Oakland-Craig Boys lose in Sub-State Final to Sutton

Sutton outlasted Oakland-Craig 59-56 in the boys C2-3 district basketball championship in Columbus last Monday night, aired on 107.9 The Bull.

The Knights trailed 57-56 and had the ball with 15 seconds left, but a go-ahead shot missed, and Sutton made two free throws to go up by three points with four seconds left. O-C missed a three-pointer at the buzzer to tie the game.

Wyatt Seagren led the Knights with 15 points and 13 rebounds, good enough for a double-double. Caden Nelson and Jaron Meyer added 10 points each. Colton Thomsen had 9 while Gunnar Ray notched 8.

Great run and ride for Oakland-Craig, who was one shot away from making State.

Oakland-Craig ends its season at 17-9.

I thought the Knights played well for a good part of the season.

Oakland-Craig certainly had their ups and downs like any team this year, but I thought the Knights had a successful season as a whole overall.

Thomsen led the team in scoring with a total of 367 points on the season. Seagren was the team's leading rebounder with 217 on the year.

Thomsen, Blake Johnson, Ian Lundquist, and Seagren are lost to graduation.

These seniors were very talented, and will be missed for sure.

Key returners for next year include Ray, Carson Thomsen, Meyer, Trey Deemer, Amon Bryan, Coulter Thiele, Jaden Harney, and Nelson.

The Knights figure to be really solid at the guard spot, but Seagren is a huge loss down low.

However, I look for Bryan to step in and have an immediate impact at the center position next year.

I think Oakland-Craig will be really good at the guard positions in 2020-2021.

So the Knights should be good again next year, but Oakland-Craig has to work hard again to get back to State next year.

The Knights came up short of making state this year, and honestly have to have it as a goal to make it back to Lincoln next season.

Oakland-Craig can definitely do that too, but the kids need to bulk up in the weightroom and have another monster offseason like last year.

I really feel like football strength and conditioning really helps the Knights in basketball as well.

Success in one sport leads to another, and it will be interesting to see how Oakland-Craig fares in both sports next year.

The Knights still have Track this spring to focus on, but after that the returning players and newcomers should get ready for every sport they're planning to be in next year.