In a highly-anticipated matchup between two top teams in Class D1, North Platte St. Pat’s scored an early knockout against Elm Creek on Tuesday in their 69-38 win at the McGahan Activities Center.

“I just thought the kids did a really good job and they were aggressive,” St. Pat’s Head Coach Bill O’Malley said. “That’s a team that’s really skilled and we knew they were going to have to get after them, defensively, because if we let them get the ball to where they wanted, they can make shots and make plays. They’ve got a good point guard (Quin Oberg) and some other guys who can shoot.”

Peyton Kramer scored the game’s first point with a free throw for St. Pat’s (7-3). Ethan Fries made a three-pointer on the other end for Elm Creek (8-2). But Logan Winder hit a three to put the Irish back on top.

Winder scored the next basket on a tip-in before Ben Heirigs knocked down back-to-back threes to make it 12-3. The run continued with St. Pat’s scoring the next three points from the free throw line. Quin Oberg scored the next bucket for the Buffaloes and Fries followed with the next score before Sutton Tickle’s basket closed out the first quarter for the Irish.

O’Malley said his team shut down Elm Creek from the outside in, which is not easy to do, because against a full-court press, the basket is often open for a layup.

“There was a good combination of being able to pressure the ball and not getting out of control,” he said. “A lot of times when you pressure the ball that hard, you get out of control and our kids did a good job of keeping it out of the lane, considering how hard they were pressuring it up front.”

St. Pat’s dominated the second quarter. Their pressure got to Elm Creek and the Buffaloes had difficulty handling the ball. The Irish gladly turned those turnovers into layups and they held a commanding 35-14 lead at halftime.

It was hard to imagine Elm Creek, a team who hadn’t lost since their season opener against Shelton more than a month earlier, would stay down. Yet, St. Pat’s could not be stopped and the lead grew to 30 in the third quarter. That allowed the Irish to empty their bench in the fourth quarter, cruising to victory.

“The first couple minutes of the second half are really important because it determines whether you can keep the narrative going the way you want it or if it’s going to change,” O’Malley said. “We talked about how important it was to establish the defensive intensity at the beginning of the second half.”

After defeating Elm Creek, who is No. 2 in the NSAA power point standings, St. Pat’s moves up to No. 4 in the rankings that determine postseason seeding.

Next, the Irish will play at Perkins County (7-1) on Friday before playing at Cozad (9-1) on Saturday.

Score by quarters:

Elm Creek: 7-7-12-12 – 38

St. Pat’s: 17-18-18-16 – 69

Elm Creek (38)-Jeremiah Shoemaker 2, Quin Oberg 7, Blake Erickson 2, Ethan Fries 5, Thomas Sullivan 2, Caleb Reiter 20

St. Pat’s (69)-Ben Heirigs 18, Porter Connick 4, Logan Winder 15, Trey Furmanski 6, Jaxon Braithwait 6, Sutton Tickle 10, Peyton Kramer 10

© 2025 The North Platte Bulletin. All rights reserved!