Class B: Orange Crush

Lincoln, Neb. — Kaden Glynn had just a little magic left in him.

In a game where made shots were at a premium, the Beatrice senior made a fadeaway 23-foot, 3-point shot at the regulation buzzer that forced overtime and then gave his team the lead for good at the Orange shocked Elkhorn 36-34 for the Class B title.

Down 29-26, Beatrice (19-6) was scrambling for a shot when Glynn grabbed ball in front of his bench, turned and fired and hit nothing but the bottom of the net. It appeared to zap the life out of Elkhorn as Beatrice jumped to a 34-29 lead and held the Antlers scoreless for the first 3:24 of the extra period.

After trailing 13-4 early in the second quarter, Elkhorn forced back ahead to lead 19-16 at half and 24-20 after three quarters.

Glynn finished with nine points, while Devin Smith led the Orange with 11 and Bennett Crandall added 10. Elkhorn (19-8) got 10 points from Gannon Gragert.

Refocus

You may have forget, but Clark Ribble and his team didn’t that their last loss was a 47-45 stinker to Nebraska City in the first round of sub-districts.

“It was everything,” the coach said of the loss after their state final win. “It was the galvanizing thing that brought us together as a team. We did not play well, we came out and got down 13 in the first half.”

Because of the magic of the wild card, Ribble said his team had a choice after the game to be happy with their season or to come back together and make it right.

“Our players decided, it wasn’t us as coaches, that they wanted to come together and get better,” Ribble said. “We needed to continue to work together, to grind in practice and not take anything for granted.”

Nineteen days after that loss, a state championship for Beatrice. They didn’t allow 40 points in the state tournament.

“It’s like a fairytale isn’t it?” You could say that, coach.

Class B All-Tournament Team