3/13/14 At Devaney Sports Center
Round 1 of Class C1 State Tournament
Wahoo 64
Falls City 58 OT

The saying in tournaments is always “survive and advance.” That’s what Wahoo did in the first round of the 2014 Class C1 State Tournament ..... barely. Wahoo pulled off a miracle play to get the contest with Falls City into overtime and then prevailed 64 - 58.

Early on it looked like Wahoo would control the game as the Warriors opened up a 17 - 10 first quarter lead behind 7 points from Collin Nadrchal. But the Tigers outscored Wahoo 15 - 9 in the second period to close within a point at half. The Warrior offensive drought extended into the third period with Ben Scheef accounting for all 7 of Wahoo points as Falls City built a 38 - 33 lead.

With the Warriors trailing 48- 43 and under four minutes to go in the game, Ben Scheef made two freethrows and then stole the Tiger inbounds pass -- Gavin Iversen converted the putback and the Falls City lead was cut to one. Another Warrior steal resulted in Ben Scheef’s return to the line where he converted one to tie the game. Two Tiger freethrows put Falls City up again by two. With less than two minutes remaining disaster struck for the Warriors as leading scorer, Ben Scheef, committed his fifth personal foul and went to the bench.

But both freethrows were missed and Wahoo had possession, still down by only two points. Following a timeout, Jake Scheef found a driving lane to the basket and scored. There was less than a minute left in regulation. The teams traded turnovers and Falls City held the ball until the last ten seconds when they drove to the basket and the ball was deflected out of bounds -- Tiger ball with 5 seconds left. On the ensuing inbounds play from the baseline, Falls City’s Mitchell Harling cut behind the Wahoo defense and scored an easy layup with only 2.7 seconds left.

It was time for a miracle and Iversen provided one. Wahoo called timeout and Jacob Ruzicka took the ball out on the Falls City baseline, wound up and threw a baseball pass towards Jake Scheef standing at the Wahoo freethrow line. The pass went over Scheef’s head and found Iversen under the basket -- the ball bounced off Iversen, he grabbed it, and layed it in before the buzzer -- tie game.

Jake Scheef poured in 10 points in overtime and Wahoo survived and advanced to the semifinals.