Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Sam Shumacher looks for a Leyton teammate to pass to during his 23-point performance in Thursday’s Mitchell Subdistrict title game victory.
MITCHELL — While worrying about wild-card point possibilities and the like is all good and fine, Leyton High School boys basketball coach Gary Oltmann would just as soon keep winning — those kind of things have a way of taking care of themselves.
The Warriors (20-1) on Thursday night completed their mockery of the Mitchell D2-12 Sub-district with an easy 62-33 win against Sioux County.
“I’ll put the sign up tomorrow that we’re in the Sweet Sixteen,” Oltmann said. “If this were the NCAA tournament … (now) we want to look for the Elite Eight, we have to keep going at it one at a time.”
The strategy appears to be working for LHS, which is seeking its first back-to-back state tournament appearance in 16 years.
After storming to a 30-4 lead Tuesday in its semifinal win against Banner County, Leyton rolled to a 20-10 lead after a quarter, and was never threatened. Sioux center Kyle Westover scored off a botched throw-in by Leyton to cut the lead to 27-19 midway through the second period, but Oltmann’s team ran off the final 10 points of the half, with Sam Schumacher and center Brennen Cruise both knocking down 3-pointers. Cruise had a second score during the Warriors’ move, which extended to a 15-0 run early in the third period.
“How many teams have post men that can go out and shoot 3-pointers?” Oltmann asked. “Brennen plays hard. Sometimes, we does ‘cruise’ but tonight he played hard.”
Leyton’s defense shut down Sioux’s big men, Westover and 6-3 Garret Gray. The duo combined for just 16 points.
“Their big kids had 40 of their 46 points the other night against Hay Springs,” Oltmann said, “and I was worried with how we would handle it. We let them turn the wrong way a couple times and gave them the angle, when we wanted to turn them back to the middle. We went away from the zone and went with out straight man to man in the second half.”
Schumacher scored a game-high 23 points to lead LHS, with Cruise adding 18 and Dylan Brenner nine.
Gray put in 10 for Sioux County.
Leyton which hasn’t lost since a Jan. 8 loss at home to Bridgeport, moves on to Tuesday’s Class D-2, District 6 title game against the Valentine D2-11 sub-district survivor (Sandhills/Thedford or Mullen).
That game will be played Saturday due to Thursday’s heavy winter storms.
“Like I say all the time, we take them one at a time, and we have to get ready for the next one,” Oltmann said.
Mitchell D2-12 Championship
Leyton 62, Sioux County 33
SIOUX COUNTY (12-11)
Parker 2 0-0 5, Woodrum 1 0-0 3, Dunn 2 0-0 6, Gray 5 0-2 10, Westover 3 0-0 6, Ellis 1 0-0 3, Rodenbaugh 0 0-2 0. Totals 14 0-4 33
LEYTON (20-1)
Schumacher 10 0-1 23, AWFrerichs 1 0-0 2, Melzer 2 0-0 5, Brenner 3 2-2 9, Cruise 8 0-0 18, McKay 1 0-0 2, ACFrerichs 1 0-0 2, Blanke 1 0-0 2, Bellmyer 0 1-2 1. Totals 26 3-5 62
SiouxCounty 10 9 5 9—33
Leyton 20 17 14 11—62
3-point goals — Sioux County 5 (Dunn 2, Parker, Woodrum, Ellis), Leyton 7 (Schumacher 3, Cruise 2, Melzer, Brenner). Team fouls — Sioux County 9, Leyton 10
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