.jpg)
WAYNE - In a situation every young basketball player dreams about, Laurel-Concord-Coleridge’s Gibson Roberts stepped to the free throw line with no time on the clock and his team down by three after being fouled by a Pender player while attempting a 3-point shot.
Just as a young player would dare to dream, Roberts splashed all three attempts here at Rice Auditorium in the opening round of the Elkhorn Valley Bank Great Northeast Nebraska Shootout to tie the score 53-53 with the Pendragons and force an extra session.
The Laurel-Concord-Coleridge heroics weren’t finished as Carter Kvols fired in a huge 3 in the extra four minutes with the 35-second shot clock winding down with just under 10 seconds left in the first overtime.
Kvols nailed the long ball to break a 58-58 tie.
Bears coach, Todd Erwin had called timeout with 42.1 seconds left in the extra period and 23 seconds left on the shot clock.
LCC threw the ball around for around 19 of those seconds looking for an open shot.
Kvols ended up with the ball out front with four seconds left and took a couple of dribbles before drilling the 3-pointer as the shot-clock buzzer sounded.
Pender called a timeout with nine seconds left and eventually got the ball inside and scored, but time expired before the Bears had to inbound the ball and the Orange and Blackescaped with a 61-60 win to advance to the semifinals of the tournament against Cedar Catholic.
The Bears built their biggest lead of the game in the first eight minutes.
Roberts opened scoring for LCC from beyond the 3-point line, rifling in a pair of 3’s from the corner to make it 8-6 in favor of the Pendragons midway through the first eight minutes.
A Bradyn Urwiler charity toss made it 8-7 then Eli Haisch made a nice pass to the paint for Kayton Hall, who put it in the basket to give the Bears their second lead of the contest after Roberts opened the game with his first 3 of the game.
Erwin called timeout after the basket by Hall, then Haisch hit backto- back long balls, the last one with 43.6 seconds left in the first frame, and Laurel-Concord-Coleridge was up 15-8.
Pender’s Zander Welsh hit a 3 at the buzzer for Pender and the Bears were up 15-11 at the first rest stop.
The Bears were still clinging to the advantage at the intermission and the teams went to the halftime locker room with Laurel-Concord-Coleridge up 21-20.
Pender went up 34-32 at the end of three setting up the last, or noseconds heroics at the end of regulation for the Bears and the last-second heroics at the end of overtime.
The Bears advanced to take on the Trojans Dec. 29 after Cedar Catholic raced past Winnebago, 71-49.
PEN (6-3) 11 9 14 19 7 - 60 LCC (7-1) 15 6 11 21 8 - 61
LCC: Bradyn Urwiler 0-1 1-2 1; Gibson Roberts 6-15 3-3 18; Eli Haisch 4-8 1-2 13; Tyler Olson 4-8 0-0 10; Carter Kvols 2-9 2-2 7; Kayton Hall 2-6 2-4 6; Cade Johnson 2-4 2-2 6.
WAYNE - After a disappointing loss to Cedar Catholic here in the semifinals, Laurel-Concord-Coleridge came through with a tough win over Pierce in the third-place game with a 50-43 win over the Bluejays.
After a traditional 3-point play by Tyler Olson made it 10-5 midway through the opening quarter with Pierce, the Bluejays canned back-toback long balls to take an 11-10 lead.
Eli Haisch hit a trifecta for the Bears to put them back in front 13-11, but another 3 from Pierce with 15.4 seconds left in the first gave the lead back to the Bluejays.
Kolby Hansen added a couple of free throws to open scoring for LCC in the second eight minute session, but another shot from beyond the arc for Pierce put the Bluejays back on top, 17-15.
Freshman, Cade Johnson tied it up with a powerful shot inside to even the score before Gibson Roberts rifled in a 3 to retake the lead for the Bears at 20-17.Hansen hit inside to get the Laurel-Concord-Coleridge lead to 2418 at the intermission.
The Bears would score the first eight points of the second half to put some distance between themselves and the Bluejays.
Johnson converted 1-of-2 from the charity stripe with just over 30 seconds gone in the third, Olson hit Bradyn Urwiler in the paint for a bucket then Roberts swiped a steal and scored causing Pierce coach, Alex Thramer to call a timeout with the Bears in front 29-18.
Roberts canned another 3 after the timeout to end the run with Laurel-Concord-Coleridge in the lead 32-18 with 5:27 still left in the period.
The advantage would grow to 41-22 before the Bluejays started nibbling away.
Pierce nailed back-to-back 3’s to cut the deficit to 49-41 then made two foul shots to get to within 49-43. Kvols converted 1-of-2 free shots to get to the 50-43 final score.
Roberts led a balanced scoring attack with 14 points, Hansen finished with eight, Johnson and Urwiler had seven each and Haisch had six.
In the game with Cedar Catholic, the Bears fell behind 19-11 after the first period but came back to take a 28-27 lead by the halftime break.
Kvols opened the second quarter with a 3 before Olson, who finished with a teamhigh 19 points, tied the score at 19-19 with a layup to erase the first-quarter deficit.
A Landen Leonard 3 with 2:48 left before the half made it 23-22 in favor of the Trojans and an Olson 3 with 1:29 left evened the game at 25-25.
Olson splashed a final 3 in the half with 6.1 seconds left for the one-point edge.
Roberts converted a traditional 3-point play with 5:20 left in the third to put the Bears up 34-31, but Cedar Catholic would tie the score later in the frame and take a five-point lead into the final period by outscoring LCC 7-0 to close out the quarter. The Bears will be back in action this week, hosting Cedar Catholic. A road trip to Winnebago is scheduled for Jan. 5 and a trip to Wayne is set for Jan. 9.
PIE 14 4 8 17 - 43 LCC 13 11 17 9 - 50 PIERCE (4-5): Brock Collison 4-3-4 13; Deon Watts 3 5-5 12; Travis Emory 2 2-2 8; Keaton Frazier 2 2-2 7; Caleb Newman 1 0-0 3.
LCC (8-2): Gibson Roberts 5 0-0 14; Kolby Hansen 3 2-2 8; Cade Johnson 3 1-2 7; Bradyn Urwiler 3 0-0 7; Eli Haisch 2 0-0 6; Tyler Olson 1 2-2 4; Connor Korth 1 0-0 2; Carter Kvols 1 0-0 2. LCC 11 17 6 15 - 49 Cedar 19 8 12 16 - 55 LCC: Olson 7 0-0 19; Gibson Roberts 6 1-2 17; Kvols 2 1-2 6; Kayton Hall 2 0-0 4; Landen Leonard 1 0-0 3.
CEDAR (6-3): Nolan Becker 7 7-8 22; Jaymison Cattau 2 7-8 12; Braeden Reifenrath 4 2-4 11; Alex Kuehn 3 1-2 7; Ty Thoene 1 1-2 3.
