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Blue Devils fall in State title game against O’Neill St. Marys
LINCOLN — The Wynot Blue Devils reached one of their biggest goals last week.
The Devils made it to Saturday’s D2 State basketball championship game at the Pinnacle Bank Arena by defeating Elgin/Pope John and Wausa in quarterfinal and semifinal games.
The Blue Devils battled on a pretty even keel in the first half but the O’Neill St Mary’s Cardinals pulled away in the second half to earn the 68-51 win and claim the state title.
Justin Heimes showed solid play the entire tournament and took top scoring honors for the finals with 19 points for the Blue Devils.
Killian Steinhaus helped the cause with 10 points. For St. Mary’s, Gade Hedstrom and Ben Barlow led a balanced attack for the Cardinal offense with 17 points each. Logan Brabec also contributed double figures with 16 points Both offenses opened up the first quarter on a hot pace. Wynot got four points from Andrew Haberman and three pointers from Killian Steinhaus, Devin Brummer and Justin Heimes.
St. Marys matched the pace getting seven points from Ben Barlow and six points from Logan Brabec as they earned the 20-17 early lead.
Defenses stiffened in the second quarter as both teams scored eight points. St. Mary’s got five points from Logan Brabec along with a trey by Max Berg.
Wynot countered with six big points from Justin Heimes and a bucket in close by Kotner Koch as the Cardinals lead remained at 28-25 at the half.
In the third quarter the Cardinals would widen the lead. Ben Barlow hit for nine points and Gage Hedstrom dropped in five more points for St. Mary’s.
Wynot tried to keep pace with eight points by Killian Steinhaus and a trey by Justin Heimes, but they lost ground to the Cardinals trailing 45- 38 going into the final frame.
The fourth quarter saw the Blue Devils try to rally behind three pointers by Justin Heimes and Nixen Heimes, but they fell short.
St. Mary’s kept the ball in the hands of their best ball handler Gage Hedstrom and he responded with 10 points to seal the 63-51 win for the Cardinals.
Despite the loss, Wynot Coach Lee Heimes was happy about the way his team grew and improved this season, blossoming at just the right time to build an 11game win streak to bring into the state title game.
“At the beginning of the year we just really didn’t know what we had. We basically had a brand new starting line up this year, and we were trying to find the chemistry and work together. Then all of a sudden, it clicked,” he said. “The kids started believing in each other and fighting for each other and playing together.”
Wynot finishes the 2025 season with the runner-up state tournament plaque.
The Devils will lose two seniors from this year’s team, Andrew Haberman and Cooper Oligmueller. “(Haberman) just has such a competitive spirit. He just goes hard all the time,” Heimes said. “Cooper Oligmueller is a great kid, he just wants to do his best and he has been a great teammate to everybody.”
St. Mary’s 20 8 17 18 — 63 Wynot 17 8 13 12 — 51 St. Mary’s Wynot FG 22-55 16-55 3PT 8-27 6-29 FT 11-17 13-16 Reb 34 35 TOs 9 15
SCORING
Wynot- Justin Heimes 19, Killian Steinhaus 11, Devin Brummer 7, Andrew Haberman 6, Kotner Koch 5, Nixen Heimes 3, Cooper Oligmueller 1. St. Mary – Gabe Hedstrom 17, Ben Barlow 17, Logan Brabec 11, James Eby 3, Max Berg 3, Drake Berg 3, Ron Dawson 2.
