As it turned out, Schulyer Logemann's buzzer-beating 3-point make before halftime meant more than the six-point lead it established Thursday night.
“It was a huge momentum play,” said Arlington High School senior basketball player Trent Koger. “We all ran into the locker room screaming.”
The boost lasted until well after they ran out of it, too.
“We were all excited,” Koger continued. “That just built onto the rest of the game.”
The Eagles (7-6 overall) dominated the third-period, matching their entire first-half point total, and beat 8-4 Syracuse, 61-38. The home win, though, was big in more ways than one.
The Rockets, notably, entered Thursday's game as the Nebraska Capitol Conference wild-card points leader. They were the likely No. 1 seed in the conference tournament, which begins Saturday, but now AHS is likely to get an opportunity to host a tourney game once the bracket is officially established, too.
“That gives us a big boost going into it,” Koger said.
It was Logemann's momentum-building 3 before halftime, though, that started it all. The shot gave coach Jake Polk's Eagles a 25-19 lead, but led to their 25-8 third quarter as well.
“I didn't really see how much time was left,” Logemann said of the long-range make. “I just knew it was under 5 (seconds) and I was open enough to shoot.”
Arlington shot lights out across the next 8 minutes of game time, too. Logemann and Oliver Ladehoff knocked down 3-pointers during the third period — and Luke Sharp scored a bucket at the rim — but it was Koger who dominated the quarter. He sank seven shots and a free throw during the stretch, totaling 17 points.
“I was just hot and just kept shooting, and they were falling down,” Koger said.
Logemann summarized the massive quarter.
“We came out with the same energy we had going into halftime,” he said. “We got some big stops, hit some 3s right away to start the third and it just kept rolling from there.”
Altogether, Koger finished with 31 points, while Logemann had 12. Ladehoff added 12 points of his own, too, and Sharp scored six.
The Eagles closed the game out with substitutes on the floor of their seventh win of the season and their fifth in six games.
“A big win overall against a good team,” Logemann said after exiting the locker room one more time Thursday night.
AHS BASKETBALL LINE SCORE
Thursday
Arlington 61, Syracuse 38
SHS (8-4) 6 13 8 11 — 38
AHS (7-6) 9 16 25 11 — 61
Scoring: AHS — Trent Koger 31, Schuyler Logemann 12, Oliver Ladehoff 12, Luke Sharp 6.
SHS — Gavin Kelch 11, Maxwell Parde 7, Will Janssen 6, Isaac Hestermann 3, Nate Wemhoff 3, Brennan Schroeder 2, Nolan Gartner 2, Avery Liesemeyer 2, Aiden Hobbs 2.
