The Oakland-Craig Boys have qualified for State via Wildcard following Thursday, February 23rd's 64-40 loss to Yutan in the C2-3 Sub-District Final at Fort Calhoun.
The Chieftains led 19-16 after one, and won the second quarter 16-10 to take a 35-26 lead into the locker room.
Yutan outscored the Knights 14-8 in the third quarter to go up 49-34 at the end of three.
The Chieftains put up 15 points in the fourth quarter compared to 6 for Oakland-Craig.
Carter Thiele had a team-high 11 points and 10 rebounds, good enough for a double-double. Garrison Dodge added 9 points while Garrett Seagren and Kobe Benne totaled 8 apiece.
Head Coach Aaron Meyer says his squad had an off game. "This is the time of year when you need to be hitting on all cylinders and we didn't do that. Yutan has quite a guard/post combo, so you have to help at times you really don't want to. To win, we need to defend, rebound, and make shots. Those 3 areas didn't come easy. We tip our hands to Yutan for a great game."
Meyer says the team thought the season was pretty much over after the loss. "Oh that was kind of a nightmarish game. One of those things where matchups wise we shot cold. I mean so before that game we had an idea going into subs that there was an outside possibility of Boys Town and GACC would go to state. We knew there was an outside possibility for a wildcard, but I'm going to be honest that night after the Yutan game we pretty much gave our thank you's and goodbyes, and thought that was it. It wasn't until on the bus ride home we saw that GACC had pulled the upset on Walthill, and we knew that there was still a little bit of life left."
16-7 and 7th seeded Oakland-Craig squares off with 23-3 and 2nd seeded Elmwood-Murdock in the first round of Class C-2 Boys State Basketball at Lincoln Southeast Thursday night Meyer says his team is going to need to utilize its strengths and turn in a good performance to come away with the win. "We're going to have to play well. We're going to have to make shots, we're going to have to defend and rebound. We're going to be quite a bit undersized, but hope that our athleticism will help us, and hope we can get out and run a little bit."
Oakland-Craig is certainly the underdog in this game, but that's not to say they can't win.
Oakland-Craig has had a nice season, and is a very athletic team, and if the Crofton Girls can get beat by Diller-Odell, then Oakland-Craig can beat Elmwood-Murdock.
Oakland-Craig has to play much better than they did against Yutan though.
That Yutan game was one of Oakland-Craig's toughest defeats of the year without a doubt if not the toughest defeat, in my opinion.
The good thing for Oakland-Craig is they get another shot...a second chance at redemption.
It's pretty special for Oakland-Craig to be at state, and they have to do everything to play and compete well and at a high level Thursday night.
If Oakland-Craig can get out and run and hit from the outside...look out.
I think Oakland-Craig can give Elmwood-Murdock a run for their money if they are on.
Size and State Experience could definitely be a factor in this game, but I fully expect Oakland-Craig to hold their own.
It will be interesting to see what happens. It would be a huge deal for Oakland-Craig to win as they haven't won a state game in 10 years.
Just being at state is a big deal in itself though. Opportunities like this don't come too often, and so Oakland-Craig has to make the most of their opportunity at state.
Oakland-Craig has to be ready to bring it for four quarters, and must play their best game Thursday night.
Game time is slated for 7:00 p.m. Catch the action on 107.9 the Bull.
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