Rold hits 1,000 points in Spartan rout

 ELK HORN (Jan. 8) -- Dakota Rold made school history on Tuesday night, becoming just the second Exira-Elk Horn-Kimballton boys basketball player to surpass 1,000 career points in the Spartans’ 80-53 rout of Coon Rapids-Bayard.
 Rold, a 6-foot-7 senior post, reached his milestone in the fourth quarter and finished the game with 20 points and nine rebounds. He joined Drew Buckholdt as the only Spartans to hit the 1,000-point mark since Exira and Elk Horn-Kimballton joined together for the 2010-2011 season.
 “Dakota has done a nice job over his high school career developing his basketball game both mentally and physically,” said E-EHK head coach Doug Newton. “The perseverance and hard work has paid him off.”
 The game itself was never close as Exira-EHK stormed out to a 24-4 lead after one quarter and cruised to its 10th win of the season (10-1 overall, 8-1 in Rolling Valley Conference play). CR-B fell to 6-5 and 5-4, respectively.
 The Spartans committed only seven turnovers on the night, assisted on 22 of 33 made field goals and shot 59 percent overall, including 8-of-16 from 3-point range.
 Senior guard Cole Burmeister put together his third straight 20-plus scoring game, finishing with 21 points on 8-of-11 field goals while adding nine assists and eight rebounds. Trever Schulz tallied 13 points and three steals, Trey Nelson had 12 points and four assists and Josh Pettepier added six points and three assists.