For the second-straight season, the Sandy Creek boys basketball team fell just one game short of a state tournament berth, as the Cougars, who wrapped up the year with a stellar 20-6 record, and captured their first Southern Nebraska Conference tournament championship since 2002, 22 years ago.
The Cougars also captured the C2-2 Sub-District championship with wins over Heartland and Exeter-Milligan/ Friend, but a tough 37-26 loss to Norfolk Catholic in the C2-8 District Final brought to an end yet another strong season for the Cougars on the hardwood.
Sandy Creek opened the year with six-straight wins before Doniphan-Trumbull upended the Cougars. A two game split with Centura and Fort Calhoun in the Blizzard Blowout Holiday Tournament set the Cougars with a 7-2 record heading into the 2024 portion of the season.
Sandy Creek won five of their next seven games to improve to 13-4 heading into the SNC tournament, where a 50-32 win over Fairbury, a 3224 win over Sutton to avenge an earlier 38-30 loss to the Mustangs, sent the Cougars to the title game of the tournament, where for the second time this season, Sandy Creek downed Centennial to win their first SNC title in 22 years.
A post tournament loss to Fillmore Central led the Cougars to three-straight conference wins over Superior, Milford and Heartland before taking on the field in the C2-2 sub-District, where wins over Heartland and EMF led the Cougars into the district final, at home, where the season came to an abrupt halt with the loss to the Knights.
SEASON LEADERS
Ethan Shaw, for the second- straight year, led Sandy Creekâs scoring attack, averaging 14.3 points, as he tallied 371 total points in 26 games.
Following Shaw were the Oglesby brothers, Oliver and Owen. Oliver Oglesby tallied 283 points, an average of 10.9 points per game, while Owen Oglesby tossed in 163 points, an average of 6.5 points per game.
Zach Corman scored 127 points on the year to average 5.1 points per game.
As a team, the Cougars averaged 47.2 points per game, while scoring 1,226 points. Sandy Creek shot just over 50 percent from two-point range, while hitting on just under 30 percent from three-point range, and 56 percent from the foul line.
On the glass, the Oglesby brothers combined for 319 rebounds, with Oliver leading the way with 212, and Owen, 107, while Shaw brought down 105 boards.
Shaw and Kaeden Schmidt led in assists, with Shaw dishing out 89, and Schmidt, 70. Shaw also led the team with 60 steals, while Oliver Oglesby snagged 57 steals.
2023-24 SCHEDULE
Wood River.................................................... W 44-37 David City...................................................... W 50-40 Centennial...........................................W 37-34 (2 OT) Holdrege....................................................... W 43-36 Wilber-Clatonia............................................. W 45-34 Doniphan-Trumbull.........................................L 57-34 Blizzard Battle Holiday Tourney Centura................................................... W 50-37 Fort Calhoun.............................................L 46-37 Hastings St. Cecilia..........................................L 46-44 St. Paul.......................................................... W 48-24 Blue Hill........................................................ W 55-22 Thayer Central............................................... W 52-36 Fairbury......................................................... W 55-37 Sutton.............................................................L 38-30 Southern Nebraska Conference Tournament Fairbury.................................................. W 50-32 Sutton.................................................... W 32-24 Centennial.............................................. W 33-28 Fillmore Central...............................................L 45-33 Superior........................................................ W 61-41 Milford.......................................................... W 29-24 Heartland...................................................... W 78-57 C2-2 Sub-District Tournament Heartland................................................ W 70-38 Exeter-Milligan/Friend............................ W 44-35 C2-8 District FInal Norfolk Catholic.........................................L 37-26
Scoring:....................... Gms 2pt FG 3pt FG FT Pts Pt. Avg Reb Asst Stl Ethan Shaw.......................... 26 79-205 46-132 75-123 371 14.3 105 89 60 Oliver Oglesby...................... 26 51-115 1-8 50-99 283 10.9 212 33 57 Owen Oglesby...................... 25 57-69 0-0 25-44 163 6.5 107 19 35 Zach Corman........................ 25 8-19 35-115 6-9 127 5.1 38 18 16 Jack Clark............................. 10 7-16 21-70 6-8 83 8.3 37 10 16 Kaeden Schmidt................... 26 6-21 16-55 13-21 73 2.8 51 70 31 Wes Biltoft........................... 15 23-45 0-1 13-25 59 3.9 45 10 10 Jacob Petr............................ 26 7-21 8-36 2-10 40 1.5 60 46 17 Christian Shaw..................... 11 8-12 1-5 1-2 20 1.8 11 2 3 Evan Swartzendruber............ 9 1-1 0-4 1-2 3 -- 4 2 2 Ben Sullivan.......................... 7 1-2 0-2 0-0 2 -- 2 0 0 Oliver Brannlund................... 9 1-3 0-3 0-0 2 -- 3 1 2 Alston Clark........................... 4 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 -- 3 0 1 Sandy Creek Totals:........ 26 325-647 128-432 192-343 1,226 47.2 678 300 250 Sandy Creek Avg or %/Gm. 50.2% 29.6% 56.0% 47.2 -- 26.1 11.5 9.6
