Ogallala defeats Beatrice in Boys' High School Varsity Basketball Holiday Tournament on December 30th, 2025

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By: Evan Troxel

The Ogallala Indians High School Boys' Varsity basketball team defeated the Beatrice Orangemen by a final score of 69 to 39 at the Douglas County West High School basketball court in Valley, Nebraska, on Tuesday, December 30th, 2025.

This was day number one of the two day Holiday Tournament which was hosted on December 30th and December 31st, 2025.

Sawyer Smith scored 33 points for Ogallala, which is a season-high and a team-high for an individual basketball player. He made two threes and one free throw.

Harrison Vetrovsky scored 9 points for Beatrice. He made one free throw.

Sawyer Smith scored the first four points for Ogallala on two two-pointers. Tanner DeCastro then made a dunk for Ogallala.

The game was close early on as it was tied at six with 3:03 left to go in the first quarter.

Sawyer Smith then scored two points for Ogallala and Lincoln Gillen hit a three for the Indians as Ogallala jumped out to an 11 to 6 lead with 2:09 left to go in the first half.

Gillen then tacked on two more threes while Tanner DeCastro made his second dunk of the first quarter and Ogallala led 19 to 6 after one quarter.

Sawyer Smith scored six in the first quarter.

Sawyer Smith made a two-point bucket, a free throw and another two-pointer and Ogallala led 24-8 with 6:00 left in the 2nd quarter.

Ethan Cerveny then made a basket for Beatrice and Harrison Vetrovsky made a two-pointer for Beatrice, while Rhys Gilmore made a free throw and Sawyer Smith made a three-pointer and Ogallala led 28-12 with 3:46 left in the 2nd quarter.

Boston Crawford made a two-pointer and a free throw for Beatrice, while Sawyer Smith scored four more and Edan Cain made two free throws and Tanner DeCastro scored a two-pointer and Ogallala led 36-19 over Beatrice with 1:10 to go before halftime.

Evan Roberts then made a two-pointer and a free throw for Beatrice, while Lincoln Gillen made a two-pointer and a free throw and Rhys Gilmore made two free throws for the Indians and Ogallala led at halftime 41 to 22.

Sawyer Smith scored 12 for Ogallala in the second quarter.

Ogallala's Rylan Gilmore and Sawyer Smith then each scored a lot in the third quarter.

Beatrice trailed 45 to 22 after two more two-point makes from Smith with 5:41 to go in the third.

Then, Rylan scored two and Sawyer scored two points and Ogallala led 49 to 22 with 3:36 left to go in the third quarter.

Tyson Cerveny made a two-pointer for Beatrice and Evan Roberts made a three for Beatrice.

Rylan Gilmore scored two for Ogallala, and Sawyer Smith scored two more and Ogallala led 53 to 27 with 1:34 left to go in the third.

Boston Crawford hit a three and Harrison Vetrovsky scored a two-pointer for Beatrice.

Rylan Gilmore then made a free throw and scored two more points as Ogallala led at the end of the third quarter 56 to 32.

Sawyer Smith scored eight points for Ogallala in the third quarter.

Harrison Vetrovsky made a two and a free throw for Beatrice early in the fourth quarter.

Cy Lowery made a two-pointer for Ogallala and then Sawyer Smith made a three and another two-pointer and Ogallala led over Beatrice 63 to 35 with 4:27 left to go in the fourth quarter.

Tyson Cerveny made a couple of free throws for Beatrice.

Sawyer Smith then made a two-pointer for Ogallala.

Beatrice made another two-pointer and Rylan Gilmore scored four more for Ogallala and Ogallala won the basketball game and defeated Beatrice 69 to 39.

For Beatrice, Boston Crawford scored eight points. He made a three-pointer and a free throw.

Evan Roberts scored six points. He made a three-point shot and a free throw.

Tysen Cerveny scored six points. He made two free throws.

Crawford scored five points in the first half.

Ethan Cerveny scored four points on two two-pointers.

Jesse Oltmans and James Scholl each scored two points.

Daniel Hook and Grayson Udell each scored one point.

For Ogallala, Lincoln Gillen scored 12 points. He made three three-point shots and one free throw.

Gillen has scored at least five points in every game this regular season. He has scored at least nine points in all but one game this regular season so far.

Rylan Gilmore scored 11 points all in the second half. He made three free throws.

Rylan Gilmore has scored at least 10 points in all but one game this regular season.

Tanner DeCastro scored six points including two dunks on his first two made shots. He made all of his points in the first half.

DeCastro has scored at least 6 points in every regular season game so far this season. He has scored at least 10 points in all other games (except this game against Beatrice) so far this regular season.

Rhys Gilmore made three free throws.

Cy Lowery scored two points.

Edan Cain made two free throws.

Beatrice has a won-lost record after this game of 2-5.

The Orangemen played against the Omaha Gross Catholic Cougars on Wednesday, December 31st, at Douglas County West High School.

Beatrice plays at Standing Bear (Lincoln, Nebraska) on Saturday, January 3rd.

The Orangemen then host Minden on Tuesday, January 6th.

Ogallala is now 5-0 on the season after this game!

The Indians are playing against the Olathe South Falcons on Saturday, January 3rd, 2026, at Gretna High School (Nebraska) at 10:30 a.m. Mountain Time/11:30 a.m. Central Time.

Ogallala then hosts Bridgeport on Tuesday, January 6th, 2026.

The Indians then travel to Cozad on Friday, January 9th.