Knights recover from early deficit

Despite being held to nine points on 2-of-14 shooting in the opening quarter, Fremont Bergan coach Chris Paulson remained confident in his team’s offense Tuesday night.

"I wasn’t worried about our offense at all," he said concerning a 15-9 first quarter deficit to Wahoo Neumann. "I was worried about my defense. My entire first quarter conversation was about us not playing hard enough on the defensive end... I know our offense will take care of itself. Our kids really do a good job of finding the open shooter."

Bergan responded with an improved effort on both ends of the floor. The Knights scored 33 second-quarter points while holding Neumann to 26 over the final three quarters en route to a 75-41 win at Fremont Bergan High School.

Wes Eikmeier recovered from a two-point first quarter to lead Bergan’s attack with 16 of his game-high 34 points coming in the second quarter. Neumann trailed 42-26 at halftime as it managed to go just 10-of-25 from the free throw line.

"We’re not a great free throw shooting team, but if we make 17 out of 25 instead of 10 we’re down nine against a great team," Wahoo Neumann coach Mike Weiss said. "... We did everything we wanted in the first half. In the second half, they went to their 1-3-1 (zone defense) and gave us some problems with that."

Bergan put the game out of reach by holding Neumann to two points in the first 11 minutes of the second half. The Knights switched to zone from an aggressive man-to-man defense.

"We made them shoot jump shots and I thought that was the difference in the game," Paulson said. " The key for us was just getting after them defensively. We rebounded better in the second half and I thought we defended their post game better in our 1-3-1."

Bergan played its entire 14-man roster with 10 players seeing considerable time due to first half foul issues. Brian Liekhus finished with 13 points, while Nick Jensen scored 10 off the bench.

"Wherever we need guys we can just plug them in and use them in different situations and different scenarios," Paulson said. "We’re getting some great minutes out of those kids... None of them really hurt us when they go in there."

Brandon Chapek scored 14 points to lead Neumann and Jacob Smith added nine.

Bergan, 14-0, will face Class C-1’s No. 3-ranked Hastings St. Cecilia 6 p.m. Friday at Lincoln Christian.

"Hastings St. Cecilia is probably as good of a basketball team as we’ve seen," Paulson said. "They’ve got 10 guys who are all physical and capable of shooting... They’ll be athletic enough to matchup with us and they’ll have some size advantages inside. It’ll be a great challenge for us and we are going to have to play well to get things done."

Fremont Bergan 9 33 12 21 – 75

Wahoo Neumann 15 11 2 13 – 41

BERGAN (75)

Liekhus 5-9, 0-0, 3, 13; Jensen 5-6, 0-0, 1, 10; Rasmussen 0-1, 2-2, 1, 2; Brown 1-4, 0-1, 1, 2; Wilmes 1-4, 2-2, 2, 4; Morrissey 0-0, 0-0, 5, 0; Spellerberg 2-5, 2-4, 3, 6; Eikmeier 12-27, 3-3, 3, 34; White 1-1, 0-1, 1, 2; Miles 0-0, 2-2, 3, 2. Totals – 27-57, 11-15, 25, 75.

3-point field goals – Eikmeier 7, Liekhus 3.

WAHOO NEUMANN (41)

Brousek 2-3, 0-0, 0, 4; Novotny 0-3, 1-2, 2, 1; Smith 4-7, 0-1, 1, 9; Bartek 0-2, 2-4, 2, 2; Luetkenhaus 0-7, 0-0, 1, 0; Kuhfahl 0-4, 0-0, 3, 0; Burbach 1-2, 0-0, 0, 2; McGill 0-1, 2-4, 0, 2; Garagiola 0-5, 0-0, 0, 0; Chvatal 3-4, 1-6, 3, 7; Chapek 4-7, 6-14, 2, 14. Totals – 14-45, 12-31, 14, 41.

3-point field goals – Smith.

Rebounds: FB 39 (Brown 9), WN 27 (Bartek 7). Turnovers: FB 16, WN 17. Steals: FB 10, WN 6.