The Oakland-Craig Boys defeated Madison 60-48 in an East Husker Conference Tournament Consolation game Friday night.
The Knights led 28-19 at halftime. Oakland-Craig outscored the Dragons 12-10 in the third quarter to go up 40-29 at the end of three.
The Knights won the fourth quarter 20-19.
Garrett Seagren totaled 20 points and 10 rebounds, good enough for a double-double. Carter Thiele added 16 points while Cody Mace notched 10.
Oakland-Craig did well to avenge the December 19th loss to Madison.
The Knights (8-12) host West Point-Beemer (8-14) Friday night.
The Cadets lost 57-46 to the Dragons in Madison Tuesday night.
Based on the Madison games one would think Oakland-Craig is in pretty good shape to win, and that could very well be the case.
However, West Point-Beemer has played well at times this season, and cannot be counted out.
The Cadets have lost a lot of close games.
At the same time, the Knights have beaten some good teams.
Oakland-Craig has probably been better offensively than West Point-Beemer, but the Cadets are probably the stronger team defensively.
I think the Knights' biggest challenge will be scoring a lot of points.
If Oakland-Craig is on I think they win, but if the Knights are off I could very well see West Point-Beemer winning.
Seagren, Thiele, Mace, Evan Reinert, and others need to have big games for the Knights.
Oakland-Craig has to slow down Tate Toelle, Chase and Austin Streeter, Blake Schroedter, and Ben Jahnke.
Defense could very well win this game, and if the Knights can buckle down on the defensive end of the floor, they should be in good shape.
The Oakland-Craig Girls defeated West Point Beemer 50 to 48 last Thursday night in the East Husker Conference Semifinals in West Point before downing Howells-Dodge 45-31 in Saturday's Championship game in Columbus. Oakland-Craig downed Archbishop Bergan 43-25 on the road Tuesday night.
The Cadets led the Knights 21-13 after one. Both teams scored 13 second quarter points, and the halftime score was 34-26 in favor of West Point-Beemer.
Oakland-Craig outscored the Cadets 17 to 8 in the third quarter to go up 43-42 after three.
Oakland-Craig won the fourth quarter 7-6.
Brynn Charling led the way with 21 points while Dacey Nelson had 14. Bailey Charling added 9 rebounds while Olivia Bures notched 7.
Head Coach Joe Anderson says it was tough to knock off the number one seed.
"A lot of points we were giving them were on run outs. We were kind of uncharacteristically turning the ball over out front. A lot of that was due to their defensive pressure I thought. West Point did a great job of really playing good pressure, man-to-man, out top. And forced us into a lot of turnovers and they scored a lot on those. And once we stopped doing that, got into our half court offense a little bit, points started coming for us."
The Knights held a 10-9 lead on the Jaguars after one. Oakland-Craig outscored Howells-Dodge 13-7 in the second quarter to take a 23-16 lead into the locker room.
The Knights won the third quarter 10-8 to go up 33-24 after three.
Oakland-Craig notched 12 fourth quarter points compared to 7 for the Jaguars.
Nelson had 21 points while Brynn Charling recorded 14 points and 12 rebounds, good enough for a double-double.
Oakland-Craig led Archbishop Bergan 14-6 after one. Both teams scored 5 second quarter points, and the halftime score was 19-11 in favor of Oakland-Craig.
Oakland-Craig outscored Archbishop Bergan 16-6 in the third quarter to go up 35-17 at the end of three.
Both teams scored 8 fourth quarter points.
Brynn Charling had 15 points and 8 rebounds while Nelson totaled 13 points. Emma Reinert registered 8 points and 11 rebounds while Bailey Charling notched 8 rebounds.
Oakland-Craig played wonderful basketball last week, and played well Tuesday night.
The Knights (18-4) host West Point-Beemer (19-4) in the regular season finale Friday night.
This should be another great game between two great teams.
It's going to be tough for Oakland-Craig to win again, but it is certainly a possibility.
The Knights will no doubt have to play just as well if not better than they did last Thursday night.
I'm not so sure Oakland-Craig can afford to get down by 8 in the first half this time around.
I think the Cadets will be more focused than they were the first time around.
Both teams currently sit 7th in power points in their respective classes so both teams could really use a win with the road to state being difficult.
This is almost like a postseason game, a district final of sorts.
The loser might be on the outside looking in in terms of the wildcard so this game has monumental importance for both teams.
The Knights have to really want this game. Oakland-Craig has to have the same drive and determination they had the first time around.
Regardless of who wins, this should be a great game.
I look for things to be close and go down to the wire just like they did the first time around.
West Point-Beemer will no doubt bring it so the Knights have to be ready to bring it as well.
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