Bad news travels fast.
Mere minutes after Tuesday's Class B Subdistrict 5 final concluded, a Blair girls basketball player relayed word of No. 1 Elkhorn North's upset loss to her coach, Matt Aschoff.
It hurt to hear the development after the top-seeded Bears' own home loss to South Sioux City (SSC). Upsets can cost teams like BHS (13-8 overall), which, after its 57-46 defeat, had to hope for a spot in the district finals round based on wildcard points.
Upsets hurt the Bears' odds of continuing their season.
“There's a lot of scenarios,” Aschoff said. “I've done a lot of math.”
Fortunately, the BHS girls qualified for a district final spot via wildcard points. The 12th-seeded Bears will play at York on Saturday — time TBA as of 8:30 a.m. Friday morning.
SSC (10-14), meanwhile, confirmed its Class B district final status with Tuesday's 11-point road win. BHS led 38-37 going into the fourth period, but the Cardinals produced too much firepower for Aschoff's team to hold off.
“We knew they could shoot 3s,” he said, listing off the specific SSC shooters the Bears had been looking out for. “We didn't do as well as we'd hope on that.”
Blair actually made more 3-pointers for the game, 9-to-8, but it was outscored 20-8 during the fourth quarter when its shooters went cold.
“I thought we had decent shots,” Aschoff said. “They just didn't fall, and their's did.”
SSC's Hannah Strom led all scorers with 16 points, while the Bears' Mya Larson and Makayla Baughman scored 14 apiece. Larson knocked down four first-half 3-pointers in her return from a knee injury, while Baughman notched two during the third period.
BHS' Ella Ross, Sami Murray and Leah Chance also knocked down long-range shots in defeat.
It was Baughman's fourth-period free throws, however, that tied the Subdistrict 5 final at 44 with 4:45 to go.
From there, though, SSC went on a 13-2 scoring run. Senior Maicy Lourens' late bucket wasn't enough as the Cardinals celebrated and the Bears gathered information that played a hand in their postseason status.
“If there's a few upsets, we're out,” Aschoff said before one of his BHS players relayed the news about No. 1 Elkhorn North.
