Wildcat girls close out Chadron tourney with a win

The Custer High School girls basketball team was able to end last week’s Chadron Rotary Club Classic in Nebraska on a positive note New Year’s Eve, closing out 2025 with a 47-33 win over Niobrara County (Lusk, Wyo.) in the seventh place game. The tournament was played at the Chicoine Center on the campus of Chadron State College.
Against Niobrara County the team was able to start strong, taking a 26-10 lead into the half and cruising from there. The girls forced 28 Tiger turnovers, which converted into 21 points. Conversely, the Tigers didn’t have a single point off turnovers.
Head coach Gage Winkler said the team pressed the Tigers in spurts to create many of the turnovers, but even when the Wildcats weren’t pressing they applied ball pressure that forced the Tiger players into bad decisions.
“That’s what we want to do. We ended up with a few fouls, but we created a ton of turnovers and deflections,” he said. “Our ball pressure was good in that game. We communicated on defense.”
Winkler said the goal was to keep the Tigers out of the paint, which the Wildcats were able to accomplish.
“We controlled that game from start to finish,” he said. “That says a lot about our young team.”
Ellerton poured in 19 points, the only Wildcat to hit double figures. Nelson paced the team with seven rebounds.
The first consolation game for the Wildcats came against Winkler’s alma mater, Gering High School in Nebraska.
The game was close throughout, with Custer battling back from an early large deficit to outscore the Bulldogs in the second half but ultimately falling short in a 51-46 loss.
“(The Bulldogs) did not shoot from the perimeter. We just did not stay true to ourselves on defense,” Winkler said. “We allowed too many points in the paint and too many mental lapses on defense. That’s not us or who we want to be.”
Winkler said in hindsight he should have had the Wildcats press the Bulldogs more, saying the Bulldogs struggled with ball handling and likely could have been forced into more turnovers that could have aided a Wildcat win.
“I will take the loss for that. We should have pressed that team. I thought we deserved to win,” he said.
Winkler is a graduate of Gering High School, and coached against his cousin-in-law, who is the head coach of the Bulldogs, as well as his uncle, who is an assistant for the Bulldogs.
“That was really cool. I was excited when I saw we were playing them,” he said. “I tried not to make it a bigger game than it was.”
Although Winkler said those two now have “Thanksgiving bragging rights” when the family gets together, he was proud of the Wildcats for competing with a school that is essentially three times the size of Custer High School.
“We wanted to win, but we competed and they came out on the winning side,” he said. “That was a fun game.”
Ellerton was again the only Wildcat in double figures, as she scored 25 points.
“Kylee really created a lot for our team. That was one of the best scoring performances for her career,” Winkler said. “She knocked down shots, big time shots, when we needed them.”
The girls started the tournament Dec. 29 by taking on Gothenburg, Neb., one of the top ranked teams in Nebraska Class C-1 (third-largest class) and were outscored early and often as the Swedes won, going away 73-37.
The Wildcats kept it close initially, however, and trailed by only 14 at halftime. The Swedes came at the Wildcats in waves, however, subbing in four and five players at a time while employing a full court press that eventually wore the Wildcats down.
“They started knocking down shots, and we turned it over too many times,” Winkler said. “It was a tough matchup. We were outmatched everywhere. I was pretty happy with how hard we played, considering we were down the entire game. We kept battling.”
The Wildcats shot only 27 percent from the field in the game, committed 29 turnovers and were crushed on the boards, as the Swedes pulled down 53 rebounds to Custer’s 34.
Ellerton was the only player to reach double figures, scoring 14 points while also leading the team with eight rebounds.
Finding a steady complimentary scorer alongside Ellerton is something Winkler said will come along as the season progresses. He expects Rylan Lowe to be among those to take that step.
“She is capable of getting hot and knocking down a bunch. Right now she doesn’t believe in her shot,” he said. “We have to get her going. She has to play more confidently and go make the next shots. We know they will start going in for her.”
Tomorrow the team has the tallest of tasks, as it heads to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation for a matchup with the buzz saw that is Maȟpíya Lúta, the undefeated and top-ranked team in Class A. The Crusaders’ closest game has been a 24-point win over Hill City to open the season.
Winkler said it’s important his team believes it can win the game, saying if it goes in believing it will lose by 40 that is exactly what will happen.
“We have nothing to lose. We’re the underdog. Embrace that and play fearless with nothing to lose,” he said.
Defensively Winkler said he would like to see the Wildcats hold the Crusaders to their lowest point total of the season, win or lose.
“We have to limit turnovers and make them work for everything they get,” he said. “You have to have hope and play your butts off and let the chips fall where they may.”