State Tournament Recap: C2 Semi-Finals

<p><em>Semi-Finals for Class C2, Class D1, and Class D2 took place on Thursday at Pinnacle Bank Arena settling half of the matchups for state championship games on Saturday. The C2 slate saw the top-seeded team in the bracket Grand Island Central Catholic take care of business and advance to the state final while #2 seed Yutan finished the night with an instant classic against two-time defending state champions BRLD. Here are some prospects who stood out in the two Class C2 semi-final games. </em></p> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="1049513" first="Gil" last="Jengmer"] - 6’8 Junior (Grand Island Central Catholic)</strong></p> <p>The younger of the two Jengmer brothers at GICC, Gil has shown a great deal of improvement over the course of his junior campaign for the Crusaders. There definitely aren’t many teams in Class C2 that have answers defensively for either Jengmer brother, but Gil especially has shown improvement in both his post moves and his touch around the basket since I first watched him play last summer. He finished GICC’s semi-final victory with 13 points and 5 rebounds and capped it off with a big thunder dunk on the baseline late in the second half. To cap off a successful night he received offers from Hastings College and Southeast CC following his performance. Jengmer is certainly an intriguing name to watch this summer. </p> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="1007525" first="Dei" last="Jengmer"] - 6’9 Senior (Grand Island Central Catholic)</strong></p> <p> The older of the two Jengmer brothers, Dei also possesses some tools that should be intriguing to some smaller schools and JUCOs in the area. He holds offers from the likes of Chadron State, Des Moines Area CC, and picked up an offer from Southeast CC last night just like his brother Gil. Dei has also shown some improvement inside with both his post moves and touch finishing around the rim. Dei has also changed his body since the summer and looks quicker and a bit bouncier as well. As is the case with his younger brother, Dei has great length and athleticism for his size. He tallied 12 points on a perfect 6-6 mark from the field, to go along with 6 rebounds in the semi-final victory over Hartington Cedar Catholic. The Jengmer brothers and their GICC Crusader teammates will look to capture a Class C2 state championship Saturday night at 8:45 pm. </p> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="1049517" first="Tate" last="Thoene"] - 5’9 Junior (Hartington Cedar Catholic) </strong></p> <p>Hartington Cedar Catholic guard [player_tooltip player_id="1049517" first="Tate" last="Thoene"] had himself an impressive night in the semi-finals against GICC even though his team came up short in the end. The Trojans junior finished with an impressive stat line of 21 points, 6 rebounds, and 6 steals on the contest. Thoene has a good-looking shot and can get going in a hurry from beyond the 3 point line, where he shot at an impressive 4-6 on the night. Throughout the contest Thoene played tough, diving on the floor for loose balls and making good plays for the Trojans. </p> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="890476" first="Brady" last="Timm"] - 5’10 Senior (Yutan) </strong></p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="890476" first="Brady" last="Timm"] got going when it mattered most. In the 4th quarter of a tight game with a state title game birth on the line. The senior guard who is committed to playing at Doane College next year scored 8 of his game-high 18 points in the 4th quarter against BRLD. This included his game-winning jumper for that gave Yutan the lead with 2.2 seconds left in the game. Timm’s body control on the contested game-winner was incredibly impressive. His pull-up jump shot is also one of the better ones that I have seen in all of Nebraska. He added 6 rebounds and 5 assists to his stat line as well. Timm does everything you could ask for at the guard spot and I’m very much looking forward to watching him play for a state title. </p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">[player_tooltip player_id="890476" first="Brady" last="Timm"] ONIONS. The future <a href="https://twitter.com/DoaneTigersMBK?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DoaneTigersMBK</a> point guard with a big time shot to give Yutan a 49-47 lead over BRLD with 2.2 seconds left <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/nebpreps?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#nebpreps</a> <a href="https://t.co/QnOLJDgTFT">pic.twitter.com/QnOLJDgTFT</a></p> — Jacob Bigelow (@The_Bigelow) <a href="https://twitter.com/The_Bigelow/status/1370218153733726212?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 12, 2021</a></blockquote> <p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="890467" first="Lucas" last="Vogt"] - 5’11 Senior (BRLD) </strong></p> <p>Vogt’s scoring output from Thursday night won’t jump off of the page, but his 7 assists on the night certainly do. A true point guard in every way imaginable, Vogt’s court vision and passing ability is some of the best I’ve seen in Nebraska. He plays hard for 32 minutes each and every time out, diving for loose balls, and defending hard, even when he’s at a size disadvantage he doesn’t give up much defensively. Even in a losing effort Thursday night that saw his high school career, I loved the way Vogt carried himself throughout the game and afterwards. A D2 school or a mid-major D1 school should be knocking on Vogt’s door because they’d get an absolute steal. </p> <p>&nbsp;</p>