From a Scrub's Standpoint: State Tournament Edition

Vulnerable? Yeah, they were vulnerable. Tough, resilient, too.

Both of Class C-1’s top two seeds were on the ropes late in their Wednesday first-round games at the Nebraska girls state basketball tournament. Both responded with wins. But it wasn’t easy.

No. 1 seed North Bend Central, minus one of its starters, bolted to a 17-0 lead against star-struck Yutan. I know this because I saw the score from courtside at PBA while watching Ravenna take early control of its game against Sumner-Eddyville-Miller. (Spoiler alert: Ravenna held off a couple of S-E-M rallies to win by 14.)

My plan was, and is for the next weeks of glorious state tournament basketball, to toggle back and forth between Pinnacle Bank Arena and Devaney Sports Center, catching about a half at all stops. I lingered a bit at PBA first thing yesterday...after all, what could possibly go wrong over at the other place?

Plenty. Yutan shook off those early nerves and not only got back into the game but was in position to actually win the game until it was Kaitlyn Emanuel Time. Let’s be fair, most of the time these past four years has been Kaitlyn Emanuel Time, but yesterday she fought off a triple-team to score on a driving layup, then followed up by making both ends of a one-and-one to soothe the waters, and soon NBC was a 48-43 winner and was also back in the semifinals for a fourth straight season.

Undefeated Bridgeport wound up in a brawl with Lincoln Christian, a physical game that went to the wire before late free throws pushed the Bulldogs to a 61-57 win. In a game where they let ‘em play, which I am not against, especially in a state tournament setting, it was Bridgeport’s Brooklyn Mohrman who rode to the rescue, scoring 11 fourth-quarter points.

Ruthie Goltl-Loomis? The 6-3 Division I recruit had a big third quarter, finishing with 11 of her 18 points, but was held scoreless by a tenacious Lincoln Christian defensive effort, one which hardly let her touch the ball in the paint. Well done, Crusaders.

(And Ruthie also fouled out with under a minute left in the game - she had four of them in that wild fourth quarter - what if the game goes into overtime...)

In the final C-1 game of the day Adams Central was in control all the way against Gothenburg, 45-38, setting up Friday’s much anticipated semifinals showdown between the Patriots and Bridgeport, one loss between them. Give the Swedes credit, though the much smaller team they were fearless, relentless, just coming up short.

Earlier Malcolm sounded a warning shot of its own, with a 14-point drubbing of Wahoo. The Clippers have that classic inside-outside combination with all-state senior guard Alyssa Fortik and rising freshman star forward Halle Dolliver. They led NBC in the second half when they played earlier this year, let’s see about their semifinals rematch.

Some other quick thoughts about Wednesday’s games:

Class A

Top seed Millard South turned up the heat on Lincoln Southwest early in the game, that pressing defense of theirs forcing a fistful of turnovers, leading to a 74-58 victory. That’s a fun team to watch, they do so many things so well, especially when it comes to the art of scoring the basketball.

The rest of the day went basically according to plan, or at least to seeding, as favored Bellevue West, Millard North and Lincoln High all advanced. Bellevue West and Millard South will play for the third time this season, the first two meetings being decided by two points each, including Millard South’s spectacular 93-91 win in the rematch. Anxious to see what Lincoln High can get done as the Links have won 23 games in a row but have not faced any of the other semifinalists.

Class D-1

Ravenna looked really athletic and well balanced in the win over S-E-M, you can see where the Bluejays would have won a couple dozen games this season. Their old friend, No. 2 seed Centura, came up with a great showing in their first state tournament game since 2011, blasting Elgin/Pope John, 45-27. If they meet for a fourth time it will be in the finals, but there is, as Coach says, plenty of work yet to be done.

That’s because Hastings St. Cecilia, which has made like a time share out of the state finals the past few years, didn’t look like a rebuilt team in its 49-37 win over Elmwood-Murdock. St. Cecilia and Ravenna, a game that feels like it should have been played in the regular season, too, will be our first Friday semifinal.

Centura will get a good close look at Hartington Cedar Catholic in the other semifinal, as Cedar dominated a well-respected Johnson-Brock team, 69-36. Seems a little crazy to say but it feels like the top two seeds will be underdogs on Friday, let’s see how that plays out.

* Classes B, C-2 and D-2 will play their opening rounds today. Now might be a good time to say how nice it is to see the Class D schools getting to play some of their opening round games at Pinnacle.

Some quick thoughts on what we have going on today in the wide, wide world of girls state basketball:

Class B. Everybody’s wanting to see Britt play. Britt Prince, Elkhorn North’s remarkable junior guard, and her team open things up today against Norris, 9 a.m. at the Devaney Center. Keep an eye on that late game, No. 3 Sidney (24-2) v. No. 6 Beatrice (17-4).

Class C-2. I mean, where do you start. We’ve been over this before, the incredible depth and very northeast Nebraska feel to this whole thing, but when you have Oakland-Craig v. Ponca in the first round, and Ponca’s a five-seed!, you know you have something special. Not sure how many upsets we will see in this class but you will see some superior basketball.

Class D-2. No. 1 seed Falls City Sacred Heart is a defending state champion, No. 2 seed Shelton is a defending state runner-up, and No. 6 Wynot is the team nobody’s too wild about playing. Great to see what’s gone on with 24-2 McCool Junction, but getting St. Francis in the first round? That’s not cool, though if the Mustangs win there no reason to believe they can’t win out.

Gotta get to Lincoln, hope to see you at the game...