Leyton earns second straight trip to Elite Eight

SUTHERLAND — Brennen Cruise stood in front of his team’s bench Tuesday night, his maroon uniform drenched in sweat from a long, difficult night of playing basketball.

“We were in deep trouble,” the junior center said. “This was the hardest game I ever played in, and it didn’t look good.”

But appearances can be deceiving, particularly when heart and desire are involved.

Twice, Cruise and his Leyton High School boys basketball teammates stared the brink of elimination dead in the eye, using a pair of buzzer-beating 3-pointers from Dylan Brenner and A.W. Frerichs to extend the Sutherland D2-6 District finals into triple overtime before wearing down a game Sandhills/Thedford bunch, 74-68.

In a game that saw 19 lead changes and seven ties, Gary Oltmann’s Warriors (21-1) earned the state finals’ top seed and a second straight berth in Lincoln.

“We were down to the last shot twice,” Oltmann said. “This one was better, sweeter and tougher than last year, that’s for sure.”

Sandhills/Thedford (21-5) used its trio of big men, Matthew McLeod, Tyler Lee and Ty Sierks, to hound the Warriors inside and out. The Knights outscored LHS 14-9 in the second quarter to carry a 27-22 halftime lead.

Warriors’ leading scorer Sam Schumacher, held scoreless in the first half, sparked an 8-0 Leyton run to open the third period, scoring six points and assisting on a Brenner layup.

After that spree, the two teams were never more than a possession apart, until the final three minutes of regulation, when Lee hit one of two foul shots to put the Knights ahead 51-46.

But, as the rest of the contest would reveal, S/T could not put Leyton away when the chances came.

Seconds later, McLeod missed the front end of the bonus opportunity that could have made the margin a three-possession game.

That opened the door for Cruise to nail a 3-pointer from the top of the key at 2:49, before he tied the game with a pair of free throws at 1:34 to knot the issue at 51.

S/T then misfired on its next possession, and Leyton held for a final shot, which fell off, forcing the first overtime.

McLeod crashed the boards to put back his own missed shot to open the first extra session, and after Brenner tied the game with a pair of free throws, S/T ran off the next six points, capped by a pair of foul shots by Sierks at 25.4 seconds.

Suddenly, Leyton’s dreams appeared over.

But dreams die hard.

Brenner ripped a trey from the right corner at 17.2 seconds, and Oltmann used a timeout before the Warriors fouled Cole Taylor at 15.6 seconds.

Taylor missed both sides of the double-bonus, setting the stage for Brenner’s tying 3-pointer from out front with just a shade more than a second remaining, ending the first overtime in a 59-all knot.

S/T’s McLeod broke a 63-all tie with a third-try stickback with 22 seconds left in the second overtime. Brenner was fouled at the other end, but he missed both free throws, and at 9.4 seconds, he fouled out of the game by hand-checking Sierks.

“I told my teammates when I was walking off that someone else was going to have pick up where I left off,” Brenner said.

Sierks — and with S/T having yet another chance to salt the game away — could only make one of two shots, and Leyton had another shot, down 66-63. Oltmann called timeout at 5.1 seconds, and the Warriors got the ball to Schumacher, who was stripped by McLeod along the left baseline.

As Schumacher slapped the floor in frustration, McLeod rolled on the floor and was called for traveling at 1.4 seconds.

With barely enough time to throw the ball in, Cruise simply inbounded the ball to Frerichs, who was wide open in the right corner.

Frerichs flipped up the 3-pointer, which splashed through as the buzzer sounded, forcing the third overtime at 66-all.

“We had devised a play to get me open,” Schumacher said. “That didn’t work, and A.W. was standing wide open and hit the shot.”

After T. Lee started the final session with a basket, S/T didn’t score again.

Schumacher was fouled on a 3-point attempt, and he made all three shots to give LHS the lead for good at 69-68.

The Warriors got the ball back when Taylor missed a turn-around jumper, Schumacher rebounding. Leyton grabbed two offensive rebounds on its next possession, and the third time was the charm as sophomore Cody McKay scored from inside the elbow to make it 71-68.

Add a Frerichs free throw and a length of the court inbounds layup from Frerichs, and it was all over.

Not lost in the matter was the play of Cruise, who drew his fourth personal foul with 3:17 remaining in the fourth quarter.

Despite having to battle inside with the Knights’ trio of McLeod, Lee and Sierks, he finished with 13 rebounds, drew two charges and did not exit the game.

“If Brennen gets his fifth foul, we’re dead meat,” Oltmann understated.

Four Warriors finished in double figures. Brenner led the way with 21 points, Cruise adding 20, Schumacher 17 (despite going 5 for 20 from the floor) and Frerichs 12.

McLeod, who saw Leyton use three defenders against him, paced S/T with 23 points, Lee putting in 21 and Sierks 20.

“McLeod may have been the toughest player we’ve faced all year,” Oltmann said.

Brenner, one of three assigned to McLeod, agreed.

“He’s left-handed, and you’re so used to making the dribbler go to his left,” Brenner said. “So we had to force him to go right. It wasn’t easy.”

Knights coach Adam Marten said his team didn’t take care of its numerous leads.

“We had key turnovers and missed free throws,” Marten said. “We didn’t manage the end of the fourth quarter, nor did we handle the ends of the first two overtimes. Give Leyton credit, because when the third overtime came along, they did a nice job of getting the lead and managing it.”

Marten announced to reporters following the game that he was stepping down after 16 years in the Sandhills/Thedford program, including the last five following the consolidation of schools.

“This year’s seniors won 76 games in four years, and that is the most of any class I coached,” Marten said. “This group went down to Lincoln two years ago, and they wanted to get back, but it wasn’t to be. It’s just too bad someone had to lose this one.”

Due to Wynot’s upset of clubhouse wild-card points leader Wausa last night at Hartington, Leyton earned the D-2 top seed, and will meet Wauneta-Palisade at 9 a.m. on March 7 at Lincoln North Star High School.

Sutherland

Class D2-6 Championship

Leyton 74,

Sandhills/Thedford 68 3OT

LEYTON (21-1)

AWFrerichs 4-5 1- 12, Melzer 1-3 0-0 2, Schumacher 5-20 6-8 17, Brenner 6-21 5-8 21, Cruise 7-18 2-2 20, McKay 1-4 0-0 2. Totals 24-71 14-20 74

SANDHILLS/THEDFORD (21-5)

Spencer 0-3 0-0 0, TLee 8-12 5-6 21, McLeod 11-17 0-1 23, Taylor 1-8 0-1 2, Freeman 1-2 0-0 2, Sierks 5-15 9-11 20, JLee 0-0 0-0 0, Higgins 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 26-57 14-19 68

Leyton 13 9 15 14 8 7 8—74

S/T 13 14 11 13 8 7 2—68

3-point goals – Leyton 12-28 (Cruise 4-7, Brenner 4-8, AWFrerichs 3-4, McKay 0-1, Schumacher 0-2), Thedford/Sandhills 2-14 (McLeod 1-4, Sierks 1-7, Spencer 0-2, T.Lee 0-1). Rebounds – Leyton 40 (Cruise 13, Schumacher 9), Sandhills/Thedford 42 (TLee 19, McLeod 12). Turnovers – Leyton 13, Sandhills/Thedford 18. Team fouls – Leyton 15, Sandhills/Thedford 15. Fouled out – Brenner.