Wahoo    55
GICC    59
The Wahoo Warriors were defeated by the Grand Island Central Catholic Crusaders 59-55 in the Heartland Classic Shootout held in Grand Island at the Heartland Event Center.
The Crusaders jumped out to a 15-7 lead midway through the first quarter on five treys, with two each coming from Spencer Fahey and Jake O'Connor. The Warriors battled back to tie it up at 15 after a David Stuchlik basket at the end of one quarter.
The second quarter stayed close. GICC held a 25-21 lead with 3 minutes left in the half, but Wahoo scored the last 7 points of the half, including a trey from Austin Watton, to take a 28-25 lead into the half.
The third quarter continued to stay close, but saw the Crusaders take the lead 41-39 heading into the fourth quarter.
An 8-2 run by the Crusaders gave them their biggest lead of the game at 49-41. A Taylor Murren basket made it 49-43. After the two teams exchanged baskets, Murren hit a trey to cut the lead to 51-48, with 1:16 left. Following a Layne Moore steal, Watton got an offensive rebound and putback to cut the Crusader lead to 51-50 with 1:05 left. The Crusaders' Spencer Fahey hit 4 consecutive free throws sandwiched around a Warrior turnover to make it 55-50, with 39 seconds left. A Watton trey with 27 seconds left, cut the lead to 55-53, but the Crusaders would hit 4 more free throws in the final seconds to seal the win 59-55. The Crusaders hit 10-11 free throws in the fourth quarter.
"I thought our kids really competed hard, and I thought we played very well against a very good team. Like I told the kids, if we had played at this level all year, we wouldn't have 7 losses right now. Hopefully, we have our best basketball in front of us in this final month of the season," said Coach Kevin Scheef.
It was a well-played game, in which both teams combined for just 21 turnovers.  Wahoo shot 51% from the floor, while GICC shot 47% from the floor.
"Taylor really shot the ball well for us today. He made some big shots for us, as did Austin. Our shot selection was good, we shared the ball well, and we really handled GICC's tough pressure defense very well," Scheef added.
Murren led the Warriors with 23 points, on 9-14 shooting from the floor. Watton and Grant Anderson added 12 points apiece. Anderson and Watton led the Warriors on the glass with 7 and 6 rebounds respectively.
The Crusaders improve to 13-5, while Wahoo drops to 8-7.