South O’Brien answered every challenge from George-Little Rock before finally building a little cushion at the end of a 65-56 victory over the Mustangs February 17 at Paullina. The win in the Class 1A District 2 semifinal allowed the Wolverines to improve to 15-8 on the season. Tuesday night South O’Brien was scheduled to play in the district championship game for the sixth time in the past eight years. The Wolverines won the first five. Their opponent in this year’s district final was unbeaten Remsen St. Mary’s. The result will be reported in next week’s Bell-Times-Courier.
The Wolverines ran out to a 7-0 lead over George-Little Rock but the Mustangs came back to tie the game at 15-all. South O’Brien closed the first quarter on a 6-0 run to move in front 21-15. GLR pulled within 23-22 but again the Wolverines finished strong to lead 28-22 at intermission.
In the third quarter, the Mustangs worked their way back to trail only 34-33. The score after three was 39-36 with South O’Brien on top. Jake Wallin converted a traditional three-point play to begin the final frame. After that, GLR never got closer than five points. The Wolverines largest advantage of 15 points (52-27) came with 4:39 left in the game. The Mustangs never held the lead in the contest.
South O’Brien head coach Kiley Yates commented on how the Wolverines were able to answer every challenge from the visitors. “We continued to shoot the ball at a high percentage throughout the game from two, three and the free throw line,” said Yates. The fourth quarter saw South O’Brien go 14-for-18 from the free throw line and score 26 points.
Sawyer Honkomp continued his hot shooting, leading the Wolverines with 19 points. He was 6-of-10 from the floor including 3-of-4 from three-point range. Jake Wallin sank all five of his free throws and finished with 16 points. Boston Riedemann nailed both of his trey attempts as part of his 4-of-6 shooting night. He went 2-for-2 at the line and totaled 12 points. Ben Woodall was 2-of-3 from the field (1-of-2 from distance) and 4-of-4 at the charity stripe to finish with nine points. Hudson Oolman added six points, David Bottjen two and Jacob Van Lith one. Oolman and Wallin each notched three assists.
The 23 Wolverine rebounds included seven from Wallin, five from Van Lith and four from both Honkomp and Oolman. Wallin recorded the lone steal and also blocked a pair of shots.
South O’Brien shot 53 percent as a team (19-of-36) with seven three-pointers in just 13 tries. The home team was 20-of-26 at the free throw line. GLR also had 19 baskets but they came on 48 attempts as the Mustangs shot 40 percent. The visitors were 9-of-21 from beyond the arc and 9-of-13 at the foul line. The Wolverines committed only four turnovers. GLR turned the ball over 11 times.
Despite entering the game with an undistinguished record, the Siouxland Conference Mustangs provided quite a challenge, getting 21 points from Drew Denakas and 14 from Micah Jumbeck. “I really liked our effort for all 32 minutes,” said Yates. “GLR is the best 2-20 team in the state. Their coaches got them to play hard and execute at a high rate and they were very difficult to play against. It was a good win for us as we advance in the district tournament.”
G-LR
15 7 14 20 – 56
S. O’Brien
21 7 11 26 – 65