Page 189 - 1987.Millard.North

T earn Passes 20 Win Mark

S
everal of the coaches predicted that nament, the Omaha World-Herald ranked
this varsity team was "the team to them fifth.
beat," as almost every starter returned
Coach Gerald Johnette qualified this by
to the varsity team. Senior Eric Shaw said, saying, "I thought this was one of our best
"Almost all the players had been on the same teams ever. This team really played togeth-
team for a couple of years." er. They were a talented bunch of kids."
The team seemed to know how to play to- The boys started off the season with a
gether. On offense, the varsity had a regular five game winning streak, with wins against
season scoring average of 59 points per game, such rival schools as Millard South and Creigh-
while the defense held their opponents to an ton Prep.
average of 53 points per game. This streak continued until the third
The boys finished the regular season play game of the Holiday Tournament when they
with a 17-3 record. The Omaha World-Her- were defeated by Creighton Prep. They
ald had them ranked sixth in Class A action came back to defeat Omaha Burke and ended
and third among all the Metro teams behind up taking third place in the Metro.
Creighton Prep and Omaha Westside, both Back in regular season action, the team
teams they had defeated at least once in earli- lost close games to Omaha Northwest and
er, regular season play. After the State Tour- Omaha Central. The Mustangs also won sev-
eral games by only a few points. Senior Sean
White said, "In every game we lost, we got be-
hind because everyone was looking to score,
but when we got behind in a game, we pulled
together and played great ball."
Spirit was also an important part of the
team. White said the team always had a lot
of spirit before the big games.
The team qualified for the State T ourna-
ment by taking first in Districts. The first
round was with Papillion. With this win the
boys were matched up against Omaha Central.
They were defeated and MN moved onto the
State Tournament.
White caught the mood of the team when
he said, "When we won districts with that
drastic comeback against Central, we felt as
though we had the state championship
wrapped up. which obviously, we didn't."
At State, the team w~ paired up with
Kearney. The boys soundly defeated them
with a score of 67-48. They advanced to the
semi-finals playing lincoln Northeast. MN
was the only Metro team left in semi-finals.
The Mustangs held strong but were overcome
in the final seconds when a player from lincoln
Northeast made two free throws.
This was only the second time the boys
had been to the State Tournament and the first
time to make it to the semi-finals. In 1985,
the boys made it to the first round. During
the season the team defeated five teams that
they had never beaten before; Creighton Prep,
Omaha Northwest, Omaha Benson, Omaha
North and Omaha Westside.

Kathy McCullough

n the final game of Districts against Omaha Senior James Curbeam runs around two de-
:entral. Senior Eric Shaw searches around the area for a fensive players toward the basket in a layup attempt. 185
ossible shot or someone to pass the ball to. (S. SARTIN ) Running up in case he needs help is Senior Doug Deines.
(S. SARTIN )