LINCOLN, Neb.—Jake Hamburger may have led Hastings St. Cecilia with 18 points, but it was the final two of Blake Wright’s 16 that gave the Bluehawks their second consecutive state championship.
Wright’s lay-in with 28 seconds left lifted St. Cecilia to a 61-58 victory over Chadron on Saturday night in the Class C1 final at the boys state tournament.
“I thought I was going to miss it. I had too much time to think about it,” Wright said of his final two points. “This one is two times better because we did it back-to-back.”
The Bluehawks shot 71 percent and got 10 points from Hamburger in the first quarter while building leads as big as nine points. Once the Cardinals started firing, however, the game was on.
Alec Holmquist scored 13 points in the first half and Elliott Eliason added 10 more as Chadron rolled back to take a 38-36 lead.
The Cardinals led 43-38 on a Zach Bargen jumper with 4:54 left in the third period, but another flurry from St. Cecilia highlighted by Dalton Sealey’s go-ahead 3-pointer had the Bluehawks back in front 50-46 after three.
Chadron turned the ball over on four of its first five possessions of the fourth quarter, and the St. Cecilia lead grew to 55-48.
A pair of Holmquist free throws put Chadron within 59-58, Wright hit the uncontested layup with 28 seconds to play. Holmquist missed two 3-pointers in the last 10 seconds.
“We just couldn’t finish,” Chadron coach Craig Nobiling said. “They really stepped up the intensity on defense. We knew it was going to be a physical game.”
Eliason had 17 points and Holmquist 16 for Chadron (25-1). Sealey had 14 for the Bluehawks (24-1).
