The BRLD Boys topped Pender 66-48 in the first round of the East Husker Conference Tournament at Genoa Saturday night before downing Twin River 38-33 in the Quarterfinals at North Bend Tuesday night.
The Wolverines held a 15-9 lead at the end of one before outscoring the Pendragons 17-13 in the second quarter to take a 32-22 lead into the locker room.
BRLD outlasted Pender 17-11 in the second quarter to go up 49-33 at the end of three.
The Wolverines won the fourth quarter 17-15.
Cole Christofferson led the way with 18 points. Darwin Snyder added 14 while Kenyan Lovejoy and Jaxon Johnson notched 8 apiece. Aaron Ras totaled 7.
The Titans jumped out to an 11-6 lead at the end of one. The Wolverines bounced back in the second quarter, outscoring Twin River 16-9 to lead 22-20 at halftime.
BRLD won the third quarter 10-7 to go up 32-27 at the end of three before both teams scored 6 points in the fourth quarter.
The Wolverines were led by Lovejoy, who had 11 points. Ras added 10 while Montana Riecken chipped in 8. Christofferson chipped in 8 rebounds.
The win by BRLD snapped an 11-game winning streak for the Titans.
The Wolverines (13-6) will take on North Bend Central (12-3) Friday night at 6:00 in the Semifinals at North Bend that can be heard on 107.9 the Bull.
The Tigers defeated West Point-Beemer 62-43 in the other semifinal.
As I said in my North Bend Central post for this week, I feel scoring is the key to this game.
BRLD is just 1-5 when scoring under 50 points while they are 12-1 when scoring over 50.
The good news for the Wolverines is their defense has been pretty consistent this year and has kept them in most games.
So I think it's safe to say BRLD can count on their defense, but their offense is a question mark.
The Wolverines have to find ways to create turnovers and get the ball out in transition so they can score easy baskets.
BRLD has to run the floor well and make sure their spacing is good as well.
The Wolverines also have to convert in the half court offense.
Defensively, BRLD is going to have to try and find a solution for Jake Wietfeld. He went off for 22 points in the Tigers' win over West Point-Beemer Tuesday night.
The Wolverines have to be tenacious and relentless with their press, and make it hard for North Bend Central to get the ball up the floor.
BRLD has to treat this like a championship game because it is pretty darn close.
Obviously the Tigers would love to get back to the championship, but I'm sure the Wolverines would like to spoil North Bend Central's plans and get there themselves.
BRLD has to play with a sense of pride and purpose Friday night. The Wolverines have to play tough minded basketball, and be ready to get physical with the Tigers.
The three ball also has to be something BRLD can rely on Friday night.
The Wolverines have to be ready to roll from the get go. BRLD must get off to a strong start like the Cadets did against North Bend Central.
The Wolverines must also continue to attack attack and attack the basket throughout the game and not let up at anytime.
The BRLD Girls lost 56-25 at Howells-Dodge in the East Husker Conference Tournament Quarterfinals Monday night.
The Jaguars jumped out to a 13-4 lead after one before doubling up the Wolverines 16-8 in the second quarter to take a 29-12 lead into the locker room.
Howells-Dodge outscored BRLD 21-6 in the third quarter to lead 50-18 after three.
The Wolverines won the fourth quarter 7-6.
Lexie Bacon had a team-high 8 points for BRLD while Paige Peters added 7.
Head Coach Rod Peters says they got off to a slow start and didn't recover. "In that first quarter I think we took the ball hard to the hole hard I thought a couple times and maybe could of got a foul called, but didn't. And they blocked a bunch of shots. And the next time when we took the ball to the hole we were thinking oh gosh we're going to get this blocked again. And that set the tone. They did a great job of blocking shots."
Peters says Howells Dodge defense was too much for them. "We didn't have an answer. That falls on my shoulders. We didn't look like we were ready to play. And I got to do a better job of getting the girls ready to play. Getting them to want to play. Last time we were ahead in the third quarter when we played them. And we weren't in the game."
BRLD (13-7) will face West Point-Beemer (7-13) in a consolation game of the tournament Thursday night at Humphrey/Lindsay Holy Family.
The Cadets lost 41-16 at Stanton in the Quarterfinals Monday night.
These two teams met in West Point on January 7th with the Wolverines taking the game 62-51.
BRLD has to find a way to shake off Monday night's loss.
The game was obviously one the Wolverines would like to forget.
I think BRLD has played great basketball at times this year, but there's other games where they've really struggled.
I think the game with the Jaguars was the Wolverines' toughest game of the season so far.
Credit Howells-Dodge for a big win, but BRLD is a much better team than what they showed against the Jaguars, in my opinion.
The Wolverines' have to be much better offensively and defensively against the Cadets.
BRLD had a really solid offensive game the first time around, but gave up quite a few points.
West Point-Beemer is playing good basketball right now with the exception of the Stanton game so I don't think this game is going to be a walk in the park for the Wolverines by any means.
I think BRLD has enough talent and athleticism to beat the Cadets again, but defeating a team twice in the same season is never easy.
The Wolverines have to find a way to pick themselves up and get back on track.
There's not a lot of season left, and BRLD needs to find a way to win Thursday night so they can make a run at the end of the regular season and in the postseason.
The Wolverines have two very winnable games against Wisner-Pilger and Logan View/Scribner-Snyder to close out the regular season so BRLD has to get this one and those two to give themselves a shot to get the No. 1 seed in their sub-district.
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