MHT Semi-Final: Bellevue West vs. Creighton Prep

<p>Final Score: Bellevue West 73 – Creighton Prep 64</p> <div class="lee-article-text"> <p>BWHS: [player_tooltip player_id="890468" first="Frankie" last="Fidler"] 30, [player_tooltip player_id="773431" first="Chucky" last="Hepburn"] 12, William Kyle 8, [player_tooltip player_id="890464" first="Greg" last="Brown"] 8, Evan Enselman 6, [player_tooltip player_id="1013209" first="Josiah" last="Dotzler"] 6, [player_tooltip player_id="1013231" first="Jaden" last="Jackson"] 3.</p> <p>CP: [player_tooltip player_id="1007526" first="Justin" last="Sitti"] 21, [player_tooltip player_id="946019" first="Brendan" last="Buckley"] 17, [player_tooltip player_id="981701" first="Luke" last="Jungers"] 8, [player_tooltip player_id="946022" first="Mai’jhe" last="Wiley"] 7, Casey O’Malley 4, [player_tooltip player_id="890472" first="AJ" last="Rollins"] 2, [player_tooltip player_id="1035626" first="Conor" last="Buckley"] 2, Alex Bullock 2, Marcel Evans 1.</p> </div> <p>It was shaping up to be the game Creighton Prep needed in order to win. [player_tooltip player_id="890468" first="Frankie" last="Fidler"] had a slow-start by his standards. [player_tooltip player_id="773431" first="Chucky" last="Hepburn"] was impactful as he always is, but he was not providing the scoring. And the Junior Jays were getting great minutes from [player_tooltip player_id="946019" first="Brendan" last="Buckley"] and [player_tooltip player_id="1007526" first="Justin" last="Sitti"]. Sitti was reliable in the pick and roll. He was probing the Thunderbird’s interior and finding the open Prep shooters. Buckley provided an important change of pace at point guard for Creighton Prep, and when he wasn’t meticulously breaking down the Thunderbird defense, he was able to slide over to the two guard and provide excellent shooting off the catch. Bellevue West was touch-and-go on offense in the first half, but they put forth excellent effort on defense and on the glass. William Kyle ran the floor well and provided smart, mobile post defense. Fidler struggled to find the bottom of the net in the first quarter, and started to get himself going in the second quarter by getting to the basket for a few high-percentage looks. </p> <p>Despite the lagging offense, Bellevue West fought for a two point lead entering the halftime break. Creighton Prep continued to play smart, and relatively mistake-free basketball, but the star power of the opposition came alive, and proved too much to overcome. [player_tooltip player_id="773431" first="Chucky" last="Hepburn"] was electric in the second half. The Wisconsin commit assisted on the first four Thunderbird buckets in the third quarter, and scored the fifth. </p> <p>https://youtu.be/BE_sbs-LxcE</p> <p>He controlled the pace, continuously made the right play, and provided elite point of attack defense. Hepburn finished with 10 assists (6 in third quarter) and 5 steals. </p> <p>The poor-shooting that plagued Bellevue West in the first half was cured with 68% performance in the second half. Fidler started hitting his jumpers and Prep could not match them score for score. </p> <p>The result sets up a #1 v. #2 showdown on Saturday at 7:15 p.m. between Millard North and Bellevue West. You can watch that stream <a href="https://youtu.be/amRpTjT8kmY">here</a>. </p>