The six seniors on the Exira-EHK Spartans roster had never beaten Ar-We-Va prior to Thursday night. The Spartans finally took down the Rockets when it mattered most. Exira-EHK beat Ar-We-Va 69-50 on Thursday night in Manning in the Class 1A District 15 Final. The Spartans avenged their only two regular season losses this year and move on to the Substate 8 Final against Sioux Central on Saturday in Denison, with a trip to State now on the line.

The Spartans led a defensive struggle early by taking an 11-7 lead by the end of the first quarter. They were able to increase the lead to 9 by the end of the first half and held that edge after three quarters as well 43-34. Exira-EHK then kept making the necessary plays down the stretch and knocked down their free throws to seal the big win.

Cole Burmeister had a monster night for the Spartans, dropping in a season-high 30 points. He was 10 of 10 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter as the Rockets continued to foul to try to extend the game. After the game Burmeister said his big night was a team effort, “A lot of those points were from the free throw line, but that’s just your teammates trusting you late in games, and it just feels good as a team, I couldn’t do anything without my teammates and we’re just really proud.”

The Rockets hit back to back threes to cut the Spartan lead to 10 early in the fourth quarter but the Spartans didn’t let any more momentum build from there. The Spartans improved to 22-2 on the season.

Ar-We-Va was led by 14 points from Keegan Simons and 13 from Drew Schuke. The Rockets say goodbye to an incredible senior class that went 82-10 in their career. The Rockets end the 2018-19 campaign at 22-2.