Wahoo 49
Bennington 47

The Wahoo Warriors defeated the Bennington Badgers 49-47 to win the Capitol Conference Tournament on Saturday night.

The Badgers jumped out to leads of 7-0, 9-2 and 15-5 in the first quarter against the Warriors. Casey Brown got the Warriors started by scoring their first 5 points of the game. A Tyler Kavan putback at the end of the quarter cut the Badger lead to 17-13 after one quarter.

The Badgers still led 22-15 early in the second quarter, when the Warriors went on a 7-0 run, fueled by a Jon Abbott bucket, a Casey Brown basket, a Max Cook bucket and a Jon Abbott free throw tied the game at 22. A Max Cook trey gave the Warriors their first lead at 25-24. A Ben Scheef basket at the end of the half put Wahoo up 31-29 at halftime.

A Max Cook trey gave the Warriors their largest lead of the game at 41-35. Grant Siekman’s fourth trey of the night cut the lead to 41-38. A Max Cook basket gave the Warriors a 3 point lead at 43-40 heading into the fourth quarter.

The Badgers scored the first four points of the quarter to take a 44-43 lead. A Max Cook put the Warriors back up at 45-44 with 4 minutes left. A Max Cook free throw and a Jon Abbott free throw extended the lead to 3 at 47-44 with 2:30 left. A Badger free throw cut the lead to 47-45. Two Brook Stuart free throws with 1:20 left ended up being the winning free throws as they put the Warriors up 49-45. A Michael Wickham bucket with 55 seconds left cut the lead to 49-47. Following a missed Warrior free throw with 25 seconds left, the Badgers got the ball back with a chance to tie or win the game, but an errant pass with 2 seconds left gave the ball back to the Warriors, and they were able to inbound the ball and run out the clock for the win.

“I am very proud of our kids’ efforts tonight. We were not as sharp and did not play as well as last night, but Bennington had an awful lot to do with that. They play excellent defense, and they are a big, strong, physical team that rebounds extremely well. Our kids found a way to get it done tonight, and they should feel very good about winning the Conference Tournament for the second year in a row. Casey Brown really got us started offensively in the first quarter, and I thought he went and got some tough rebounds in the fourth quarter. Max Cook made a lot of big plays for us on both sides of the floor, and Brook Stuart’s two free throws with 1:20 left turned out to be the difference.” Said Coach Kevin Scheef.

The Badgers outrebounded the Warriors 29-19, but committed 20 turnovers to just 4 for the Warriors.

Max Cook led the Warriors with 19 points, 6 steals, and 3 assists. Jon Abbott had 10 points and 3 steals. Casey Brown added 9 points and 6 boards.

The Warriors improved to 15-2 and will travel to Arlington on Friday and to Grand Island Central Catholic on Saturday.