.jpg)
LINCOLN — The state tournament t-shirts said “30th state tournament appearance” but the Nebraska Public Television graphic said a first state title for Archangels Catholic.
Both were right, but it didn’t seem to matter much. It was the former Humphrey St. Francis’ new nickname that stuck out the most during the Class D-2 state basketball tournament. The Defenders.
And, on Championship Saturday’s first title game it lived up to the billing as Archangels rolled past top-seeded Elgin Public/Pope John, 50-30. The Defenders piled up 18 steals and scored 27 points off turnovers in their vaunted, attacking 1-3-1 defense which never gave the Wolfpack a chance.
“I am just super proud of our kids,” Archangels coach Eric Kessler said. “I thought our defense was just tremendous. You could tell this morning we were ready to play. I was confident we would play well, I didn’t know if we would win, but I thought we would play well.”
“The last three days, the way these guys have played defensively has just been tremendous.”
How good was the defense? The Wolfpack managed just two baskets in the first half in trailing 19-6. Then, Archangels moved the lead to 33-8 over the first 5:16 of the third quarter, capping the run on Tucker Czarnik’s layup off an assist from Ethan Wieseler.
It left some looking in the six-class championship record books for the fewest points scored in a D-2 title game. The Wolfpack eclipsed Mead’s 28 points in 2017 by a single bucket.
“(Our defense) is a team effort,” said Czarnik who had eight steals in the game to go with nine points and six rebounds. “We are all working together. The makeup of this team is something really cool. We are always helping each other and lifting each other up.”
Brenden Johannes led the Defenders with 15 points, while Gavin Geilenkirchen – the point man on that 1-3-1 – scored 12 points, had six steals, three rebounds and three assists. EPPJ’s Max Henn led all scorers with 16 points and Jarek Erickson added nine points and 11 rebounds for the Wolfpack who ended 25-4.
Archangels – which won seven state championships as Humphrey St. Francis – finished the season 28-2.
They defeated Falls City Sacred Heart 49-28, and then topped St. Mary’s 57-28, before beating Elgin Public/Pope John 50-30 in the State title game.
