The Prasch Activities Center played host to the last two unbeaten boys basketball teams in Class A on Friday, but at the end of the night, the Lincoln Southwest Silver Hawks stood alone.
Lincoln Southwest, No. 1 in both the NebPreps Coaches Poll and the NebPreps Computer Ratings, improved to 9-0 with a 76-69 win at No. 2 Lincoln Southeast. Aside from the now 8-1 Knights, every other team in Class A has at least two losses.
“It feels good,” Southwest coach Alex Bahe said. “Being undefeated isn’t a goal that we have, but these guys are bringing it every night. We’ve won games in a variety of fashions, so we’re proving a lot to ourselves, which is huge.”
Southwest got off to a slow start, but the Silver Hawks finished the first quarter on a run to take a lead they would not relinquish, despite several pushes from the Knights. Southeast cut a 15-point deficit down to five with just under two minutes to play, but the Silver Hawks slammed the door shut and secured the victory in front of a sold-out gym. There was a line wrapping around the building waiting to get in with 20 minutes before tipoff, and most of those in it didn’t make it through the door.
“It’s an incredible atmosphere,” Bahe said. “Hats off to Southeast. Man, in some of the games we’ve played earlier, when we get to that 10- to 14-point lead, we’ve been able to just pull away. We extended it a couple times, and then they responded with huge plays. What we’ve said about Southeast and why they’re so good is they just don’t go away, and they proved that tonight. They’ve just got a lot of toughness to them. We knew it was going to be 32 minutes, and it took 32 minutes to get it done.”
Uzziah and Makiah Sanders, the 5-foot-10 senior twins, have spearheaded the Southwest attack all season, and they did so again on Friday. Makkiah unofficially led the way with 17 points, eight rebounds and five assists, while Uzziah added 16 points, four boards and three assists. They both rank among the top seven in Class A scoring average, with Uzziah neck-and-neck with Lincoln High’s Brady Nick for the top spot. They’re both as quick and as explosive as anybody you’ll find in Nebraska, capable of generating a paint touch almost at will.
However, the twins broke out over the second half of last season, when the Silver Hawks finished 15-10 and needed to pull off an upset in a district final to make the state tournament. The difference this year, according to Bahe, has been the rise of junior guard Dakari Wilson. He’s more than doubled his scoring average from a season ago and is shooting over 50% from 3. Wilson is averaging just under 14 points, five rebounds and four assists.
“It’s elevated us a ton,” Bahe said. “The stat line that the twins put up night after night, you can’t be any better than that, and so we knew our growth had to come from other spots, and Dakari has just stepped into a role where, as a point guard, he can score, he can defend, he can rebound, he make plays for other guys. But man, his knack of hitting big 3s has been elite level so far.”
Wilson put that knack on full display Friday night. He entered the fourth quarter sitting on five points on 2-for-5 shooting then proceeded to hit all four of his shots for 10 points in the final eight minutes. He finished with 15 points on 60% shooting and nine rebounds.
Wilson’s last bucket was the biggest of the night. Southeast sophomore Jameson Shea came alive in the fourth to lead a rally, hitting a pair of free throws with 1:57 to go to cut Southwest’s lead to 70-65. The Silver Hawks ran the clock down then put the ball in Wilson’s hands. He called for a screen, refused it, took two hard dribbles to his right then rose up for the 3, sinking it with 3 on the shot clock.
“He has a knack for really big shots, and so you like the ball in his hands there,” Bahe said. “We’ve got three guards that it could have been in any one of their hands. He called for the ball screen from Kobi [Kerr] and was able to shake loose to get a little space, and that’s about all he needs to make shots. He hit some huge ones tonight. Dakari’s hit huge 3s for us all season.”
The Silver Hawks also got some big 3s from Hudson Mezger. The senior went 4-for-4 in the second quarter to give Southwest an 11-point lead heading into halftime.
“Hudson Mezger’s stretch of 3s in the first half was what got us the lead, and then we just were able to hold on to it,” Bahe said. “I think we had five guys in double figures, and that’s pretty impressive.”
Mezger finished with 12 points while Kerr chipped in 10 points, five rebounds and two blocks while shooting 4-for-7 from the field (1-for-1 from 3). As a team, Southwest went 10-for-16 from deep.
Bahe is confident in his team’s ability to score, and with good reason — the Silver Hawks are averaging 81.0 points per game. He still sees room for growth, however, and plenty fo challenges ahead.
“It’s just with this group, it’s going to be, can we guard with consistency? Can we rebound with consistency? And then we face some size tomorrow that’s going to really test can we beat a team with some top-level size?”
The size he’s referring to is No. 5 Omaha Westside, who dropped Friday night’s rematch with rival Creighton Prep after beating the fourth-ranked Bluejays in the Metro Holiday Tournament final last Saturday. The Warriors start four players taller than Southwest’s tallest starter, including 6-foot-10 Hampton signee Will Preston, 6-foot-8 junior London Dada and 6-foot-7 Augustana commit Emre Gedik. Saturday’s game will be a complete contrast in roster makeup, and it will be Southwest’s fourth-straight game against a top-10 team in the Computer Ratings.
As for the Knights, senior Grant Fredericks led the way on Friday night with 18 points, eight rebounds (four offensive) and two steals, shooting 3-of-4 from deep. Shea matched him with 18, including 11 of his team’s 22 in the fourth quarter as the Knights continued to assert pressure until the final buzzer.
The Knights get the rest of the weekend off before visiting Omaha Westview on Tuesday.
