The Nemaha Central Thunder sounded early to start postseason basketball as they cruised past Pleasant Ridge at home in the opening round of the Class 3A Hiawatha Sub-State winning 77-52 to continue their season. 

Everything was going right early and throughout the game for Nemaha Central as they had 10 guys score in the contest, including a dominate performance from Luke Holthaus individually, while Pleasant Ridge tried to stay in the game with three-pointers but struggled to keep up with the Thunder. Nemaha Central jumped out to a 17-7 lead after the first quarter with Holthaus pacing the attack scoring 10 points in the first quarter himself and grabbing just about every rebound. The lead continually grew over the course of the game as Nemaha Central carried a 38-24 advantage into halftime and picked up the 77-52 win. 

Pleasant Ridge in the loss had one of their top scorers in Brennan Hollinger in foul trouble keeping him on the bench most of the first half and the Rams struggled to score at times going 8-27 from three-point range. Jagar Haack led the Rams with 18 points on the night as Pleasant Ridge closed out their season with a 5-16 record. 

Holthaus paced Nemaha Central tying his season high with 24 points, scoring 12 in each half and was a tough matchup for the Rams to combat all night earning him Community National Bank "Player to Bank On" honors on KMZA. Dylan Enneking joined Luke in double figures scoring 11 points on the night, while eight other guys scored on the night for the Thunder with nine of those 10 scorers posting at least four points or more.

The win pushes Nemaha Central to 17-4 on the season and into the Semifinals of the 3A Hiawatha Sub-State coming up on Thursday were they will take on the host Hiawatha in the late game after the Red Hawks beat Riverside on Monday. The other half of the Semifinals will have Marysville take on top seed Sabetha on Thursday night; both Semifinal games will be featured on 103.9 KNZA and online here at MSCSports.net.