All Arlington junior Oliver Ladehoff could do was watch as his little brother went to the foul line with 13.3 seconds left in the Eagles' Nebraska Capitol Conference (NCC) Tournament home game against Fort Calhoun.
If Owen Ladehoff, a sophomore, could come through, he would turn Monday's one-score lead into a two-score lead against the Pioneers.
“I was kind of nervous,” Oliver Ladehoff admitted.
He explained why.
“We got into it during the game a little bit — brotherly love-ish,” the junior noted. “But, I mean, he knocked one down and that's all we needed. It was huge.”
The free throw produced a 50-46 lead Arlington segued into a 52-46 first-round victory. The fourth-seeded Eagles were scheduled to face No. 1 Yutan on Thursday with NCC championship games set for Saturday at Logan View.
First, though, AHS took a step forward against their Washington County rivals.
“Big game,” Ladehoff said after Monday's six-point win. “Meant a lot to a lot of people.”
It's been a few years since the Eagles have topped Fort Calhoun, Arlington coach Jake Polk said. It's been even longer since the program he leads has reached the conference semifinals.
“That was really a goal for our guys to meet,” he explained.
The Pioneers, meanwhile, were forced into a consolation matchup with Conestoga on Thursday. Coach TJ O'Connor thought his players battled against the Eagles, but was impressed by their opposition, too.
“Kudos to them. They played well,” he said. “Coach Polk's doing a nice job with them. They're having a good year and we knew it was going to be a dogfight coming in.”
The Pioneers were winning that fight early, going on a 7-0 run to start the second period and earning a 21-11 lead. Colby Bentley scored a pair of buckets inside before Kade Foy's 3-point make.
“I thought we were just kind of us,” O'Connor said of what was working.
The Eagles didn't let the 10-point hole affect them, though.
“Everybody wanted to win so bad that it was all-or-nothing and everybody still believed that we could win,” Ladehoff said.
The junior kicked off the Eagles' 13-0 run in response with a long-range bucket. He pulled his team within 21-16, too, before Trent Koger's 3-pointer cut the deficit to just two.
Polk said his staff decided to take timeouts to combat its deficit and put Koger back in the game, even when the 6-foot-7 senior was in foul trouble.
“If it was going to get too far away for us, it was going to be hard to come back,” the coach explained. “They're too well-coached and they have too good of players to dig too deep of a hole.”
Ladehoff's second 3-pointer of the scoring run pushed AHS out ahead, 22-21, before Luke Sharp added the last of the home team's first-half points.
Bentley — who finished with a team-best 15 points — cut off the 13-0 streak with a bucket before halftime, but the Eagles still led 24-23.
“I thought we got a little bogged down after we kind of went on that run and they punched back,” O'Connor said, taking responsibility for not getting the Pioneers back into it. “I thought we kind of just let them dictate the pace of the game a little too much.”
Even so, FCHS reclaimed the lead with a 13-11 third quarter, holding a 36-35 advantage going into the final period. It grew to 39-35 on a Bentley 3-pointer, too, but, again, Arlington wasn't deterred.
Schuyler Logemann tied the game at 39-39 with free throws — and Calhoun's Adam Elofson later tied it at 42-all — before Ladehoff foul shots and a Killian McIntosh second-chance bucket produced a lead the Eagles could work with.
Owen Ladehoff's free throw at 50-46 all but sealed the game, but it was his big brother, Oliver, who led all scorers with 25 points.
“No. 14 played a great game,” O'Connor said of the junior Eagle. “Made some big shots.”
Polk was complimentary of his standout, too.
“His demeanor has been sensational this year,” he said. “He's very even-keeled. Doesn't get too high. Doesn't get too low.”
Ladehoff said his coaches' confidence in him allows him to be the scorer he's become this season.
“He's willing to take and carry the team on his back when he needs to,” Polk said of No. 14. “And he really did tonight.”
Complete coverage of the remaining rounds of the NCC Tournament will appear in Tuesday's Washington County Pilot-Tribune.
NCC TOURNAMENT
Monday
Arlington 52, Fort Calhoun 46
FCHS (7-9) 14 9 13 10 — 46
AHS (9-6) 11 13 11 17 — 52
Scoring: AHS — Oliver Ladehoff 25, Schuyler Logemann 11, Trent Koger 7, Owen Ladehoff 4, Luke Sharp 3, Killian McIntosh 2.
FCHS — Colby Bentley 15, Adam Elofson 9, Jaxson Burns 6, Dylan Keyser 5, Kade Foy 4, Travis Skelton 4, Eli Tinkham 2, Blake Welchert 1.
