Papillion-La Vista South marches to State Championship after narrow win over Millard North
LINCOLN - For the first time in their 21-year school history, the Papillion-La Vista South Titans are heading to the State Championship game.
The Titans, holding the #1 overall seed in the tournament, took on the #4 Millard North Mustangs for the third time this season.
Millard North started the Class A semifinal contest on a 7-0 run and controlled the early half of the first quarter, but Papillion-La Vista South quickly caught up to trail 17-16 at the end of one.
The Titans continued a 13-3 scoring run from the end of the first quarter into the second quarter to jump ahead 22-17.
The Mustangs scored the next four points with buckets from Deacon Courtney and Coriahnn Gallatin, but the Mustangs surged during the next four minutes, going on a 12-4 run to end the half and lead 34-25.
Papillion-La Vista South's Bryson Bahl was nearly unstoppable in the first half of play, scoring 19 of his teams points in the first half, while collecting 6 rebounds.
Millard North sparked the second half with a 14-4 run, taking a 39-38 lead on a Major Mosser triple that sent the crowd into chaos.
As the third quarter winded down, Levi Webb laid in a put back to knot the game up at 42 with one quarter to play.
Both teams continued to trade buckets in the final quarter.
Trailing 57-55 with under a minute left, Millard North's Amari Rahaman drove to the basket for a tying lay-in, but was whistled for an offensive foul.
The Titans scored right away to lead by 4 points, but the Mustangs added another bucket with 6.6 left in the game to trail 59-57.
After being fouled, Bryson Bahl nailed two free throws with 2.4 second left to ice the game as Papillion-La Vista South secured the 61-57 victory.
Papillion-La Vista South awaits the winner of #2 Omaha Westside and #6 Lincoln Southeast.
BOX SCORE
PLVS (25-3): 16 18 8 19 - 61
MN (19-7): 17 8 17 15 - 57
SCORING
PLVS: Bryson Bahl 33, Reece Kircher 11, Levi Webb 10, Grant Beckenhaur 4, Jayden Herrera 3
MN: Deacon Courtney 16, Derek Rollins 11, Coriahnn Gallatin 11, Amari Rahaman 11, Major Mosser 7, Lance Smith 1