No. 2 Ashland-Greenwood boys basketball took down No. 3 Wahoo for a third time this season, defeating the Warriors 51-43 in the C1-3 sub-district final at Ashland-Greenwood on Thursday night.
Story of the Game
Round three went the same way as the first two, though that didn’t look like it would be the case early. The Warriors opened with a 9-2 run as their aggressive, trapping 1-3-1 caused all sorts of problems for the Ashland-Greenwood offense.
However, the Bluejays knocked down a couple of 3s to end the first quarter to cut it to one, then tied it up a few times in the second quarter before finally taking the lead at 20-19 heading into halftime.
The Bluejays locked up in the third quarter as Wahoo didn’t score until the 2:28 mark. Ashland-Greenwood held them to five points in total in the period to build a nine-point lead after three, then scored the first four of the fourth to extend the lead out to 37-24.
“In the first half the score wasn’t maybe where we wanted it, obviously,” Ashland-Greenwood coach Jacob Mohs said. “Both teams wanted to be ahead by more. But I thought we made them hit some tough shots and I thought our offensive execution was OK, but we didn’t shoot it great and we didn’t finish around the rim great. The third quarter was really one of our better quarters of the season. Against such a good opponent, we were really, really outstanding on defense. I think we shut them out for almost five minutes and we were equally as good on the offensive end.”
Wahoo wasn’t done yet, however. The Warriors had to come out of their zone facing a double-digit deficit against a patient Bluejays squad, but they extended their defense with a full-court press and aggressive defense in the halfcourt as well, and a flurry of turnovers fueled a comeback.
Wahoo cut the deficit all the way down to three twice, at 39-36 and 41-38, but the Bluejays settled down again and went 8-for-10 at the foul line down the stretch while holding Wahoo to just four points in the last two and a half minutes.
“It’s a testament to the kids,” Mohs said. “They just responded. We would have liked to have them say ‘enough is enough’ sooner, but after that turnover flurry, the momentum and all that, they could have lost confidence, gotten more frustrated, and they maintained their composure.”
Wahoo is averaging 69.9 points per game this season and has scored 80 or more six times, including in the sub-district semifinal win over Wahoo. The Bluejays have now held them to their three lowest point totals of the season — 54 (in overtime), 41 and 43.
“I thought the defense was really good,” Mohs said. “They’re a good shooting team. I don’t think they’re going to be 1-for-10 during many stretches of any game, but that’s a credit to our kids’ defense and locking in and doing a really good job.”
Coach Speak
“I think it gives us a lot of confidence,” Mohs said. “We think they’re one of the best teams in C1, so to come out here and play pretty well, and then face some adversity there at the start of the fourth and not play well, and then respond and get it back going our way. Great environment, great game to really help us moving forward with confidence, facing adversity and all that good stuff.”
Standout Performers
Sophomore forward Derek Tonjes played a big role in picking apart the Wahoo 1-3-1 zone in the first three quarters and finished with a team-high 17 points on 6-of-9 from the field (2-of-3 from 3) and 3-of-6 from the line. He also dished out four assists, two for layups and two for 3-pointers. Tonjes popped to the corner for open 3s, he slipped to the rim for layups and he made great reads to set up his teammates when the defense collapsed on him.
“He moved really well without the ball,” Mohs said. “You’re going to have to hit shots to beat them, but when you can get layups against them, it’s really, really hard because they converge to the hoop fast and well. So for him to get several of those layups was really, really huge for our team.”
Senior Dane Jacobsen added 15 points on 4-of-7 shooting, and he hit six straight free throws in the fourth quarter to seal the victory. Senior Dawson Thies chipped in seven points and eight rebounds while sophomore Cal Kissinger knocked two big 3s off the bench in the second half.
Marcus Glock scored a game-high 19 points for the Warriors, but 12 of them came in the first half as the Bluejays held him to 1-of-7 from the field after halftime. Junior Dylan Simons added 13 points on 6-of-9 shooting and six rebounds.
Notable C1 Subdistrict Results
The good news for Wahoo is the Warriors still advance to the district finals via one of the four wildcard spots. The Warriors will host Wayne in the C1-6 district final on Saturday.
Ashland-Greenwood will host Minden in the C1-2 district final.
The other three wildcards are C1-5 district final host Ogallala (who lost 61-59 to Cozad Wednesday), C1-7 district final host Douglas County West (who lost 55-35 at Omaha Concordia Wednesday) and C1-8 visitor Fillmore Central (who lost 49-38 to Columbus Scotus in the sub-district semifinal Tuesday).
The top teams who just missed out on wildcard points and did not advance to the district finals are Bishop Neumann (18-5), Hastings Adams Central (19-5) and Central City (20-3).
