper Koehn of Gothenburg was the East MVP with 27 points.
Also for the West, Ingison had his 20, Jackton Rezac of Ogallala had 14 and Blake Garner of Perkins County had 11.
For the East, Carson Trompke of Cambridge was solid with 16 points, Hunter Blume of Southwest had 11, and Jakin Neal of Alma and Kamden Bose of Southern Valley each scored nine.