Sioux City, Iowa — The Cherokee Braves got the district final upset over Western Christian 64-63 at the Sioux City North gym Wednesday night.
Western Christian started the game off on a 5-0 run and midway through the quarter had a 15-6 lead. Cherokee would battle back and Western’s lead after one quarter was 23-18. The battle would continue in the second quarter and Western had a 35-29 lead heading into halftime. Cherokee would take their first lead of the game late in the third quarter, 48-47, but Western would regain the lead 49-48 heading into the final 8 minutes. The battle continued in the fourth quarter. With seconds to go trailing 63-62, Cherokee’s Wil Lugar found Jacob Hodgden.
Western would get the inbounds to Ty Van Essen at the half court line but his three pointer wouldn’t fall and Cherokee would get the win 64-63.
Western got a game high 22 points from Ty Van Essen, fourteen points from Wyatt Gulker, 11 points from Ashtin Van’t Hul, and 10 points from Eli Van Essen. Cherokee got a team high 17 points from Joe Benson, 15 from beyond the arc and 14 points from Mason Carver.
It was Cherokee’s first win over the Wolfpack since 1984 and avenged a lopsided loss from earlier in the season.
That’s coach Mark Hurd. Cherokee is 14-10 and will play Central Lyon on Saturday night in a substate final.
Western ends their year at 21-2.
