The game of the year in Class B boys basketball lived up to the hype as No. 2 Skutt Catholic rallied from a double-digit deficit to win at No. 1 Norris Tuesday night, handing the Titans their first loss of the season to a fellow class B school.
“It was as expected; two really good teams,” Skutt coach Kyle Jurgens said. “When you watch film, it’s like looking in a mirror. You see a lot of yourself. They’re really good in transition. Our emphasis to make them score in the half court was huge tonight, and then ultimately, when they got it to 10 or whatever, we talk about it — you’ve got to have the composure and the mental toughness to take a timeout, take a breath and just fight back one possession at a time.”
The Titans (18-2) entered Tuesday’s clash riding a 17-game winning streak with a 31.9 average margin of victory. The SkyHawks (19-2) had won 13 straight, all by double figures. Fans packed the Norris Middle School Competition Gym for a potential preview of the Class B state championship, and they got their money’s worth.
Norris closed the first quarter on a 6-0 run including a tough foot-on-the-arc 2-pointer from junior Evan Greenfield at the buzzer, then after Skutt tied it up in the second period, junior Cooper Rice drifted to the corner and hit a quick-release 3 at the buzzer to send the Titans into halftime with a 27-24 lead.
Norris scored the first seven points of the third quarter as well to build a 10-point lead, but the SkyHawks responded with a 12-1 run extending into the fourth quarter, taking the lead on a breakaway dunk from senior Goerge Ziebell.
“To play in this atmosphere like this, and for us to fight back, we just said they made a tough shot to end the first, they made a tough shot to end the second quarter, we got down 10 at one point, but we just told them at the timeout there’s no 10-point shot,” Jurgens said. “You’ve just got to do it one possession at a time, one stop at a time, and these guys, they’re mentally tough, they’re composed, they move on to the next play, and that’s why this group’s so fun to coach.”
The fourth quarter saw three ties and three lead changes, but the SkyHawks used a 7-0 run including two free throws and a big 3-pointer from senior Carter Wissink to take the lead for good. Norris cut the five-point deficit first to three with a pair of Greenfield free throws, then to two with a volleyball-line 3 from senior Macoy Folkerts with just under 40 seconds to play.
Then came the dagger possession. Norris sent Wissink to the line to stop the clock. He sank the first to make it a three-point game but missed the second. Greenfield grabbed the board, but two SkyHawks surrounded him and senior Luke Lenz forced the tie-up with just under 35 seconds to play. The arrow pointed Skutt’s way, and Norris had to a foul again, with senior Eddie Linderman sinking both shots to push the lead back to five with 31.1 to play.
“That’s why he’s in there,” Jurgens said of the 6-foot-5 Lenz. “He’s a great athlete. He’s not an AAU basketball player, he’s a lacrosse player who’s out there playing his butt off playing basketball. For us, he’s a good athlete, and he does the dirty work type of stuff, and you saw it there.”
The Titans got a few looks from 3 that didn’t go down before settling for a layup to get points on the board with 3.8 to go, but the SkyHawks broke the press and ran out the clock, with the 6-foot-9 Ziebell throwing down a dunk in celebration just after the buzzer sounded.
“You know it’s going to be a come down to a play here or there,” Jurgens said of the annual matchup with the Titans. “I think the biggest thing in games like this is can you stay composed through the moments, through the runs? I’m super proud of our guys, because I thought we did a great job at that tonight.”
Wissink led the way for the SkyHawks with 11 of his 13 points in the second half. He also chipped in four assists and two steals, making an impact on both ends of the floor.
“He can play fast, and sometimes he gets too fast,” Jurgens said. “But I told our coaches, he’s not a guy we want to put the reins on. He can make stuff happen for us, and he did tonight. He hit big shots. When he gets going downhill, he’s hard to stay in front of, and we have a few guys he can drop it off to, and so he did a nice job of that.”
Skutt Catholic senior Eddie Linderman lines up a 3-point shot at Norris. Photo by Jackson Luethje.
Lenz contributed seven points and two assists off the bench, while Linderman scored six of his eight points in the fourth quarter after dealing with early foul trouble. Those two were the primary defenders on Norris’ all-time leading scorer, Chris Garner Jr., holding the senior 10 points below his season average of 16.2. Jurgens also credited Linderman for his work on Greenfield as the junior guard tried to put the team on his back in the final period.
“The job he did on 22 in the fourth quarter, to me, is the difference, because he walled him up, stayed in front,” Jurgens said. “Greenfield’s such a good player, you don’t see a lot of people who can guard him like that.”
Junior Lucas Heller scored 10 points and hit two 3-pointers, while Ziebell, an Augustana signee, matched him with 10 points and while adding 12 rebounds (including six offensive), four blocks and three steals for his 13th double-double of the season. The big man’s improvement offensively has been a big part of Skutt’s success this year as he’s grown from a complementary piece next to current Omaha Maverick freshman Brock Scholl (who made the trip to Firth to watch his SkyHawks win) into someone Skutt can play through consistently on offense. He’s averaging 16.0 points and 10.2 rebounds this season and has demonstrated significant improvement in his footwork and touch.
“Right now he’s garnering so much attention that we’re having to learn to play off of his double teams, and that’s the thing he’s grown the most at, is being strong when he gets doubled, finding the cutter, finding the guy on the arc, and then after you find the guy, you’ve still got to go chase a rebound, because he’s tough to move around there,” Jurgens said. “I thought a few times when we went in there and missed shots, he fought his butt off to get us second-chance points.”
With Ziebell offering rim protection and physical, disciplined on-ball defenders throughout its lineup, Skutt’s defense has been nearly impossible for teams to crack over the past five or six weeks. Tuesday was the most points the SkyHawks have given up since allowing 60 in their last loss to Ashland-Greenwood on Dec. 23 and 57 to Scottsbluff at the Doane Holiday Tournament on Dec. 30 (a 12-point Skutt win). In the 13 games since, the SkyHawks have held their opponents to 37.2 points per game.
Norris entered Tuesday’s game averaging 78.0 points, and the SkyHawks held them to 42.9% shooting (including 36.4% in the second half) while forcing 14 turnovers.
“For us, it’s defense,” Jurgens said. “These guys, they sell out on the defensive end, and just buying into that, we’ve got to get better every day. The offense is a work in progress always, but for us, we always hang our hat on defense.”
Junior Shane Holen, a 6-foot-4 guard, led Norris with 18 points on 6-of-8 from the field (1-of-2 from 3) and 5-of-6 from the line plus three assists and two steals. He was also the primary defender on the 6-foot-9 Ziebell, limiting him to nine shot attempts and holding him six points below his season average. He’s made a big impact for the Titans since returning from a broken leg suffered during the football season. Greenfield added 12 points (including seven in the fourth quarter), five boards and three steals.
“This is definitely a litmus test, measuring stick, whatever you want to call it of where you’re at, because they’re as good as anybody in the state,” Jurgens said. “They’re so deep that you’ve got to play a 32-minute game, as you saw. I think it should help your confidence a little bit that you’re one of the ones that have a chance, but it also has to be a deal where you don’t get satisfied, that you come to practice tomorrow wanting to work just as hard, knowing that hopefully you’re one of the teams that has a chance in the end.”
The SkyHawks will face Elkhorn, Sioux City (Iowa) Bishop Heelan and Aurora to close out the regular season, while the Titans still have two more measuring stick games this week alone. After facing the second-ranked team in Class B Tuesday, they’ll travel to No. 4 Elkhorn North on Friday then take on No. 3 Scottsbluff in the Heartland Hoops Classic in Grand Island on Saturday.
