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— Tony Chapman, Chris Basnett for Neb. School Activities Assoc.
LINCOLN — The Nebraska state boys basketball championships concluded on Saturday highlighted by a packed lower bowl witnessing a historic first title for Lincoln Southwest as they survived through a balanced Class A field for Lincoln’s first title since 2003.
In Class B, Scottsbluff won their fifth state championship and first since 2012. Class C-1 and C-2 saw repeats from Ashland-Greenwood and Archbishop Bergan.
The Howells-Dodge boys joined their girls team from last week for a boy-girl sweep and Archangels Catholic — formerly Humphrey St. Francis — won their first title in D-2 under their new name.
Class C-2: Behind Baker, Bergan goes back-to-back
Archbishop Bergan Catholic’s baker cooked up another state championship for his squad.
With Gavin Baker going off for 30 points for the second straight state tournament game, Bergan Catholic defended its Class C-2 state championship with a 59-50 win over Norfolk Catholic Saturday.
“It was probably the feeling that it would be the last time that I was going to be able to suit up with the Bergan boys,” said Baker, who also had 11 rebounds. “And it was just the feeling that I wanted to go out with a big bang with them and I didn’t want to leave anything (behind).”
Over the semifinals and finals, Baker scored 60 points and pulled down 23 rebounds. He averaged 26 points over Bergan’s three tournament wins.
But more than Baker’s performance, it was Bergan wearing the title of defending champion and accepting the challenge that comes with it throughout a long season that stood out to coach Ryan Mlnarik.
Last season, Bergan came to state as the No. 8 seed, upset topseeded Freeman in the first round, then rolled to the title. The Knights returned everyone from that roster this season.
“I’ll be honest with you: I sat there for probably a couple months and was just thinking, how are we going to approach this season?” Mlnarik said. “It was going to be a lot of high expectations, but we wanted our guys to know that they weren’t entitled to be here. It wasn’t just going to happen. We didn’t want to get into the season and be complacent and just think they were good enough.”
Bergan (28-1) executed their coach’s vision Saturday, locking down on defense and eventually leading by 19 late in the third quarter before Norfolk Catholic rallied to get within five late in the fourth period.
Cale Sheets had 11 points for Bergan. Trent Mlnarik chipped in five points, eight rebounds and three steals.
Norfolk Catholic (24-5) got the start it wanted, hitting its first three shots, scoring seven of the game’s first nine points, and leading 13-10 after one quarter.
But the offense dried up after that. Norfolk Catholic went 4-for-23 from the floor over the final 11 minutes of the first half, missing its final nine field goal tries.
From its opening flurry until a final salvo of five makes in seven tries early in the fourth quarter, Norfolk Catholic was 7-for-34 from the field.
“We were attacking, we were moving the ball, getting shots that we wanted, and hitting them defensively,” Norfolk Catholic coach Kevin Manzer said. “Then I felt a shift there in the second quarter. Nathan Timmerman, who’s a really good glue guy for us, had to come out, and then they went zone, and we just didn’t move the ball as well.”
Gavin Schutt led Norfolk Catholic with 23 points. Callen Marshall finished with eight.
ROAD TO THE TITLE
Bergan defeated Pender 71-43; defeated Freeman 58-53; and defeated Norfolk Catholic 59-50 A few months ago, Gavin Baker wasn’t sure he would even play basketball in college despite the 6-foot-7 senior averaging 22 points and eight rebounds per game. It was only after a Bergan assistant put together a highlight tape and sent it out that schools started calling. Now Baker plans to attend UNO, study engineering, and walk on to the basketball program.
“It just kind of came suddenly,” Mlnarik said. “His play was really starting to get him noticed. There was a highlight video that was sent out that I think really popped for some of those coaches, but he’s going to get the best of both worlds there. He gets what he wants academically, and he’s going to get the opportunity to continue his career playing basketball.”
With Norfolk Catholic back within five points and the clock dipping under two minutes, Bergan got a bucket from an unexpected place to keep its momentum.
Working against Norfolk Catholic’s zone, Baker found Sheets in the short corner for a turnaround baseline jumper that extended the lead to seven and slowed Norfolk Catholic’s momentum.
It was the first time all season Sheets, normally a 3-point shooter, had attempted such a shot, and the first time Baker had thrown that pass to Sheets from the high post.
“I’m going to be honest. I’ve watched (Baker) take that shot for two years straight, so I’ve kind of learned how to work for it,” Sheets said.
