Class D-2: Falls City Sacred Heart wins championship

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Saturday's Class D-2 results:

Championship: Falls City Sacred Heart 66, Pleasanton 54

--Tom Simons

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Falls City Sacred Heart's Bryce Ebel tries to pass the ball while Pleasanton's Kyle Giffin defends. (Heidi Hoffman)

Falls City Sacred Heart's Bryce Ebel tries to pass the ball while Pleasanton's Kyle Giffin defends. (Heidi Hoffman)

Falls City Sacred Heart’s Bryce Ebel stepped up big when his team needed it most Saturday and sparked the fourth-ranked Irish to a 66-54 win against second-ranked Pleasanton in the Class D-2 final at the Devaney Sports Center.

Sacred Heart’s leading scorer, forward Caleb Pokorny, left the game with a sprained left ankle with 59.9 seconds left in the third quarter and the Irish (26-2) clinging to a 44-38 lead.

With Pokorny gone, Ebel hit a three-point shot from the right corner with 3 seconds left in the third quarter and converted a traditional three-point play 1½ minutes into the fourth period to expand Sacred Heart’s lead to 50-38. Pleasanton didn’t get closer than 10 points after that.

“I knew we could do it,” said Ebel a 6-foot-3 senior forward. “He (Pokorny) has come out of the game a couple of times this year because of ankle injuries. We’ve played without him and we’ve won without him — and we won tonight without him.”

Sacred Heart coach Doug Goltz, who coached the Irish to an  eighth state title in as many trips to the finals in his 21 years at the helm, said his team’s composure and its good start were keys to the win.

“They knew they had to step up,” Goltz said. “Caleb is our most experienced player and they knew they had big shoes to fill, but they did a good job.”

After Ebel’s six-point spurt, Sacred Heart was able to spread its offense, forcing Pleasanton to come out and foul. The Irish secured the win by making the most of their free-throw opportunities, hitting 12 of 16 in the fourth quarter to finish the game 23-of-28 for 82.1 percent.

“They’re a very difficult team to come back against because they’re deliberate and they handle the ball so well,” said Pleasanton coach Randy Bauer. “And at the end of the game they hit free throws.”

Sacred Heart never trailed and was tied only once, at 2-2, in the opening minutes.

“Last night (a 54-53 win against St. Mary’s) we came out wondering if we belonged here and it took us a quarter to recover,” Goltz said. “But tonight we came out aggressive, got the lead and kept making plays. We have a smart group of kids. They play hard and unselfish, and they showed a lot of composure on the line. I told the kids they don’t have to be the best team all season, just do it tonight.”

Ebel scored 16 points to pace the Irish, who put all five players in double figures, including Joe Santo with 14, Pokorny with 12, and Drew Huppert and sophomore reserve Clayton Vonderschmidt with 11 apiece. Sacred Heart shot an even 50 percent from the field (19-of-38), while holding the Bulldogs to 33.3 percent (21-of-63).

“They shot the ball well, really well,” Bauer said. “The ball just bounced their way. It would bounce around the rim for them and those shots just wouldn’t go down for us.”

Elijah Zwiener led all scorers with 22 points and all rebounders with nine for 24-2 Pleasanton, which saw a 19-game win string end. After the Bulldogs fell behind by 12 points early in the second quarter, the 6-foot-7 senior center started to find room inside and scored eight points in the second quarter to pace a Pleasanton rally that cut the Sacred Heart lead to 29-28 late in the first half.

In the third quarter, though, Sacred Heart put the clamps on and held him to just two points.

“Aaron Meyer (Sacred Heart center) was in foul trouble the first half, but once we got him back in the second half, we bodied him up pretty good,” Ebel said. “He was finding it difficult. We just got a hand up on his shot every time.”

Third place: Hampton 58, St. Mary's 35

The Hawks cruised past the Cardinals in the third-place game Saturday. They led 31-15 at the half and 46-25 after three quarters. Dylan Bamesberger had 19 points for Hampton and Dwayne Wall had 13.

St. Mary's got 12 points from Andrew Krotter and eight from Cody Eiler.

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