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Leyton comeback falls short

Second quarter struggles doom Warriors in opening round

Perhaps it was just too close to St. Patricks day to deny the Irish.

Though the Leyton Warriors won three of the four quarters, a 23-4 edge for Falls City Sacred Heart in the second quarter, turned out to be the backbreaker as the Irish won the first-round game in the NSAA Boys Basketball Championships at Southeast High School in Lincoln 58-50.

Second-quarter struggles left Leyton in a 31-16 halftime rut, yet there were no heads hanging as they came out for the second half. Cruise set the tone 25 seconds into the third quarter when he put back an offensive layup. Though Austin Malone responded by completing a three-point play for Falls City, Leyton opened the third on a 10-4 spurt to bring the score to 35-26.

"We came out in the second half and competed 100 percent," said Leyton Head Coach Gary Oltmann. "That's all you can really ask from them is 100 percent--and they gave it."

Though the Irish responded to the Warriors run with 5 quick points, the third frame ended with a trey from Jared Westman after Cody McKay had earlier dropped in a two pointer.

The third was a series of short runs by both teams, but when the buzzer sounded the Warriors managed to narrow the gap by a point to 45-31.

"At halftime we just told each other we were going to leave it all out on the floor," said a somber Cruise. "Bottom line is we let them score too much and we didn't score enough."

It was obvious as the final quarter began that Dylan Brenner had no intentions of leaving anything in his holster. He scored the first 8 points of the frame, which he started by completing a three-point play.

After two minutes had expired he concluded his personal run with a missile from downtown, which brought the Dalton gang to within 6 at 45-39.

Nearly two minutes later a short jumper by Cruise edged the Warriors within 5 (48-43), but they could never get any closer. As the seconds ticked away, Leyton was forced to foul,but Sacred Heart was steady at the line.

"It was a good season," said Seth Schuessler. "We all wanted to keep up the fight and at least we all did that."

Early on it looked like it would be another close affair as it was at last years tournament. With 4 points each from McKay and Cruise, Leyton finished out the opening frame on an 8-0 run to take a 12-8 lead.

But the Irish reversed the momentum in a big way over the next eight minutes. While Sacred Heart was outscoring the Warriors 23-4, the Warriors went 0-12 from the field.

All the Leyton points in the quarter came from the foul line.

"Four points in eight minutes just isn't going to get it done," Oltmann said.

The Warriors cause was further hampered when Cruise was whistled for his third foul with 1:53 left in the half. Both Cruise and Brenner picked up their fourth foul in the third period and eventually fouled out late in the fourth.

Austin Malone of Falls City had the Irish fans roaring when he started out his team's second quarter run with a three pointer. Just about five miniutes after the Malone trey got the Irish in gear, Colin Niemeyer sank another rainbow.

The Niemeyer bomb finished off a 16-1 run in the second.

Brenner accounted for the only Warriors point in the first 5:20 of the second with a free throw. Brenner also put an end to the run with a pair of freebies later on and Frerichs added another.

Brenner, who scored 27 points in last season's finale against the Irish, converted but a single field goal in the first half.

Sacred Heart seemed to prefer fouling Brenner rather than letting the talented senior loose in the paint. He was sent to the line on three occassions in the second quarter.

"I didn't see that they were trying to foul me, they were just playing good defense," Brenner said.

The No. 7 Warriors came into the contest with a record of 18-5 with all but one of their losses coming from teams outside Class D2. The lone loss to a D2 squad, Minatare, was avenged later in the season by a resounding 52-39 count in the subdistrict finals.

This was Leyton's third straight trip to the dance and eighth all time.

The No. 2 Irish (23-4) finished third at last year's tournament after topping the Warriors 57-56 in their season finale in Lincoln. The Irish won eight state championships between 1988 and 2008.

With this final game the Warriors say a reluctant goodbye to seven seniors including Alex W. Frerichs, Josh Reimers, Seth Schuessler, Dylan Brenner, Brennen Cruise, Alex C. Frerichs and David Blanke.

Brenner and Cruise have been four-year starters while A-Dub Frerichs has been on the floor to open games the past three seasons.

Brenner led all scorers in the contest with 20 points - with 11 coming in the final quarter. Cruise had 13 points, McKay 6, Frerichs 5 and Westman 3.

Warriors Linescore

Sacred Heart 8 23 14 14 - 58

Leyton 12 4 15 19 - 50

Warriors Scoring

Dylan Brenner 20

Brennen Cruise 13

Cody McKay 6

Alex W. Frerichs 5

Jared Westman 3

Seth Schuessler 2

Drew Brenner 1

 

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