Heartland Hoops Classic: Session Two Recap

<p><em>Saturday brought us the 15th edition of the Heartland Hoops Classic in Grand Island, Nebraska. This event is a must-watch every year and serves as a day-long showcase of basketball talent from across the state. This year’s event featured seven games, mostly consisting of cross-class matchups, culminating with a national showcase matchup between Link Academy and Wasatch Academy. For my recaps of the action, I will be focusing only on the 6 games featuring teams from Nebraska. The four games played in the first session were won by Ashland-Greenwood, Doniphan-Trumbull, Humphrey/Lindsay Holy Family, and Omaha Concordia and my recap for session one can be found on the PrepHoops Nebraska home page.  Two of the three games in the second session which began on Saturday afternoon featured Nebraska schools. Recaps are below. </em></p> <p><strong>Game #5 Grand Island Central Catholic 52 Elkhorn North 47</strong></p> <p>In arguably the best game of the day, the defacto hosts of the Heartland Hoops Classic, Grand Island Central Catholic came back from being down as many 16 at one point to defeat Elkhorn North 52-47. Elkhorn North knew going into this one that they would need to slow down GICC’s post presence in 6’8 big man [player_tooltip player_id="1049513" first="Gil" last="Jengmer"] eho gave the Crusaders a significant size advantage inside. Jengmer found himself in foul trouble early on and that played a factor in GICC falling behind early. While he did finish the game with an impressive 5 blocks as well as 7 points and 6 rebounds, there were multiple extended stretches where GICC was without him due to foul trouble. With Jengmer on the bench, recent Doane signee and Elkhorn North senior guard [player_tooltip player_id="1018810" first="Brandon" last="Orgilbold"] was able to thrive in slashing to the basket. He had multiple tough finishes at the basket, some of them through contact resulting in a few and one opportunitities. He finished the game as the leading scorer for Elkhorn North with 19 points on 7-10 shooting from the field, he was also 4-5 from the free throw line. </p> <p>GICC got back in the game thanks to senior leaders Isaac Herbek and Marcus Lowry. The Crusaders scored 17 straight points to start the 4th quarter and the two times the crowd got the loudest it did all day were on Lowry’s 3-pointer to tie the game, and then about a minute later on Brayton Johnson’s 3 to give GICC the lead with about two minutes left to play in the game. Elkhorn North did not score in the 4th quarter until a made putback with about 10 seconds left in the game. Gor GICC, Isaac Herbek led the way with a game high 21 points, which included an impressive 10-11 mark from the free throw line. Marcus Lowry had 19 points, 14 of which camre in the second half. </p> <p><strong>Game #6 Omaha Westside 67 Grand Island 46</strong></p> <p>After one half of play Grand Island was definitely holding their own against top ranked Omaha Westside, trailing by eight at the break 33-25. However a big third quarter saw Westside step on the gas and pull away for good. Westside got contributions from just about everybody they played, led by junior forward [player_tooltip player_id="1013207" first="Tate" last="Odvody"]’s game high 19 points. Senior guard Chandler Meeks finished with 16 points on 6-8 shooting even stepping out to shoot 3-3 from beyond the arch. Meeks stuffed the stat sheet adding 6 assists, 3 steals, 3 rebounds, and 1 block to his impressive scoring performance. Westside senior guard [player_tooltip player_id="890584" first="Payson" last="Gillespie"] also reminded the Grand Island crowd, as well as his future college coaches from Concordia University (NE), that he is one of the better shooters in the state, finishing with 11 points on 3-4 shooting from downtown. </p> <p>For Grand Island, senior forward and Virginia signee [player_tooltip player_id="890574" first="Isaac" last="Traudt"] 16 points on the night and he also eclipsed the 1,500 career point mark late in the first half. Guard Andy Poss, who transferred to Grand Island from St. Paul, had a big second quarter scoring 6 of his 15 points that period. Grand Island ran out of gas in the second half and Westside’s consistent pressure throughout the game likely played a big factor down the stretch. </p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>For recaps of Session One of the Heartland Hoops Classic check out PrepHoops Nebraska’s home page. </p>