Home Stretch: The 1A Div. II Race

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>It's not too early to start evaluating the state races. Saving the best for last, we've looked at every other classification. Let's finish by looking at 1A Div. II teams to watch.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Favorites:</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Greeley County</strong> - The Jackrabbits are perhaps the easiest “favorite” to pick from all the classes in the state. They won it all last year and return almost everyone. Senior [player_tooltip player_id='1080198' first='Jaxson' last='Brandl'] was brilliant in last year's tournament and is playing at a high level again. He's got support from some good guards like <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1350726' first='Titus' last='Sherer']</strong> (pictured) and [player_tooltip player_id='1588413' first='Lincoln' last='Shafer']. They are the team to beat…but one team has already beaten them: Northern Valley.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Northern Valley</strong> - The Huskies got the best of Greeley County in early January, demonstrating that they are capable of winning it all. But they have lost three other games. <strong>Foster Brands, [player_tooltip player_id='1756349' first='Kenton' last='Thalheim']</strong> and <strong>Drew Schemper</strong> were are all important pieces of the team that finished third in the classification a year ago.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Challenger:</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Pawnee Heights</strong> - If the Tigers want to be a challenger, they will have to figure out how to beat rival South Gray, which has beaten them twice already. But Pawnee Heights has a scorer in [player_tooltip player_id='1212165' first='Alec' last='Carlson'] who is hungry to do more than rack up stats. The senior is averaging 25 points and 10 boards. He's found a high-quality running mate in junior <strong>Davin Hamby</strong>, who is averaging 14 points.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Hopeful:</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Cheylin</strong> - This almost wasn't a 1A team. But when Cheylin's consolidation with another school ended, the Cougars found they had a loaded class of 2024s. The group has Cheylin competing at a high level. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='2314831' first='Pablo' last='Bermudez']</strong> is a versatile who creates havoc and is averaging 15 points per game. <strong>Brady Ketzner</strong> also scores 15 while <strong>Logan McCarty</strong> grabs 7 rebounds and deals out 4.5 assists. They are tough football-types who play hard and have a lot of support from a deep bench.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->