MaxPreps 2015 Nebraska girls basketball state tournament recap

While Pierce was winning its third-straight state championship Saturday, and Crofton its fourth in a row, Wynot fell just short of its fifth-straight D2 title when Falls City Sacred Heart pulled out a 44-39 victory in the championship game.

Omaha Westside (Class A), Lincoln Pius X (Class B) and O'Neill St. Mary's (Class D1) were the other champions crowned during last Thursday, Friday and Saturday's basketball action.

Even though there were plenty of upsets, the top two seeds battled their way through the brackets and into the championship in four of Nebraska's six classes, including all three of the Cornhusker State's small school classifications. The other No. 1 vs. No. 2 contest took place in Class B, where Pius battled Norris.

The weekend's three-day total attendance for the girls state basketball tournament was 60,421 after 48 girls basketball teams swooped into Lincoln in hopes of taking home the champion's hardware.

Below is a look at all of the weekend's action:

Class C2 – Crofton 48, St. Cecilia (Hastings) 39
Crofton (29-0) was shut out in the opening period, while Hastings St. Cecilia (23-4) scored 11 points of its own. But it wouldn't last. The Warriors scored the first 12 points of the second period to right the state championship ship and eventually wore down the Bluehawks. Quinn Wragge gave the three-time defending champions their first lead of the contest on a layup with 5:33 left before intermission. Still, St. Cecilia led 17-14 at halftime and held a one-point advantage going into the final eight minutes of play. The Warriors took over in the final period, gaining the lead for good on Wragge's jumper with 5:43 left in the contest. Clare Hamburger led all scorers for Hastings St. Cecilia with 18 points and Shandra Farmer chipped in 11 points. Wragge and Allison Arens paced Crofton with 15 and 14 points, respectively.

Class A – Omaha Westside 53, Norfolk 40
Norfolk's Cinderella run came to an end in Saturday's Class A championship game. The No. 8 seed brought a 13-12 record into the tournament and knocked off top-seeded and unbeaten defending state champion Omaha Benson 46-37 in opening round action. The Panthers (15-13) then outscored Bellevue West 36-23 and Omaha Westside took care of second-ranked Lincoln Northeast 61-49 to set up this unexpected matchup in the Class A final. Neither team could muster more than a five-point advantage in the first half. Leading 20-16 at intermission, Westside (24-4) scored the first seven points of the third period, and Norfolk never got closer than five points from then on. Jaycee Bradley led all scorers for Norfolk with 17 points in the championship game and Taleah Williams added 13. Jaymechia Bridgeman paced the champions with 16 points, while Quinn Weidemann and Jenn Poots added 14 and 13 points, respectively.

Class D2 – Sacred Heart (Falls City) 44, Wynot 39
Maggie Goltz led all scorers with 20 points in guiding the Irish (28-2) to their first state championship since 1999. The five-point triumph stopped Wynot's 14-game state tournament winning streak. Leading 40-33 with 2:22 left, the Irish appeared to be in the driver's seat in this one. But Jenna Heine and Danielle Wieseler each hit a 3-pointer in the final two minutes to get Wynot (22-6) back into the game. Goltz, made four of four free throws down the stretch, and 10 of 12 for the game, to seal the victory. Elizabeth Magdanz added 13 points for FCSH, while Wynot got 16 points from Jenna Heine and an additional 10 points from Wieseler.

Class D1 – St. Mary's (O'Neill) 52, Dundy County-Stratton (Benkelman) 33
Trailing 20-18 at intermission, St. Mary's coach Traci Berg talked about how her basketball team needed to dig deep and get tougher. How they needed to rev up their offense and rebound the basketball. Addie Wetzel was obviously listening. The 6-foot-1 senior turned three offensive rebounds into points and tacked on a free throw each time after drawing a foul, as the Cardinals (25-2) outscored Dundy County-Stratton (28-1) 20-5 in the third quarter. St. Mary's scored nine straight points in 51 seconds in the frame. Riley Sibbel added a 3-pointer on the possession after back-to-back Weitzel old-fashioned three-point plays to put the Cardinals up 36-23. St. Mary's outscored DCS 34-13 in the second half. Wetzel and Sydney Hupp led the way for the champions with 17 and 12 points, respectively, while Fayelee Sanford and Emily Jones scored nine and seven points to lead the runner-up Tigers.

Class C1 – Pierce 38, Kearney Catholic 35
In order to defend their back-to-back titles this year, the Bluejays had to survive a draw of the wildcard after falling to Norfolk Catholic 27-24 in a sub-district final. Pierce (22-6) received the second of two wildcards, and went about business as usual, knocking off Minden (56-48) and Lincoln Christian (45-40) to get into the championship game. Trailing 25-21, four different 'Shooting Stars' hit fourth-quarter 3-pointers to keep Rick Petri's club in it. Kylie Thiele's tre' with 3:33 left gave Kearney Catholic (26-3) its first and only lead of the game at 27-26. Whitney Colling, Maddie Squiers and Allie Prososki got in on the 3-point barrage as well. Rachelle Tucker led the champions with 12 points in the title game. Jaci Brahmer and Shelby Bretschneider added eight points each. Prososki and Michelle Messbarger scored eight and seven points for Kearney Catholic.

Class B – Pius X (Lincoln) 41, Norris (Firth) 33
Lincoln Pius X is finally back in the winner's circle at the Nebraska girls state basketball tournament. Saturday's eight-point win over rival Norris (18-7) crowned the Thunderbolts (22-2) champions for first time in 23 years. The Titans trailed by no more than seven points throughout the contest and took the lead briefly when Danica Meierhenry buried a three with 6:22 left to put Norris up 27-25. Kennedy Sander's jumper tied the game 27 seconds later and Maddie Simon's layup with 5:21 left gave the champions the lead back for good at 29-27. Sander and Simon combined for 14 points in the fourth period. Norris' Shalena Brown scored six points in the final eight minutes on a pair of jumpers and 2-for-2 shooting from the free throw line to keep the Titans within striking distance. Meierhenry and Brown led Norris with nine points each, while Nebraska recruit Simon paced Pius with 18. Sander added 13 points for Bill Rice's club.

State champion coaches
Class A – Steve Clark, Omaha Westside
Class B – Bill Rice, Pius X
Class C1 – Darren Sindelar, Pierce
Class C2 – Aaron Losing, Crofton
Class D1 – Traci Berg, O'Neill St. Mary's
Class D2 – Luke Santo, Falls City Sacred Heart

Consolation championships
Consolation titles were awarded in the four smallest divisions. Lincoln Christian, Guardian Angels Central Catholic, Howells-Dodge and Stuart all ended the season on a winning note Saturday after falling short in semifinal games Friday.

Class C1 – Lincoln Christian 67, Norfolk Catholic 50
Class C2 – Guardian Angels Central Catholic (West Point) 69, Sutton 28
Class D1 – Howells-Dodge 59, Blue Hill 52
Class D2 – Stuart 47, Sandhills/Thedford (Dunning) 41

Record breakers
Norfolk's Bradley shot the Panthers into the first round upset, ripping the cords for 34 points to tie former Benson great Donna Curry's 1988 single-game Class A scoring record. The Bunnies were winners of 45 straight games heading into the state tournament, but the South Dakota recruit made 20 of 24 free throws in the contest to better Laura Spanheimer's (Omaha Marian) old Class A and All-Class mark of 17 charity tosses set in 1999.

Class D1 champion O'Neill St. Mary's' 75-73 opening round win over Friend reestablished the D1 mark for most points scored in a state tournament game by both teams at 148. Friend's 73 points tied the record for most points scored by a losing team in a state tournament game. Callaway first established that mark in 1994 in an 87-73 opening round loss to Wauneta-Palisade.

After scoring 50 state tournament points over the weekend, Pierce's Rachelle Tucker ran her career total to 160, tying Grand Island Northwest's McKenzie Brown for 25th all-time. Crofton's Allison Arens tallied 43 points during the three-day run to run her career state tournament total to 149, vaulting her into 31st on the all-time chart.

Class A Scoring Leaders
Jaycee Bradley, Norfolk 65 (21.7)
Tantashea Giger, Lincoln Northeast 34 (17.0)
Skyler Snider, Kearney 16 (16.0)
Kelsey Stithem, Kearney 15 (15.0)
Quinn Weidemann, Omaha Westside 44 (14.7)
Breanna Obermiller, Kearney 14 (14.0)
Augusta Thramer, South Sioux City 14 (14.0)

Class B Scoring Leaders
Kennedy Sander, Lincoln Pius X 51 (17.0)
Emma Grenfell, York 29 (14.5)
Kylie Hohlen, Norris 40 (13.3)
Sophia Pankratz, Hastings 13 (13.0)
Maddie Simon, Lincoln Pius X 38 (12.7)
Arianna Veland, Elkhorn South 12 (12.0)

Class C1 Scoring Leaders
Taylor Kissinger, Minden 29 (29.0)
Haley Thiele, Bishop Neumann 20 (20.0)
Chandler Hageman, Chadron 19 (19.0)
Chloe Dworak, Lincoln Christian 51 (17.0)
Rachelle Tucker, Pierce 50 (16.7)
Maddie Love, Norfolk Catholic 34 (11.3)
Geena Piper, Norfolk Catholic 34 (11.3)

Class C2 Scoring Leaders
Clare Hamburger, Hastings St. Cecilia 63 (21.0)
Shandra Farmer, Hastings St. Cecilia 63 (21.0)
Carley Remmers, Freeman 20 (20.0)
Quinn Wragge, Crofton 45 (15.0)
Allison Arens, Crofton 43 (14.3)
Kianna Kramper, Ponca 12 (12.0)
Maddie Egr, Yutan 12 (12.0)

Class D1 Scoring Leaders
Sam Brester, Howells-Dodge 84 (28.0)
Mackenzie Willicott, Blue Hill 65 (21.7)
Payton Blanke, Emerson-Hubbard 20 (20.0)
Raeleigh Menke, Friend 18 (18.0)
Morgan Bender, Humphrey St. Francis 18 (18.0)
Nicole Kent, Dundy County-Stratton 47 (15.7)

Class D2 Scoring Leaders
Jaden Schafer, Stuart 43 (14.3)
Jenna Heine, Wynot 40 (13.3)
Abby Magdanz, Falls City Sacred Heart 39 (13.0)
Madi Daly, Mullen 13 (13.0)
Elizabeth Magdanz, Falls City Sacred Heart 38 (12.7)
Danielle Wieseler, Wynot 36 (12.0)
Haley Hanks, Crawford 12 (12.0)
Tayler Klassen, Hampton 12 (12.0)