The state semi-final matchup of Blue Valley Northwest and Maize High School led to another lights out game by the Huskies, who defeated the Eagles 61-42. The defending state champs have earned their fifth straight ticket into the state title game, and look to come away with yet another one.

At the conclusion of yesterday’s quarterfinal game, head coach Ed Fritz said he was concerned about how the team was shooting, but said the team appeased that worry after today’s performance.

“They did better today,” Fritz said. “Maize is a pretty good team so I was happy.”

Senior Kyle Harrison set the tone as he nailed a three from senior Clayton Custer for the first points of the game on the Huskies second possession. The Huskies continued to go on an 8-0 run before Maize was able to put points on the board. The Eagles close the lead within three until Custer went on a 5-0 run at the end of the quarter and nailed a buzzer beater from beyond the arch. At the end of the quarter, BVNW led 16-7.

“We shot the ball a little bit better than yesterday,” Custer said. “That’s really good.”

Fritz opened up the second quarter by sinking two free throws in the third possession of the quarter. At the halfway point, the Huskies had lengthened their lead to 22-13. The following minutes led to multiple treys from Harrison and Richardson. In a last minute attempt to score before the buzzer, the Eagles drove through the middle of the lane but met a firmly planted Salach who took the charge. The Huskies hit the locker room up 14, having established a 30-16 lead. Custer led in scoring with 11.

“You know I thought we did pretty well,” Fritz said. “Maize does a really great job of handling the ball and we were really patient on defense so that was good. We shot the ball a bit better too, so that helped.”

The Eagles weren’t be put away so easily, however, and the following plays led to several back and forth points from either team. Despite the well put up fight, after Custer went baseline to baseline, diving between defenders to beat the end-of-the-quarter buzzer with a layup, the Huskies had established a comfortable 20 point lead.

The Huskies turned to their typical stalling techniques in the fourth quarter to draw time off the clock, running sets until they found the right shot. They did so multiple times with threes from Harrison and Richardson; sinking foul shots when they were pushed around to stop the clock. With 2:30 to go in the game, Harrison buried a trey and Fritz called a timeout to insert his bench and give the underclassmen some state tournament experience. Two minutes later the Huskies had advanced to their fifth straight state title game.

“We’re happy we won,” Custer said. “The only thing that matters now is winning and the fact we have the chance to compete for another state championship is great.”

Despite the excitement that comes with playing for another state championship, tomorrow will be the last game the senior class plays together in the Husky jersey.

“It’s really sad,” Custer said. “Especially because I’ll be playing with these guys that I’ve been playing with for a long time. Just to have one more game is kind of sad, but hopefully we can come out on top.”

According to Fritz, the Huskies need to stay focused, stay prepared and take tomorrow one possession at a time in order to win.

“I think the expectation is to win, so I hope that we can do that. But I’m proud of how we’ve done either way.”