The North Bend Central Boys Basketball Team routed Fort Calhoun 65-37 on the road Friday night to close out the regular season before winning 69-26 over Arlington in the C1-6 Sub-District Semifinals from Oakland-Craig Tuesday night.
The Tigers led the Pioneers 13-6 at the end of one before outscoring Fort Calhoun 21-10 in the 2nd quarter to take a 34-16 lead into the locker room.
North Bend Central outscored Fort Calhoun 18-8 in the 3rd quarter to go up 52-24 at the end of three.
Both teams scored 13 points in the 4th quarter.
Strong finish to the regular season for the Tigers, and also a strong start to the postseason.
North Bend Central (21-3) takes on Logan View/Scribner-Snyder (15-9) in the Sub-District Final Thursday night.
The Raiders won 31-28 over West Point-Beemer in Tuesday night's Semifinals.
The Tigers beat LVSS 52-36 on the road in the regular season.
North Bend Central should win this one you would think.
However, with the new Sub-State format more upsets have seemed to happen so far than they did before.
I don't know if it's favorites tend to lax or what the deal is, but look at West Point-Beemer and North Bend Central in girls last week.
Similar situation between the Raiders and Tiger Boys Thursday night.
North Bend Central has to come out and play well and be ready to take care of business Thursday night.
The Tigers have to play the way they have the last two games.
If North Bend Central can do that then they should be able to take care of business.
Logan View/Scribner-Snyder is led by the likes of Trystain Roseberry and Connor Larson.
The Raiders are young, but talented.
The Tigers are the more experienced and veteran laden team though so it is simply North Bend Central's time.
The Tigers have to come out ready to roll from the get go, and must play championship basketball.
It figures to be a split crowd between the Sub-District Final and Girls District Final so North Bend Central has to adjust and adapt to their crowd being smaller than usual if that is the case.
The Tigers simply have to go out there and play their game and do what they've done for much of the season, which is dominate.
The game will tip-off at 7:00 p.m.
Win or lose, North Bend Central will advance to Sub-State.
The North Bend Central Girls Basketball Team defeated Arlington 39-36 in the C1-6 Sub-District Semifinals at Oakland-Craig last Tuesday night before upsetting West Point-Beemer 53-46 in overtime in the Sub-District Final Thursday night.
The Eagles led 13-12 at the end of one before the Tigers won the 2nd quarter 8-7 to tie the game at 20 at halftime.
Arlington won the 3rd quarter 10-9 to lead 30-29 at the end of three.
North Bend Central won the 4th quarter 10-6.
The Tigers led the Cadets 12-10 after one. Both teams scored 13 points in the 2nd quarter, and the score was 25-23 at halftime in favor of North Bend Central.
The Tigers won the 3rd quarter 11-9 to go up 36-32 at the end of three.
West Point-Beemer won the 4th quarter 12-8 to tie the game at 44 and send it into overtime.
North Bend Central outlasted the Cadets 9-2 in the extra session.
Head Coach Aaron Sterup says his team was battle tested, and that allowed them to get over the hump on Thursday. "I think our girls knew what was on the line and weren’t quite ready to have this season end. They have fought back all year when we have been in tough situations, so I think we are very practiced in what to do when we are down late. It was really just a lot of guts and effort. They were mentally strong enough to make plays when we needed them."
The Tigers (18-7) take on Grand Island Central Catholic (18-5) in the C1-7 District Final at Cross County Thursday night.
The Crusaders lost 35-28 to Adams Central in the C1-9 Sub-District Final at Kearney High Thursday night.
I think North Bend Central has a great shot to win this game.
Sterup says GICC is a tough matchup. "They are obviously a very good team. They have a big inside presence, so we will have to be strong inside on both offense and defense. We really have been rebounding much better lately. That trend will have to continue. If we are going to have a chance to win, we will need to get extra opportunities for ourselves and limit their extra chances. They are very athletic and tough-minded, so we will have our work cut out for us."
The Tigers are big inside too with the likes of Lauren Emanuel and Faith Taylor.
Sterup says his team has developed a tough mentality over the course of the season. "Our confidence has grown lately. Early in the year we were a little rusty and lacked the confidence that we could do things when they were needed. Now I think our girls expect to succeed, which is a mentality that every good team must have. We expect to win every game, whether we really should or not. That is a big part of beating good teams. We have that now."
This figures to be a very close and tight ball game.
It would be a huge deal for North Bend Central to win it, and I hope it happens.
Sterup says making state would be special for this group. "I think it would be a great accomplishment. We knew coming in we had a lot of talent that really hadn’t had a chance to show itself yet because of the group we had. It just took us some time to put it all together and have these girls realize what varsity basketball was all about. I think we have that figured out and are playing well because of it. Our girls are very motivated to show that they can play basketball."
I don't think there's any doubt the Tigers have proven their worth and deserve to be where they are at.
North Bend Central has come a long ways and earned everything they have accomplished this year.
It has truly been a special, great, and remarkable season for the Tigers, and I hope the momentum and ride continues all the way to the State Tournament.
This one is for all the marbles, and is the biggest game of the season for North Bend Central so far no doubt.
The game was supposed to be played on Friday, but was moved up a day due to the weather.
Tip-off is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.
No comments:
Post a Comment