.jpg)
LINCOLN - After falling behind in the first half, Cedar Catholic came up short in a second-half comeback attempt in the opening round of the Class C2 State Boys Basketball Championships, falling to Cross County at the Bob Devaney Sports Center Mar. 13, 41-38.
The Trojans had their chances down the stretch in the fourth quarter, actually tying the Cougars with a Mason Baller trifecta with just under a minute left in the game, 38-38.
“We honestly played our worst offensive game of certainly the New Year and maybe all season,” Cedar Catholic coach, Nick Haselhorst said. “Some of that was Cross County and some of that was just us missing shots.”
Cross County converted 1-of-2 free throws with 39.9 seconds left on the clock to take a 39-38 lead.
Cedar Catholic turned the ball over on its next possession with an over and back call and the Trojans fouled the Cougars, who, again converted just 1-of-2 from the foul line to keep Cedar’s hopes alive.
Baller got a great look on Cedar Catholic’s next possession following the free throws, but the ball hit off the rim and out of bounds.
The Trojan defense forced a turnover on the in bounds play and Haselhorst called a timeout to set up a play with 9.9 seconds left.
Unfortunately, Cedar turned the ball over again, and fouled with 2.5 seconds left on the clock.
Cross County missed both charity tosses, but got an offensive rebound off of the second miss which forced another Cedar Catholic foul.
The Cougars made the second of the ensuing pair of free throws but the Trojans still had a chance with 2.1 seconds left.
A long pass attempt down the court was intercepted by Cross County and the clock expired.
“It wasn’t a lack of effort at all,” Haselhorst said. “I feel like we really left it out there on the court, but we just couldn’t consistently keep anything going. Again, some of that was them, hats off to them, they are a good team.”
Neither team set the world on fire in the first eight minutes.
The first quarter ended with the Cougars up 10-9 and the teams scored eight points combined in the second quarter. Cross County went to the break with a 16-11 lead.
The third frame belonged to the Trojans.
The Cougars opened the third with a 3 to go up 19-11, but Cedar Catholic answered with an Aaron Wortmann pass to Nolan Becker for a bucket.
After Cross County hit a bucket off of an offensive rebound, Jacob Steffen responded for Cedar with a pair of free throws.
The Cougars hit a traditional 3-point play then Jaymison Cattau hit Steffen for a bucket and stopped and popped from 15’ before Becker hit Hunter Bensen for a lay up and Cedar Catholic was within three, 24-21.
Cattau canned a pair of charity tosses then Baller splashed a 3 to give the Trojans their first lead since early in the first period.
Bensen put a bow on the third with another long ball and the teams went to the final frame with the Trojans in front, 29-24.
“I felt really good going into the fourth,” Haslehorst said. “But then they made some plays and we didn’t.”
The Cougars opened the fourth with a 10-0 run to put Cedar Catholic in a hole.
“We battled the entire game, but in the end, they made a couple more plays than us,” said the coach. “We are disappointed, but we had a heck of a season. We made some great memories this year.” “I couldn’t have asked for anymore from this team,” the coach said. “They left it all out there on the court, we just missed some key plays down the stretch, but leaving it all out there allows you to keep your head held high and is all you can ask for as a coach.”
Reifenrath and Cattau will be continuing their athletic careers on the gridiron next fall as opponents.
Reifenrath will be taking his talents to the University of Sioux Falls where he is expected to compete for playing time at safety.
I recall this skinny kid who’s name was hard to spell running around at Memorial Stadium as the _____________________________________ a sophomore and literally hoped he didn’t get hurt.
Well, he didn’t and he’s not skinny anymore. He looks more like, well, a safety and he has the speed for it. On the basketball court, he is the self-proclaimed garbage man.
“We have a lot of guys on the team that don’t care about any _______________________________________ Reifenrath said. “You knock a ball loose, you chase it down, you box out someone so your teammate can get a rebound, doesn’t show up in the box score, but you know you did your job.”
Cattau willbe joining the Wayne State Wildcats as long snapper and wide receiver and probably described his most recent team’s experience the best.
“We knew it was going to be a tough game with their size,” he said. “We played good defense, but it wasn’t our best game shooting the ball and we were still there at the end. The chips just didn’t fall our way.”
Which is the case when you get to the state tournament. You either play your best complete game or you go home or into the consolation game.
Now, the Blue Devils, us old sports cronies sit around and talk about, well, sports. Whatever is in season.
I tell everyone there are three things you never want to happen after the middle of January.
____________________________________ have to play Wynot in anything.
In fact, I was visiting with an old sports crony a couple of weeks ago, and he asked me what happened to Wayne, after the Blue Devils defeated the C1 Blue Devils and I simply responded, “They got Wynotted.” And he knew exactly what I meant. (It’s important to hang out with people who “get you”).
Well, we got the blizzard to open up the girls’ tournament, I haven’t ________________________________ Wynot play several times since the 15th of January. Five times in the past 21 days.
Wynot “Wynotted” Elgin Public/ ____________________________________ Wausa for the third time in four tries this season in the semi’s 55-52 before falling to a very talented O’Neill St. Mary’s squad 63-51 in the _______________ “We came a long way from the beginning of the season,” said Wynot coach, Lee Heimes. “We _______________________________________ team, and at the beginning of the year we really didn’t know where it was going to go.
_____________________________ _________________________________ on, we had a couple of bid wins. ___________________________________ and you could see it down at the state tournament.”
Justin Heimes, who came into the state tournament averaging 6.5 points per game, had a great tournament scoring 13 against the Wolf____________________________________ ____________________________________tion for his team’s success.
“We play hard, we can make some shots, and we let our defense _________________________________ said. “And we have a lot of fun playing together.”
Good news for the Blue Devils, they only had two seniors on this year’s team, so it’s probable the town of Wynot rolled over reservations for next year’s motel stay in March.
OWH All State All Tournament team Class D-2
Gage Hedstrom, O’Neill St. Mary’s Logan Brabec, O’Neill St. Mary’s Ben Barlow, O’Neill St. Mary’s Justin Heimes, Wynot Matthew Schindler, Wausa
State Tournament Class D-2 Scoring Leaders
____________________________________________________ Justin Heimes, Wynot, 13, 21, 19, 53, 17.7 Ben Barlow, O’Neill St. Mary’s, 11, 19, 19, 49, 16.3 Gage Hedstrom, O’Neill St. Mary’s, 13, 17, 17, 47, 15.7 Logan Brabec, O’Neill St. Mary’s, 17, 15, 14, 46, 15.3 Tucker Czarnick, Archangels, 20, 11, 8, 39, 13.0 Preston Schlote, Wausa, 19, 7, 11, 37, 12.3 Matthew Schindler, Wausa, 14, 16, 5, 35, 11.7 Devon Baumgart, Archangels, 10, 10, 13, 33, 11.0 Killian Steinhaus, Wynot, 11, 9, 10, 30, 10.0 Kayde Ramm, Stuart, 29, x, x, 29, 29.0
