JEREMY WALTNER - PUBLISHER Foul trouble early, poor defensive rebounding in the first half and too many missed shots throughout the game could have doomed the Freeman Academy/Marion girls in the first round of the Region 4B Tournament in Marion Monday night, Feb. 20. But the eighth-seeded Bearcats did just enough to fend off ninth-seeded Gayville-Volin and escape with a 31-28 win. And what do they get for it?

Marion/Freeman's Brody Gossen (106), Easton Tschetter (113) and Finely McConniel (120) each finished third in the Region 2B Wrestling Tournament in Salem on Saturday and will take the mat at state in Rapid City next week. Riley Tschetter (160), a state qualifier the past two years, finished fifth — one place out of the automatic bid — and is an alternate in his weight division. Alaric Knittel (126), Keaton Preheim (132) and Zac Sayler (145) all finished sixth in Saturday's region tournament.

Region 4B girls basketball action will begin Monday night, Feb. 20 with No. 8 Freeman Academy/Marion (6-14) facing No. 9 Gayville-Volin (5-15) at 6 p.m. in Marion. Action will continue with four games on Tuesday and two games Thursday.

Ten wrestlers from Marion/Freeman will hit the mat at McCook Central in Salem this Saturday, Feb. 18 for the Region 2B Wrestling Tournament. Action begins at 9:30 a.m. and will continue throughout the day. Those who are scheduled to compete for the Rebels are as follows: 106 — Brody Gossen (29-7) 113 — Easton Tschetter (31-13) 120 — Finley McConniel (23-18) 126 — Alaric Knittel (9-14) 132 — Keaton Preheim (26-14) 145 — Zac Sayler (17-14) 152 — Chris Flores (10-23) 160 — Riley Tschetter (29-13)

The Freeman Public girls led at the end of each of the first three quarters and held a five-point lead with 1:30 to play, but Scotland won the rest of the night — and the game — by a score of 35-33 Tuesday night, Jan. 31 in Scotland.

Menno dropped a home doubleheader against Avon Tuesday night, Jan. 31, with the boys losing 47-26 and the girls losing 62-29.

The Freeman Public girls won their fourth game in a row and ninth in their last 11 with an easy Cornbelt Conference win over Canistota in Freeman Thursday night, Jan. 26. The Flyers beat the Hawks 61-43 to improve to 9-5; Canistota dropped to 2-10. Freeman led 17-13 after the first quarter and 34-25 at the half before outscoring Canistota 27-18 the rest of the way.

The Freeman Public boys led by as many as 10 points in the third period but couldn’t hold off Avon as the Pirates clipped the Flyers 38-37 in Freeman Friday night, Jan. 27. The loss dropped the FHS boys to 3-10 while Avon improved to 2-10.

Boys and girls basketball teams from Menno both won in a home doubleheader against Gayville-Volin Tuesday night, Jan. 24. The boys beat the Raiders (4-7) 51-49 to improve to 3-7 while the girls upended G-V (2-9) 55-50 to improve to 3-10.

CLICK HERE FOR A GALLERY FROM THE FREEMAN VS. MENNO GIRLS BASKETBALL GAME ON JAN. 20