On Thursday the Chants traveled to Burwell to take on the Longhorns. The game was a close tilt to begin with the hot shooting Longhorns taking a 15-13 lead after the 1st quarter. The Chants would rally back in the 2nd quarter and take a lead of four after a Mike Thompson jumper at the buzzer. The third quarter would start off well for the Chants and they would be able to grow the lead to 8 after the 3rd. The Chants would stretch the lead to 11 before Burwell was able to cut the lead to single digits in the last few minutes. The Chants were able to hold on for a 50-45 victory. After the game Coach Gates said “We had a lot of guys step up tonight we were missing Reese Davenport and we had a few guys under the weather so it was great to see Austin Trejo and Mike Thompson come in and give us some big minutes during the game.” The Chants were led by Hayden Grint who had 21 points for the Chants. Stetson Bredthauer and Solomon Campise each had 9 points for the Chants in the win.
On Friday the Chants found themselves extremely short handed with only 7 regular varsity players suited and missing multiple contributors due to sickness as they took on the St. Paul Wildcats. The Chants were able to slow the game down and keep the scoring low. Relying on their defense to carry them through the 1st quarter with the game tied 6-6. The Scoring would not pick up in the 2nd quarter but the Wildcats would take 15-13 lead into halftime. “We were right where wanted to be” Coach Gates said. In the 3rd the Chants and Wildcats would trade leads multiple times with neither team taking a lead bigger than four in the quarter. The Chants would fight in the 4th and take a one point lead 30-29 with five minutes to go. However, the Chants couldn’t keep it and late free throws allowed for the Wildcats to pull away for a 40-34 victory. “I couldn’t be prouder of our guys and how they competed we used six guys and they pressed us the whole game and that just ran us out of gas a little bit.” Coach Gates said. “These guys almost pulled off something special tonight but give credit to St. Paul for being able to get the momentum from us everytime we took it from them.” The Chants were led by Hayden Grint who had 13 points and 8 rebounds. Zach Smith added 8 points for the Chants. The Chants will travel to Boone Central on Friday before hosting Arcadia-Loup City on Saturday.