LSE overcomes miscues in win over Westside

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BY RON POWELL / Lincoln Journal Star

Omaha Westside’s all-state center Sarah Nelson went off for 24 points and 18 rebounds. Lincoln Southeast shot just under 34 percent, and the Knights’ leading scorer from a year ago — Super-State senior guard Marissa Kastanek — was held to five points.

On the surface, it looked like trouble Thursday night for the top-ranked and defending Class A state champion Knights. But a full-court pressure defense that forced 28 turnovers and 19 points from Super-Stater KK Houser was more than enough to give Southeast a comfortable win in its girls basketball season-opener at the Prasch Activities Center.

The Knights advanced to the Great Nebraska Shootout championship game with a 50-39 win over No. 9 Omaha Westside. Southeast will face No. 6 Bellevue West at 5:15 p.m. Saturday as the Thunderbirds downed No. 7 Lincoln East 63-55 in the other first-round game Thursday night.

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“Being the first game, our kids were maybe a little too jacked up,’’ Southeast coach John Larsen said. “We want to run in transition, but the kids need to recognize if we don’t have an advantage, we have to set up and run our half-court offense.

“We can play a lot better than we did tonight,’’ Larsen added. “But to beat a team as good as Westside and not play your best, that’s encouraging.”

Southeast missed its first nine shots of the game, but still jumped out to a 20-9 lead after one period despite not scoring in the first 3:07.

The Warriors played Southeast even the final three quarters, but did trail by as many as 17 points (50-33) with 3:03 remaining.

Southeast had 17 steals with senior guard Alyssa Lake leading the way with five and Kastanek and Houser picking off four each. The Knights also got production from 6-foot junior center Haley Lake, who finished with 13 points.

The 6-1 Nelson, who played all 32 minutes, was 9 of 15 from the field and hit all six free-throw attempts.

“She’s very tough to stop because she can do so many things,’’ Larsen said. “What upset me was the offensive rebounds we gave up to her. You have to know where she is all the time and get a body on her.’’

First-year Westside coach Ryan Broshar was pleased with what he saw from the Warriors after Southeast’s first-quarter explosion, particularly defensively.

“We knew Southeast would hit a big run,” Broshar said. “I was proud of how we weathered that storm and hung in there.

“Southeast is pretty impressive,’’ the Westside coach added. “They have five or six kids who can shoot and handle the ball. Every time we made a run, they hit a big shot.”

Bellevue West 63, Lincoln East 55

Post players Emily Hauder and Alexis Akin-Otiko scored 20 points each to pace the Thunderbirds past East.

Bellevue West never trailed after an 8-2 run in the final 2:41 of the first quarter gave it a 16-11 lead. The Thunderbirds took a 33-23 lead into intermission, then extended the margin to 17 points with 5:36 left in the game. The Spartans made a late run and got as close as six points (61-55) with 32 seconds left.

Hauder, a 5-10 senior and Northwest Missouri State recruit, also grabbed 13 rebounds.

“That’s a nice tandem inside,’’ Bellevue West coach Matt Fritsche said, referring to Hauder and Akin-Otiko, a 5-11 sophomore. “We’re an unselfish team and the kids have bought into their roles. They recognized we needed to get the ball inside to them and those two did a nice job finishing.”

While East’s defense forced 24 Bellevue West turnovers, the Spartans turned it over 21 times themselves. They also struggled shooting, hitting just 36 percent from the field (21 of 58) and only 2 of 13 from beyond the three-point line.

“We had great effort, but it seemed like every time we made a nice play defensively, we didn’t make them (Bellevue West) pay on the offensive end,” East coach Dennis Prichard said. “We made everything tougher than it needed to be.’’

East was led by four-year starting senior guard Kelsey Newman and junior guard Jamie Zillig off the bench with 12 points each. Senior forward Natalie Ebke had a game-high 15 rebounds to go with nine points for the Spartans.

Reach Ron Powell at 473-7437 or rpowell@journalstar.com.