LINCOLN — High Plains post player Cale Harless didn’t make first-team all-Crossroads Conference this week. And, it happened just at the right time.
Harless had 15 points and 13 rebounds for the third-ranked Storm as they advanced to the state finals for the second consecutive season with a 55-47 win over fifth-ranked Heartland at the Bob Devaney Sports Center in the Class D1 semifinals on Friday morning.
“He’s a motivated kid,” Storm coach Cameron Hudson said. “They put 11 kids on our all-conference team and he wasn’t one of them. But, he played a good one today.”
He scored eight points in the first half as the Storm bolted to a 27-17 halftime advantage and never looked back. In the second half, he made all five of his free throws and his bucket off a pass from Cole Klingsporn in the last two minutes all but sealed it, giving HP a 50-37 lead.
The Storm looked the part of a team who had been there before. Up 11-8 after one quarter, they went on a 13-0 run in the second quarter to seize control and never looked back.
“We were really able to attack the basket and Heartland committed to stopping our guards,” Hudson said. “That opened up the lane for our post players and we made shots.
High Plains also used a wide 3-2 zone with Klingsporn and Young on the wings and Heartland never solved it. The Huskies, who got 13 points from Cole Nickels, were never closer than seven points in the second half.
Now, the Storm has to try to do again in tomorrow’s final what they couldn’t do last year — beat a team they already beat in district play. Sounds a little silly, I guess. But, they’ll get Humphrey St. Francis — an identical 55-47 winner over BDS in the other semifinal — for the championship.
“It just a game that we need to go have fun and execute,” Hudson said. “Roll the ball out and let them play and see what happens. We’ve played well.”
Conference Double
About ten days ago, Exeter-Milligan laid an egg in the sub-district final against Falls City Sacred Heart. They played one of their worst halves of the season in a 57-42 loss to the Irish, but snuck into state as a wild card.
Don’t think Kyle Jensen and his buddies didn’t hear about it from coach Dean Filipi.
“There are two sides to coach,” Jensen said with a smile afterward. “I love him, but he knows how to ruffle our feathers and get us going a little bit, too. He worked us this week. He threw in a lot of different drills, disguised as conditioning.
“If you aren’t giving all your effort, he’s going to call us out and make you do more.”
On Friday afternoon, the Timberwolves got a dominating 60-36 win over Minatare in the state semifinals. They jumped to an 11-0 lead and were never threatened. Filipi wouldn’t trade this bunch for the world.
“They are a group that loves to compete,” E-M coach Dean Filipi said. “They love to rebound and get after loose balls and I think that showed tonight.”
Derek Luzum had 23 points and 16 rebounds as the Timberwolves owned a 13-1 edge in offensive rebounding over the Indians who finished 22-3. Jensen added 17 points for the winners, who will play for a rare football-basketball double on Saturday against Bancroft-Rosalie.
“It’s a dream come true,” Jensen said. “We talked about it before football even started. With our football success, we wanted it to carry over this year and we knew we had a chance to make a run.”
Timberwolves will start the evening session with B-R, who held Riverside without a field goal for nearly 16 minutes of game time in a 50-36 win. Carson Tietz led the Panthers with 17 points and Tanner Hudson had 12 for Riverside.
