The North Platte Bulldogs boys and girls basketball teams both advanced to the Greater Nebraska Athletic Conference Tournament Championship game, following their wins on Friday.
The North Platte boys basketball team played the night cap of the four semifinal games played Friday between both the boys and girls brackets in Scottsbluff. The second-seeded Dawgs trailed to the third-seeded Scottsbluff Bearcats by as many as eight points throughout the first half before Kade Erickson hit a buzzer-beating shot to end the second quarter with North Platte trailing 33-31.
The Dawgs came out firing in the second half to take the lead early in the third quarter en route to a 69-67 win over Scottsbluff to advance to the GNAC Championship game on Saturday. Erickson led the way with 27 points for North Platte and Drew Callaghan scored 21 despite fouling out with just less than three minutes left. Shane Mauch was a third player in double-figures with 11 for the Bulldogs.
North Platte advances to play No.1 seeded Norfolk. The Panthers beat Kearney 68-57 in the semis and have an 8-0 record. The Dawgs have now won four in a row and are 5-3 on the season. The game is schedule to tip-off at 4:15 CT and can be heard on ESPN Radio 1410.
The third-seeded Lady Dawgs pulled off the upset over the second-seeded Kearney Lady Bearcats 53-50 in overtime. Allison Sawyer scored a career-high 27 points in the game, including a three-pointer with one second left that sent the game to overtime. Sawyer hit five threes in the game to help North Platte run its winning streak to six games.
The 7-1 Lady Dawgs advance to play No. 1 seeded Norfolk int he GNAC Championship game on Saturday. The Panthers beat Columbus in the semis 46-41 to improve to 6-2 on the year and advance to the championship. The game tips off at 2:30 CT and can be heard on ESPN Radio 1410 with the pre game show starting at 2:15.
The boys and girls brackets can be seen below and the times listed are mountain standard time.