Friday night 3A Sub-State Semifinals at Marysville produced a couple of interesting outcomes as the #1 ranked MH-MA survived a huge scare from #5 seed Hiawatha to win in overtime and Nemaha Central advenged a pair of early season losses to whip their Big 7 and county rival Sabetha.  

MH-MA 49, Hiawatha 45 in Overtime

MH-MA had played only two games closer than 11 points all season but trailed most of the night against the pesky Redhawks on Friday.  Hiawatha led 14-10 after one quarter and twice led by as many as 11 points in the second period before the Ravens scored the last six points of the first half to pull within 24-19. 

The Hawks maintained a lead throughout the third quarter and was ahead 29-27 entering the fourth until Jack Caudle scored with 4:30 left to give MH-MA a 34-33 lead for the first time since the opening minute. It was back and forth down the stretch as the Ravens led twice by five points at the 2:15 mark and again with :50 remaining 41-36. 

Sage Meyer hit his fourth triple for the Redhawks to close the gap and a pair of free throws by Kaiser Isaac tied the game at 41 with :27 to go.  Hiawatha got a steal by Michael Moreno but he missed both free throws with :18 left. However, the Redhawks got the offense rebound and had another shot to win it as Tyler Brockoff just missed a short jumper at the end of regulation.

A steal and layup by Tate Vowels gave MH-MA the lead for good at 46-45 as Caudle hit a shot with 13 seconds left and Austin Coder sealed the victory making the second of two free thows with three ticks on the clock.  Hiawatha had a couple late costly turnovers and ended the game with 22 turnovers before closing the season with an 11-11 record after a three-win season the previous campaign. 

Hiawatha was led by a trio of juniors as Meyer scored 14 points while Brockoff added 13 and Moreno had nine.  MH-MA got 16 from Caudle and 12 from Abe Siebenmorgan and Jack Kocour added 10 before becoming one of three Ravens to foul out in the contest.  MH-MA was 23-32 from the foul line to help overcome a tough night on the perimeter with no three-pointers made.  They improved to 21-0 on the season.        

Nemaha Central 64, Sabetha 38

Despite losing by 20 and nine points earlier this season, the Nemaha Central boys came out on fire and really dominated Sabetha in every faucet of the game from start to finish.  The Thunder led 18-5 at the end of the third quarter and then 23-5 early in the second period as the Bluejays could never make a run and get it back to closer than 13 points in the contest.  The Jays had 16 turnovers, many of which led to transition offense for Nemaha.  

Cole Kramer scored 19 of his 21 points in the first half for NC while Andrew Leonard added nine and hit a pair of treys along with Austin Gerety.  Nemaha Central improved to 16-6 on the season.  Sabetha ended their campaign with a 16-6 mark, getting 14 points from Jesse Burger and 10 points from Gabe Garber in the second half.  

Citizens State Bank and Trust Company of Hiawatha "Players to Bank On:"
Jack Caudle of MH-MA and Cole Kramer from Nemaha Central