Holcomb blows out Smokey Valley; reaches state semifinals

The Holcomb Longhorns opened the 4A-Division 2 state tournament on a run and never slowed down, rolling over Smoky Valley 65 – 45 in 1st round action.

Holcomb scored 8 quick points on a Michael Roth trey, a Conner Van Cleave putback and a 3-point play by Van Cleave off a lob from Roth and a foul on the bucket.

The Vikings had no answer for the 6-7 Van Cleave who had 15 points in the 1st half and finished with 17 points and 10 rebounds, including 4 offensive boards.

The Longhorns led 22 – 6 after one period and built a 23-point lead, 34 – 11, in the 2nd quarter before the Vikings closed with a 6 – 0 run to make it 34 – 17 at halftime.

In addition to Van Cleave’s 15 1st half points, Trey Gilbert had 10 at the break and finished the game with 12.

Holcomb started the 2nd half the way it started the game, pushing the lead to 41 – 17 before Smoky Valley could get a bucket, four-and-a-half minutes into the 3rd quarter. The Longhorns would finish the quarter up 24 points, 47 – 23.

Holcomb’s biggest lead, 51 – 25, came at the 6:15 mark in the 4th quarter, but Smoky Valley outscored the Longhorns 20 – 14 the rest of the way to make it a 20 point game at the end.

The Longhorns hit 57% from the field with most of their 30 field goals coming in the paint as Holcomb took advantage of its height advantage and several transition buckets. The Horns were just 2 of 10 from 3-point range, while the Vikings hit 5 of 13 treys, but shot just 44% for the game. Holcomb won the battle of the boards, 30 – 17, while garnering 9 offensive boards and giving up just 5 Viking offensive rebounds. The Longhorns blocked 4 shots and came up with 9 steals.

Holcomb also dished out 19 assists, with Brandon Stegman, Van Cleave and Kobe Dickson with 4 each. Carter Blackburn joined Van Cleave and Gilbert in double figures with11 points and Kobe Dickson added 8.

Smoky Valley ends its season at 15-8, while Holcomb improves to 22-1 and will face Topeka Hayden, a 75 – 51 winner over Rock Creek, in the semi-finals on Friday. The Wildcats, the sixth seed in the tournament, come in at 17-6. Tipoff is set for 4:45 with the pregame show at 4:30 on KBUF.