2/9/12 At GICC

Wahoo 75 OT
GICC 73

The Wahoo Warriors defeated the Grand Island Central Catholic Crusaders 75-73 in overtime after Ben Scheef made a bucket with one second left off of a feed from Max Cook.

The Warriors found themselved down 14 to 12 after one period of play. Wahoo took the lead in the second quarter and were up 6 at 33-27, before the Crusaders Tyler Barrientos converted a three point play to make it 33-30 at halftime. The Warriors’ Casey Brown was 9-9 from the line in the first half.

The Crusaders scored the first 7 points of the second half to take a 37-33 lead. Ben Scheef they hit treys on 3 of the next 4 Warrior possessions, the last one giving Wahoo a 42-41 lead. Jon Abbott hit two free throws at the end of the quarter to put Wahoo up 52-48 after three.

The Warriors could not shake the Crusaders in the fourth quarter, as GICC hit 4 treys in the quarter. Two Brook Stuart free throws gave the Warriors a 68-63 lead with a minute left. A GICC free throw cut the lead to 68-64. Ben Scheef then hit a free throw to make it 69-64. A Tyler Barrientos trey cut the lead to 69-67 with 20 second left. A Warrior turnover followed, and on the ensuing trip, the Crusaders Yohanna Ghafan, a Freshman, converted a missed shot into a putback, to tie the game with 10 seconds left. A last second Warrior shot was off the mark, and the game went to overtime, tied at 69.

The Crusaders scored first in the overtime to go up 71-69. Max Cook then hit two free throws to tie it up at 71. The Warriors’ Quinn McGill hit two big free throws with 30 seconds left to put Wahoo up 73-71. Trevor Cornelius hit a jumper for the Crusaders to tie it with 12 seconds left. Max Cook then pushed the ball up the floor for the Warriors and found Ben Scheef in the lane. Scheef’s shot rolled in with one second left to give the Warriors the win 75-73.

Coach Scheef: “We survived! That is about all I can say. I don’t feel like we played one of our better games, but GICC deserved a lot of credit for knocking down a lot of perimeter shots, especially in the second half. Casey Brown provided a lot of offense in the first half for us. Jon Abbott played a terrific game for us. Quinn McGill hit two huge free throws for us late, and gave us some great minutes off of the bench. Ben Scheef’s three treys in the third quarter were huge, because we were really struggling until those got us going a little bit. Max Cook was certainly not himself, as he was just returning from mono, but made a couple of big free throws in overtime, and did a great job of finding Ben at the end of the game. Brook Stuart made two big free throws towars the end of regulation. We were excited to escape with the win.” .
Ben Scheef led the Warriors with 23 points and 12 boards. Jon Abbott had 18 points on 7-9 shooting from the field, along with 9 boards and 4 steals. Casey Brown added 13 points on 9-9 shooting from the free throw line. Quinn McGill added 8 points and 5 steals. Max Cook contributed 6 points in limited minutes.

Wahoo improves to 18-2, while GICC falls to 7-11. The Warriors will next host Ashland-Greenwood on Saturday afternoon.