North Platte St. Pat’s got ahead early and fought off Red Cloud rallies to win, 70-50, on Monday in the district championship at the McGahan Activities Center.

In claiming the D1-4 title, the Irish (16-10) qualify for the Nebraska State Boys’ Basketball Tournament.

The game began with Ben Hankla sinking a three-pointer from the corner for St. Pat’s. Peyton Kramer followed with a basket inside to make it 5-0.

Red Cloud (17-6) came back to tie the game at 8-8 on buckets by Gage Ely and Lukas Armstrong. But the Irish regained the lead as Kramer and Ben Heirigs each hit a free throw. Hankla hit another three from the corner. Sutton Tickle scored on a turnaround inside and Kramer scored off an inbound pass. Ely made a pair of free throws on the other end before Jaxon Braithwait knocked down a three from NBA range to put St. Pat’s up 20-11 at the end of the first quarter.

St. Pat’s Head Coach Bill O’Malley said it was big not just to get out to a sizable lead but also to establish balanced production outside of Heirigs, their leading scorer.

“I thought it was extremely important to get off to a good start,” he said. “I think that what really made it good was that we were able to get off to that fast start without Ben being a big part of it. We had Ben Hankla and Jaxon Braithwait hit shots because that brought them out of their hybrid defense. Then, of course, Ben came on late.”

The Irish went up by double digits on their opening possession of the second when Hankla got a backdoor layup off an assist from Kramer. Ely scored again but Heirigs buried a three and Kramer laid one off an inbound pass from Trey Furmanski.

Red Cloud didn’t give up. The Warriors scored the last six points of the half to go into the locker room only 10 points down at 39-29.

St. Pat’s led by as much as 15 in the third quarter but Red Cloud continued to creep back. It became a 10-point game at 50-40 once again with two minutes left in the third after Ely scored a bucket to follow an Armstrong three.

The Warriors pulled to within eight when Mason Bolin made a jump shot from 18 feet. Tickle made a pair of free throws on the other end. But after a free throw by Connor Rust, Ely nailed a stepback three with two seconds left in the third to make it 52-46 heading into the fourth.

“(Ely) was such a tough guard because he can do so many things,” O’Malley said. “Our primary defender had to stay so tight because he’s a high-percentage three-point shooter and if you play him tight, he has great quickness to get to the basket. It was a tough matchup and it took a great defensive effort to slow him down.”

But that was as close as Red Cloud got. Heirigs canned a three and Kramer made a jumper just inside the three-point arc to make it a double digit lead again. Kramer scored again inside and Hankla got a layup off an inbound pass from Heirigs. The Warriors scored the next two baskets but Heirigs extinguished any hopes of a comeback by sinking back-to-back threes. Red Cloud never scored again and the Irish punched their ticket to Lincoln.

O’Malley said his team shut the door by being more deliberate with the ball. St. Pat’s still got prime opportunities to score while limiting the Warriors’ possessions in the fourth.

“One of the things that helped us is that we slowed down offensively,” he said. “I thought we were a little anxious. When they had the momentum, I thought we played it backward. We were trying to play faster and when the other team has the momentum, you want to slow down and make them play that. We did a good job of that.”

Forged in fire

It is the seventh straight year that the Irish boys have qualified for state.

But this year was much more turbulent than the previous six. St. Pat’s lost their first two games of the season against Valentine and Bridgeport. Then Tickle, a senior who started each of the last two years, got hurt and he didn’t return until last week.

“It was a challenging season from a mental toughness standpoint,” O’Malley said. “We had an extremely difficult early season schedule where we took some pretty tough losses and then we lose one of our most senior leaders and our most experienced players. They really showed great resilience and I’m really pleased for them because they put in a lot of time and effort.”

The Irish were .500 at 9-9 heading into the month of February before running off six straight wins. But they were reminded of how fragile everything Thursday, when they lost to Maywood-Hayes Center in the sub-district final.

Everything hinged on how St. Pat’s would play in the district final and they got a complete game when they needed it.

St. Pat’s should be the No. 4 seed at state and they will likely play No. 5 Elm Creek (21-5), who they handled 77-50 on Dec. 23. If that’s the matchup, it will be played Thursday, March 12 at 10:45 a.m. at Pinnacle Bank Arena.

The reason the Irish have such a high seed despite 10 losses is that the state power point rankings reward tough schedules. No one in Class D1 has had a tougher slate of opponents. St. Pat’s played nine district championship qualifiers from C1-D2 during this season.

“I think that helps us,” O’Malley. “You never want to be behind or lose but you can’t be afraid to be behind and lose. This group’s been in some tight spots all year long. They’ve been able to pull some of those wins out. We’ve lost a few, but I think they know the only thing to do is to keep playing, possession by possession.”

Score by quarters:

Red Cloud: 11-18-17-21 – 50

St. Pat’s: 20-19-13-18 – 70

Red Cloud (50)-Lukas Armstrong 8, Connor Rust 7, Mason Bolin 8, Josh Heldt 3, Gage Ely 22, K.J. Daehling 2

St. Pat’s (70)-Ben Heirigs 24, Ben Hankla 10, Trey Furmanski 4, Jaxon Braithwait 9, Levi Charter 2, Sutton Tickle 4, Elijah Heimann 2, Peyton Kramer 15

Free throws: RC 3-7, SP 7-10; Three-point goals: RC 7 (Ely 3, Armstrong 2, Rust, Heldt), SP 9 (Heirigs 5, Hankla 2, Braithwait 2)

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