Boone Central heads to state with elusive district championship

ALBION - By winning a district championship last week, Boone Central did more than just punch its ticket to the Class C-1 Boys State Basketball Tournament.

The 63-53 win against Wayne eased some of the pain for the Cardinals from three years of heartbreaking losses in the district finals. They will open with Pierce at 9:30 a.m. Thursday at the Pershing Center.

In 2004, Boone Central fell to eventual state champion Kearney Catholic, and the Cardinals lost to Wahoo Neumann in the district finals each of the last two seasons. The Cardinals still made the trip to Lincoln in 2005 via the wild card.

Boone Central junior Kraig Flanagan's older brother, Seth, was a member of two of those teams. The younger Flanagan said it felt good to finally get the monkey of the Cardinals' back.

“We had great teams in the past that never experienced what we went through last Monday,” the 6-foot-3 junior said. “Seth came up to me after the game and said ‘This makes up for those losses.' The win over Wayne was for him and for other guys like Joey Imus, Jason Zabka and others as well.”

Boone Central had to go through two teams it lost to during the regular season to earn a state tournament berth. The Cardinals averaged a one-point loss to Central City with a 62-43 win in the C1-6 subdistrict final. Also, Wayne won the two regular season meetings before falling to Boone Central in the district final.

Boone Central coach Chuck Perone said the Cardinals struggled before districts, losing four of five games, but he said they are playing good basketball down the stretch.

“It has been a year of learning,” Perone said. “We had to go through two teams that had beaten us to get to Lincoln. We have improved a lot over the last few weeks, especially on the defensive side, which was critical in districts.”

The Cardinals are led by Anthony Michael, who averages 14.6 and 5.9 rebounds per game. Flanagan is second with 12.1 points and 6.9 rebounds, while Brent Dawson averages 11.8 points and 5.3 rebounds.

Boone Central will face another opponent it came up short against during the regular season in the first round of the state tournament. Pierce defeated the Cardinals twice, 60-47 in a regular-season game on Dec. 8 and 50-40 in the Mid-State Conference Tournament semifinals on Feb. 2.

The Bluejays are led by Max Froehlich, who averages 16.8 points and 4.5 rebounds. Also, Eric Koehlmoos and Randy Welch put up 13.7 and 10.8 points per game, respectively. As a team, the Bluejays average 56.8 a game while holding opponents to 40.4 points.

Pierce has been ranked No. 1 the entire season, but suffered its first setback in a 60-49 loss to No. 4 Ainsworth in the Class C1-4 district final.

Flanagan said the game will be a challenge, but feels playing the Bluejays twice will help the Cardinals in making the third time a charm.

“Pierce is a physical team,” he said. “They play great defense and deny the ball very well. They are a great team. But I think we are playing with a lot of confidence right now. We have to take it to them and not be afraid of anything. We'll know their weaknesses, and hopefully we can exploit that on Thursday.”

If Boone Central pulls off the upset, it will play the winner of Hastings St. Cecilia and Ainsworth on Friday.

No matter what happens at the state tournament this weekend, Perone said the Cardinals have been enjoyable to coach.

“The kids just play basketball the right way,” Perone said. “They represent our school and community very well. It's good to see these kids playing at the state tournament. Our practices have been great since the qualification last Monday. They are very excited about playing on Thursday morning.”

Flanagan said he can't wait to take the floor when Thursday morning arrives.

“We're definitely excited about playing,” Flanagan said. “It's taken a while to soak it in that we are going to play in the state tournament. I wish it was here already.”