The 2026 RPAC Boys Basketball Championship is Set: Alma Versus Hitchcock County

On Friday, January 30th, the RPAC Boys Basketball Tournament continued. The games on the West side were played at Wallace, and for the East, the games were at Southwest.

First, for the consolation bracket.

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On the West side, the first game was #4 seeded Paxton versus #7 seeded Maxwell

Paxton created a solid lead at halftime, 28-14. The wildcats, though, came out of the half shooting the ball well. Paxton took a timeout just under three minutes into the third, with the score 33-27.

Paxton captured the win, though, 49-43.

For Maxwell, Tayton Phillips had 17, and Jesse Reyes scored 11.

Paxton was led by 16 from Maddex McConnell, 11 from Keegan Florom, and 9 from Chase Holm.

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On the East side, it was #4 seed Medicine Valley against #6 seed Southwest.

Southwest has a double-digit lead at the intermission, 36-24.

The game ended up being a close one; Southwest won by a final score of 69-61.

For the Raider, Lucas Einspahr had 15 points, Mason Roblee had 14, and Payton Newcomb had 11.

For Southwest, Houston Billeter had 30 points, and Deric Kelley had 27.

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The second games of the evening were consolation games as well.

On the West, #1 seeded Maywood-Hayes Center against #2 seed Dundy County Stratton. This one was low-scoring in the first half, with DCS leading 18-12.

In the third quarter, DCS opened up the game a little, leading 35-17 heading to the final period. The Tigers won the game by a final score of 50-26

August Shaw had 15, Dante Horner had 13, and Ethan Latta had 11.

For the Wolves, Keenan Richards had 10.

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For the East. It was #3 seed Cambridge against #5 seed Hi-Line. In this game, scoring was higher, and after the fourth quarter began, the Trojans held a double-digit lead, 46-35.

Cambridge’s offense exploded in the final quarter, and they won 73-37.

For Cambridge, Brady Ahlemeyer had 24 point and Hodge Raburn had 22.

For Hi-Line, Brody Diefenbaugh had 10, Bladen Williams and Kane Cochrane each had 9 points.

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Now for the semifinals.

In the West Finals game, it was #3 seed Wallace against #5 seed Hitchcock County, and it was an excellent display of competition, with Hitchcock County winning 57-52.

In the West Finals, Hitchcock County jumped out to a 6-0 lead early in the game. 

Head coach of the Wallace Wildcats, Bob Braithwait, took a timeout with about five minutes to go in the first quarter.

Wallace finally got on the board at the 3:23 mark in the first period, and it was 10-2. The Falcons led 11-8 heading to the second.

Out of the second quarter, Tekoa Hazlitt hits back-to-back threes and pushes the lead to 17-8. Every time it looked like Hitchcock County was going run away on the scoreboard, Wallace would hang around. The Falcons led at halftime. 30-22

The Wildcats were down by double digits for a good chunk of the third quarter. But they got it within seven and kept chipping away.

In the second half, Jayce Hauxwell for the Falcons began to dominate the paint. Getting rebounds and attacking the rim.

A couple of minutes into the fourth quarter, Wallace trims the lead down to eight, 49-41. A timeout was taken by the Falcons. Wallace did get the game within six.

With 1:30 to go, it was 53-49 after a Max Hanson layup. Hauxwell then countered with his own layup to push it back to 55-49, and Hanson then nailed a three to make it 55-52 with 46 seconds to go. The Falcons, though, closed it out to get the 57-52 win. 

For Wallace, Max Hanson was on fire, scoring 35 points. Colt Franklin added 13.

For the Falcons, Jayce Hauxwell scored 22, Tekoa Hazlitt had 9, and Grady Erickson had 9. Adam Kisker had 11 and surpassed 1,000 career points.

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For the East, it was #1 seeded Alma against #2 Bertrand.

Alma found the bottom of the basket first, but Bertrand had an answer. The two squads traded baskets, and the two were tied at 5-5. Alma went on a little run and extended their lead to 10-5 with three minutes left in the game.

The Cardinals extended the lead to 13-5 with 2:20 left in the first quarter and forced Bertrand to call a timeout. At the end of the first quarter, Alma had a 17-9 lead.

With five minutes left in the half, Alma extended the lead to 21-13. After some defensive stops and turnovers from both teams, Bertrand called a timeout with 3:45 left in the half with the Cardinals leading 22-13.

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Alma had the 25-17 lead at the half.

Out of the break, Alma struck first. The two traded turnovers back-and-forth until about the 5:20 mark. Alma called a timeout at 35-23 with 3:32 left in the third quarter.

Hunter Nelson of Bertrand hit a three with just over three minutes left in the third to give the Vikings a little spark and cut into the deficit, 39-26, with 1:42 left. Alma called a timeout at 1:42 left in the third quarter after a big dunk from Zavier Mitchell to make the score 39-26.

Alma led 41-31 at the end of the third quarter.

It was a stagnant fourth quarter, with the score remaining 41-33 for a few minutes. Alma called a timeout with 4:48 left in the game with a 46-33 lead. Bertrand hit a three-pointer out of the timeout to cut the deficit to 10, 46-36, with 4:20 left in the game. Bertrand called a timeout with 3:46 left in the game and trailed Alma, 48-38.

Alma defeated Bertrand 56-38 to move to the RPAC Championship Game.

For Alma, Grady Faimon had 15 points, and Zavier Mitchell and Tucker Biskup each had 14 points.

For Bertrand, Thunder Nelson had 13 points, Scotty Bieker had 11 points, and Hunter Nelson had 10 points.

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For the girls games, #2 in the East, Arapahoe, will face #2 in the West, Maywood-Hayes Center, at 2:00 P.M. CT at the Graff Events Center at McCook Community College for the 3rd and 4th place game.

#1 in the East, Alma, will face #1 in the West, Dundy County Stratton, at 5:30 P.M. CT at the Graff Events Center at McCook Community College for the title game.

 Alma is seeking its first-ever RPAC Title for Girls Basketball. This will be their first RPAC championship game since 2022. They fell to MHC that season.

 For DCS, the last time they won an RPAC Title for Girls Basketball was 2019. Their last appearance in the championship game was in 2020. They are looking for their sixth RPAC Girls Basketball Title. Check out our recap article from Thursday night here.

For the boys games, the championship and consolation games will be played on Saturday at the Graff Events Center at McCook Community College.

#5 on the West, Hitchcock County, will play #1 on the East, Alma, in the championship game at 7:15 P.M. CT. #3 on the West, Wallace, will play #2 on the East, Bertrand, in the consolation game at 3:45 P.M. CT.

For Hitchcock County, this is their first time in the RPAC Title game since 2014. They fell to Southern Valley that season. They have never won an RPAC Boys Basketball Championship.

These teams played each other recently, on January 16th, Alma won 66-58, and it was an excellent game.

Check out the updated brackets: