Thursday night was the 3A Sub-State boys semifinals at Horton High School and the two Big 7 League squads jumped to early leads and cruised to convinving victories against Northeast Kansas League competition.  Nemaha Valley and Sabetha will meet for a third time this season in Saturday nights championship game, which will also be the 100th boys basketball contest between the teams. 
(NV leads the series 58-41)

Sabetha 78, Maur Hill 45
Sabetha led 7-0 and was up 22-2 before Maur Hill/Mount Academy banked in a deep three at the end of the first quarter.  The Jays started the second on another 10-0 spurt and led 45-15 at halftime.  Kellen Russell electrified the Sabetha crowd by making 7 treys and scoring 25 points in the first half, including an unconscious 17 point second quarter, which outscored the Ravens team total for the half.  Gaven Schumann added 12 points, while Brett Plattner and Kegan Schumann each had 8 as Sabetha improved to 22-0 on the season with 11 made three-pointers in the game. 

Maur Hill was rattled with 19 turnovers, but freshman Nick Caudle showed more promise for the future with 15 of his 18 points in the second half.  Dillon Kramer added 10 and Jake Schmidt had 9 before the Ravens ended the season with a 13-9 record, and only lose two seniors.   

Nemaha Valley 85, Horton 65
In a rematch from January 31st, Nemaha Valley scored the first 8 points of the game and never trailed, as they went into the locker room 42-30 and Horton never got within single digits. NV got anothe huge game from senior, Justice McKernan who light-up the scoreboard with 28 points.  Devin Henry came off the bench to score 18, while Isaac McWilliams added 9 and Caleb Meyer had 8.  NV made 13 of 14 free throws in the second half and 17 of 22 for the night while also knocking down a half-dozen trifecta's.  11 players scored for the Raiders who are now 20-2 and now try to avenge those two losses to Sabetha and advance to the state tournament for an eighth consecutive season on Saturday night.  

Horton finished with the most wins of any Charger boys squad since 1998 (15-7) and senior, Dakota Bayles went out in style with 24 points while Chandler Knudson added 12 and Trey Dishon had 11.  Horton had three guys foul out and lose just three seniors off the team that won 8 of their last 10 games to finish the season. 

The 3A Horton sub state continues Friday night with girls semifinals as Horton (16-5) battles Marysville (16-5) at 6:00 PM followed by a third matchup between Nemaha Valley (17-4) and Sabetha (16-5) at 7:30 - with live coverage on KNZA 103.9 FM and www.mscsports.net.