The Blair girls basketball team played in a big game between ranked adversaries Tuesday night.
Freshman phenom Britt Prince and the Class B No. 2 Elkhorn North Wolves won it at home, 60-37, against the No. 10 Bears.
“Yeah, we lost. It sucks,” BHS coach Matt Aschoff recalled telling his team in the locker room. “We lost to a good team, but we're still a very good team, and we've got to be ready to go and tighten up on Friday.”
Blair fell to 13-7, but is focused on tonight's regular season finale against Nebraska City. Every wildcard point could count with the postseason beginning Monday, Aschoff said.
Six days before subdistrict play, though, the Bears battled No. 2 during a close first half. They fell behind, however, in the second as Prince and the Wolves produced their best offensive quarter during the third period. The freshman point guard, who's already garnered Division I scholarship offers from the country's best women's basketball programs, finished with a game-high 24 points.
“You've got to respect a player before you can play them and she's just …,” Aschoff said, unable to arrive at the right words. “From watching tape, we knew she was a great player.”
And Prince produced early. She scored Elkhorn North's first two baskets against BHS, leading her team out to a 12-3 advantage.
“Yesterday we told (our team), 'You better get your running shoes on. This is a running team,'” Aschoff said. “We don't mind running either, but we had to stop transition and we gave up some transition buckets. I want to say their first eight points were all layups.”
It didn't last, though.
“Our girls settled in,” Aschoff said.
The Bears went on a 7-0 run, cutting their deficit to just two points. Makayla Baughman, Leah Chance and Nessa McMillen — who hit a 3-pointer — scored, scraping BHS back into the game.
“I thought the girls battled back well,” Aschoff said.
His team was able to stay in the game through the second period, too, before the Wolves took firm control with a 19-5 third. They went on to win by 23, improving to 16-1 this season.
Baughman, meanwhile, led the Bears in defeat with 11 points. Kalli Ulven added nine and McMillen had five.
Tonight's game against Nebraska City tips off at 5. Blair will be looking to match its 2019-2020 win total in the game, which was 14 — the Bears' highest in 20 years.
