Bears earn pair of quality wins

LAUREL — The LCC boys basketball team found themselves in the Top Five of the Omaha World-Herald’s Class C-2 rankings after a pair of impressive wins last week.

The third-ranked Bears used a big second quarter, turning a five-point deficit into a 12-point halftime advantage that carried them to a 77-67 win Thursday at Cedar Catholic.

LCC trailed 21-16 after one period, but opened up their offense and ran the Trojans down to take a 45-33 halftime advantage that they would not relinquish.

Noah Schutte had a double-double with a game-high 28 points and 13 rebounds, while Izac Reifenrath added 22 points, five assists and four steals.

Evan Haisch put in 12 points and had six steals and four rebounds. Cael Hartung had seven points, seven rebounds and nine blocked shots, Deagan Puppe had five points and four rebounds and Austin Hall put in three points.

Schutte and Reifenrath both had double-doubles the following night, with Schutte’s career-high 35 points helping the Bears to a 79-58 home win over Winnebago.

Schutte grabbed 17 rebounds to go with his big night offensively, and Reifenrath put in 18 points and had 10 rebounds along with three assists.

Haisch finished with 11 points, Puppe had eight, Hall scored four and Hartung had three. Hartung and Puppe both had eight rebounds.

LCC 16 29 13 19 — 77

Cedar 21 12 17 17 — 67

LCC — Hartung 7, Reifenrath 22, Schutte 28, Haisch 12, Puppe 5, Hall 3.

LCC 15 18 27 19 — 79

Winnebago 10 19 15 14 — 58

LCC — Hartung 3, Reifenrath 18, Schutte 35, Haisch 11, Puppe 8, Hall 4.