Nineteen Nebraska high schools sent girls basketball teams to the 2025 Midwest Showcase in Kansas City to compete against squads from all over the region in front of college coaches.
The three-day event held Thursday through Saturday featured teams from Arkansas, Iowa, Missouri, Oklahoma and even Florida in addition to Nebraska. Coaches from all over the country and every level — including Division I — gathered to evaluate the prospective athletes.
All three Division I schools from Nebraska sent coaches to the event. Nebraska was three-deep with assistant coaches Tandem Mays, Jessica Keller and Taylor Edwards and. New Omaha head coach Jamie Carey made an appearance on day one while assistant Leah Szabla made the trip as well. Creighton also threw new assistant Alexis Akin-Otiko into the mix right away by having her scout out the talent for the Bluejays.
Mike Sautter and I spent Thursday and Friday getting eyes on as many Nebraska teams as we could. Here are some highlights from 22 hours of basketball action across two days at Homefield KCK.
Top Team Performances
Several teams represented themselves well in Kansas City, but the squad that impressed me most overall was three-time reigning state champion Pender.
The Pendragons went 5-0 (picking up an additional game with a team dropping out of the event the day before it began). They ran some teams off the floor and also showed they could execute in the clutch, pulling out two close games while playing back-to-back at one point.
Maya Dolliver is off to Sioux Falls, but her sister Madalyn is ready to step into an even bigger role alongside last year’s leading scorer, Hadley Walsh. That senior duo combined for 84 points in the two games I tracked in full. Pender was also relentless on defense, holding their opponents to 61 total points in those two games. The Pendragons shot a combined 24-of-52 from 3 (46.2%), knocking down 12 triples in each.
Pender has a star duo and supporting players who buy into their roles. They also have another Dolliver coming up in freshman Mayci, who has stepped into the point guard role with four-year starter Maya off to college. A fourth straight state championship is very much on the table for Coach Jason Dolliver and his team.
Among the bigger schools, Omaha Westside went undefeated as well. I watched them twice — a 63-55 win over Bentonville (Ark.) and a 60-56 win over California (Mo.) — and the Warriors won in very different ways. The first game was as efficient of a scoring performance as I saw as they shot 52% from the field including 11-for-20 from 3. In the second game, there was a lid on the rim, so they won by crashing the offensive glass relentlessly and asserting on-ball pressure defensively to force turnovers.
The star of the show was sophomore point guard Himayajo Metoyer (more on her shortly), but I was also impressed with the offensive punch from the rotation of junior forwards Kendyl Davis and Elise Pederson, who combined for 39 points on 57% shooting in the two games. Davis started and hit two 3s in each game while Pederson provided a spark off the bench and did all her work around the basket. Add those two to 6-foot-2 senior Sanai Foster and the Warriors have a strong frontcourt to complement Metoyer in the backcourt.
Omaha Marian had a great weekend, finishing 3-1 with the only loss coming in overtime. The Crusaders also won a game in overtime, which was sudden death. Senior Lauren Carlsen knocked down a corner 3 at the end of regulation to tie it up then sophomore Alivia Kuhn attacked the basket in overtime, scoring a tough layup to give her team the win. Kuhn stuffed the stat sheet all weekend — flirting with a triple-double in their third game — and senior Emelia Daubendiek led the way offensively.
Omaha Marian beat Hickman (MO) in sudden death OT.
Game-winner from sophomore Alivia Kuhn below.
Lauren Carlsen hit a 3 at the end of regulation to send it to OT. pic.twitter.com/0GhocQKPhX
— Jacob Padilla (@JacobPadilla_) June 12, 2025
I believe Elkhorn South and Lincoln Pius X were the only other two varsity squads from Nebraska to go undefeated and deserve recognition as well.
Shining Stars
I highlighted Pender as the most impressive team I saw, and the biggest reason for that was Madalyn Dolliver. She’s set all kinds of 3-point shooting records in her first three seasons as a Pendragon, but her opponents in Kansas City apparently didn’t get the memo. In the first game I watched, she put up 28 points on 10-of-14 from the field (8-of-11 from 3) and five steals. In the second, she went 9-for-16 from 3 for 27 points and grabbed six steals.
If math isn’t your thing, that’s 55 points, 17 3-pointers (on a 63% clip) and 11 steals in two games for the senior sharp-shooter.
Himayajo Metoyer wasn’t far behind Dolliver, totaling 49 points in the two games I tracked. She dropped 25 points, five assists and three steals while going 6-for-10 from deep against Bentonville, then followed that up with 24 points, five rebounds and three assists against California. She may be small, but she makes up for that with her quickness and aggressiveness. If she can become a more consistent 3-point shooter, it should open up a lot for herself and the Warriors over the next three years.
Millard West senior Kylee Paben is a two-time state champion, but with the Gessert twins off to Creighton, she’s set to be the focal point for the Wildcats next season. Millard West drew a very difficult schedule, facing arguably the best team in Missouri and one of the best teams from Iowa among others, but Paben showed out. She scored 19 of Millard West’s 37 points in a loss to Dowling Catholic (Iowa), shooting 5-of-8 from 3. In the second game I watched, she dropped a 23-point, 11-rebound double-double, shooting 8-of-15 overall including 4-of-8 from 3 in a blowout win against Springdale (Ark.). Paben opened the third quarter of that game with a personal 12-0 run with three triples and a three-point play.
She’ll have to work harder for her buckets this season without the Gesserts drawing attention and setting her up, but she’s one of the best 3-point shooters in the state, capable of hitting shots off the dribble and off movement, as she displayed in Kansas City.
The other senior with Division I offers playing in Kansas City was Lincoln North Star wing Ani Leu. I watched her twice, and she dropped 21 points in both games. Leu did all her work around the basket, either posting up or attacking the rim off the bounce. She got plenty of layups in the first game and earned several trips to the line in the second, hitting all of her free throws. The Gators went 3-1 with a two-point loss to a skilled Norwalk (Iowa) team that saw Leu lead a double-digit comeback attempt that came up just short.
The final senior I’ll highlight here is Lincoln Pius X’s Ava Markowski. She led the Thunderbolts to a 4-0 record, which wouldn’t have happened without some heroics on her part. There was a lid on the rim for her and the Bolts for much of their game against Marshfield (Mo.) and they trailed in the fourth quarter, but Markowski proceeded to score 11 points in the period to pull out the victory. She buried back-to-back 3s to give Pius the lead, converted a three-point play to make it a two-possession game then hit the clinching bonus free throw at the end.
Markowski finished with 16 points, 11 rebounds and three steals while shouldering ball-handling responsibilities as Pius was without a key backcourt player.
Dolliver and Paben weren’t the only Nebraska hoopers to put on a shooting display. Bennington junior Skylar Johnson went off for 26 points on 9-of-16 from the field (6-of-11 from 3) and 1-of-1 from the free-throw line against Principia (Mo.). The Badgers did a good job finding her in the left corner time and time again, and she took advantage almost every time. Bennington has a strong group of juniors and sophomores and should be a contender in Class B next season.
Notable Newcomers
Kansas City also gave us a chance to see plenty of newcomers making an impact at their new schools, be it transfers or freshmen.
Lincoln Northeast junior Alijah Stabler, a Beatrice transfer, is a dynamic point guard who can create shots for herself or her teammates at any time. She should form a tough two-player game with 6-foot-2 sophomore post Brynna Renard, who averaged a double-double for the Rockets as a freshman.
Omaha Westview returns most of its squad after making it to state for the first time last year, and the Wolverines added a veteran frontcourt piece in Elkhorn North transfer Sahler Smith. The senior forward contributed an efficient eight points and eight rebounds (four offensive) in Westview’s opening win against Park Hill South (Mo.), featuring five-star recruit Addison Bjorn.
Omaha North went 4-1 in Kansas City, picking up an extra game like Pender did, and Omaha Central transfer Sanai Cotton-Welchen played a part in the success. The junior guard had an eight-point quarter in North’s 49-47 win against Raymore-Peculiar (Mo.).
Millard North lost a deep and talented senior class, but the Mustangs are reloading. Elkhorn South transfer Liv Schieber led Millard North with 17 points on 7-for-10 from the field (2-of-2 from 3) in a 60-36 win against Piper (Kan.).
Millard North also brought five freshmen to Kansas City, with 6-foot forward Mia McKenzie leading the group. She scored 10 points and grabbed six offensive rebounds against Piper.
Emerson Johnson, a 5-foot-10 guard, led Elkhorn South in scoring, averaging over 16 points on over 60% shooting in four wins, according to the Storm’s stat-keeping. She’ll form a talented duo with junior Mollie Probasco over the next two years.
