BOYS STATE BASKETBALL: Norris Holds Off Blair To Advance To Class B Semifinal

Norris’ Trey Deveaux shoots the ball over Blair’s Wyatt Ogle (54) in the fourth quarter of the Class B quarterfinal at the NSAA Boys State Basketball Tournament on Tuesday, Mar. 9, 2021 at Pinnacle Bank Arena. (Jeff Motz/KFOR Sports)

LINCOLN–(KLMS Mar. 9)–An early 11-1 lead helped the Norris boys basketball team get off to a head start against Blair and the Titans later held off a comeback to earn a 62-46 victory on Tuesday morning in the Class B quarterfinal of the NSAA Boys State Basketball Tournament at Pinnacle Bank Arena.

Norris (19-2) will move on to Friday’s 1:30pm semifinal game to face Elkhorn, which you can hear on ESPN Lincoln FM101.5/1480AM and espnlincoln.com, just like Tuesday’s game. The Antlers defeated Platteview 63-48.

The Titans got a game-high 18 points from 6-5 senior Brayson Mueller, 13 points from 6-6 senior center Trey Deveaux and 10 points from senior guard Cade Rice.

Norris had a 30-20 halftime lead, then suddenly saw Blair bounce back and cut the Titan lead to 36-30 about midway through the third quarter. After a Norris time out, the Titans regrouped and got back-to-back layups from Deveaux and Rice, which led to a Mueller three-pointer to take a 45-32 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

Blair threatened again in the fourth quarter, and cut the lead down to 10 before a four-point swing off back-to-back steals by Mueller and Rice put Norris ahead for good 50-36. It’s the first win at the state tournament for the Titans since 2011.

Luke Ladwig led Blair (11-12) with 13 points.