Friday night was the regular season home finale for Elkhorn North as the Wolves hosted Norris for a girls and boys varsity double-header.
The Elkhorn North girls celebrated their senior night with a victory while the Norris boys secured a big road win.
GBB: No. 1 Elkhorn North 66, No. 3 Norris 47
Story of the Game
Norris hung tight early, but the top-ranked Wolves opened things up with a 14-0 run spanning the end of the first and beginning of the second quarters to create some separation. The Wolves extended their lead to 18 before the Titans fired back with an 11-2 run to cut the deficit in half.
However, Elkhorn North scored the final six points of the first half then used a 10-0 run early in the third to blow the game open. The Wolves had the Titans doubled up near the end of the third quarter before the Titans put up 18 points in the fourth to trim the margin a bit before the final buzzer.
“Defensively we played really well,” Elkhorn North coach Ann Prince said. “We got a lot of great stops, made things tough for them early, and then we got the ball out and ran and created some easy opportunities for some kids and got a variety of people involved. That’s important and that’s a big part of what we try to do is just get out and push the ball.”
The Wolves recognized five seniors after the game, though one of them — Sydney Stodden — had to watch from the bench because of an injury. Fellow senior Halle Pribnow started in Stodden’s place.
“I’m really proud of Halle Pribnow, coming in and getting her first start as a senior,” Prince said. “She’s the heart soul of the team. That kid never complains, whether she gets no minutes or a few minutes here and there, and I thought she came out and played as solid as anybody, really helped us defensively and got out and ran in transition as well. I couldn’t be more proud of her the way she stepped in for Syd and several of the other kids did as well.”
A senior night win for the Wolves!
Britt Prince scores 28, and No. 1 @ElkNorthGBB beats Norris 66-47.#nebpreps pic.twitter.com/9MLS0Y6Wli
— THEnebpreps (@THEnebpreps) February 10, 2024
Coach Speak
“It was definitely a special night,” Coach Prince said. “We have five really super-special girls that I’m lucky to coach that have built this program from the bottom up, year one all the way through. So, five special girls, special athletes and special people and just a blast to coach every day … Your last home game, it was super special to get the win against a great rivalry team. Just reflecting back on the four years and how quick it actually went, my mind goes back to our first practices and all that and how young and green those kids were. The growth that we’ve made as people and as a program, it’s really special and really cool.”
Standout Performers
Four-year star Britt Prince closed out her regular season home career with another fantastic performance, finishing with 28 points on 10-of-19 from the field (2-of-4 from 3) and 6-of-6 from the foul line, 10 rebounds, five assists, four steals and a block. The Husker signee consistently pushed the ball up the floor in transition to get her teammates easy looks in addition to scoring every way possible in the half court.
Prince’s running mate, Colorado State signee McKenna Murphy, notched her own double-double with 19 points and 10 boards.
“It’s really special to have players like that that can play the game at a very high level and have a lot of fun playing together,” Coach prince said of her star seniors. “But it’s also a lot of fun to see these other kids get involved and do a lot of special things out there. I thought we had a great team effort tonight.”
BBB: No. 2 Norris 63, No. 6 Elkhorn North 46
Story of the Game
The second-ranked Titans jumped on the Wolves early thanks to offensive rebounds and turnovers, building a 15-4 lead after one and extending the advantage out to 17 mid-way through the second.
Elkhorn North settled in and trimmed the deficit down to eight at halftime, then down to seven a couple of times in the fourth. However, the duo of freshman Evan Greenfield and junior Barret Boesiger took over from there and slammed the door shut.
Green scored a layup to close out the third quarter, then the Titans opened the fourth with a 13-2 run with Greenfield and Boesiger accounting for all 13 points. That pushed the lead out to 20 and allowed Norris to cruise to the finish.
“We knew that it would be a 32-minute type of effort tonight that we had to have,” Norris coach Jimmy Motz said. “I’m just glad we were able to make the run there late. I thought we wore them down just defensively in the full court. We wanted to make Kellen [Murphy] work tonight and handle it, and I thought Alec [Small] did a really good job. Alec is our energy guy, he does a lot of things that don’t show up in the box score for us to help us win and since he’s been the starting lineup a year ago, we haven’t lost many games, and I think a lot of it’s just with his energy and what he brings to the table for us.”
In addition to his defensive work, Small, a sophomore, scored eight points, chipped in six rebounds and dished out five assists without a turnover.
It was all Titans tonight as Norris won 63-46 over Elkhorn North.#nebpreps pic.twitter.com/a2bTCwmPRr
— THEnebpreps (@THEnebpreps) February 10, 2024
Coach Speak
“I really thought just overall we had a lot of contributions from different guys that came in tonight,” Motz said. “This is a nice win for us because this is our first of five games in eight days coming up. So a nice way to start this stretch and we’ve got to get ready for tomorrow.”
Standout Performers
Greenfield, who recently earned his way into the starting lineup after serving as the team’s sixth man earlier in the season, led everybody with 21 points on 9-of-15 from the field (2-of-4 from 3) with an and-one. He showed his athleticism attacking the rim as well as his shooting touch the triples and a tough mid-range pull-up to beat the shot clock. The 6-foot-2 sophomore also grabbed a team-high nine rebounds and made a few impressive plays on defense.
“He’s a pretty special talent,” Motz said. “He’s just getting better, but he does so many other things though in terms of his defense. I thought he did a really good job on Nike [Orgilbold] tonight in terms of making him work. He rebounds it, he’s unselfish. He’s just a kid that as the year has went along here has just been steady, and that’s unusual for a freshman at this level. But he’s been a big part of this and he hit a couple of big ones tonight and we need his punch in the lineup.”
Boesiger shot lights out all night with some tough hits, finishing with 17 points on 6-of-8 from the field including 5-of-6 from deep. He also nabbed four steals.
Orgilbold, a sophomore, led the Wolves with 14 points on 5-of-9 from the field (2-of-3 from 3) and 2-of-2 from the free-throw line, five rebounds and four assists. Fellow sophomore Sutton Piatkowski was on the receiving end of a few of those assists, finishing with nine points on 5-% shooting, a game-high 10 rebounds and two blocks.
