Nebraska high school boys basketball state tournament: Bellevue West repeats as Class A champion

It seems like they might never lose again. Granted, Bellevue West wasn’t unbeaten this season, but the Thunderbirds avenged their only loss of the year in Saturday’s Class A state title game, downing Millard North 57-48 in the latest edition of the championship series between the two titans of Nebraska boys basketball. 

That gives the Thunderbirds a 3-2 advantage in the Pinnacle Bank Arena series between the two that stretches back to 2020. Bellevue West and Millard North have met in each of the past five championship games.

The T-Birds took the first before Millard North won the next two. Bellevue West’s latest victory meant the second back-to-back championship in Thunderbird history and the seventh in school history. All seven have been achieved this century.

Bellevue West senior Jaden Jackson led all scorers with 21 points, 50% shooting and seven rebounds. Neither team had a particularly strong game hitting from distance but Millard North was much worse at 3 for 23.

Those troubles were especially apparent during a disastrous start to the second half when the T-Birds outscored the Mustangs 15-2. Millard North led 25-18 at the break then trailed 41-37 at the start of the fourth.

“I’m just really proud of this group. They’ve been fighting all year long, and they started out as preseason No. 1. They kind of got hit in the mouth a little bit early in the year in December when this Millard North team beat them,” Bellevue West coach Steve Klein said. “They really took that to heart and realized we’ve got to come to practice every day, we’ve got to work hard and get better every day. They really took to heart our motto, which was ‘be five percent better.’”

Derek Rollins and Millard North had a strong shooting start to the game but it only meant a 14-12 lead. Plus, there were initial indications of trouble. Rollins had eight points and the Mustangs shot 6 of 14 overall but 0 for 7 from beyond the arc.

Both teams were cold in the second. The two sides combined to go 8 for 27 and scored just 17 total points. Millard North maintained the lead thanks to five Bellevue West turnovers and 0 for 8 shooting by the T-Birds from three-point range.

Jackson had the spark that lit the furnace for Bellevue West at the start of the third. He scored 12 points during the 15-2 Thunderbird run that turned a seven-point Millard North lead into a six-point Bell West advantage.

The T-Birds were up 41-37 at the start of the fourth and kept the Mustangs at arm’s distance by going 7 of 10 from the line over the final eight minutes. Jackson had seven more points, Eldon Turner also had seven and Bellevue West scored five in a row to get the difference back to seven when Millard North cut it to two with 5:33 remaining.

“Coaches and teammates just told me, ‘Go out there and shoot the ball,’ and when I hit my first shot I just caught a rhythm,” Jackson said.

He was 1 of 5 in the first half then 7 of 11 after halftime.

“Whoever’s hot, just keep feeding them until somebody stops them,” fellow senior Jacob Arop said. “But Millard North couldn’t find the answer.”

The Mustangs went 2 for 7 and turned it over three times in the final five and a half minutes. Overall, Millard North was 9 of 24 in the second half, 2 for 10 from three and gave up 11 points on turnovers.

Bellevue West was 29-0 last year under coach Doug Woodard. Klein, an assistant on Woodard’s staff, kept the dynasty rolling. The Thunderbirds have played in six of the past seven Class A title games and have a record of 193-20 in that time.

“I don’t know if it will ever be done again,” Klein said. “For the same two teams to be in the state finals five years in a row, it’s a credit to our program, it’s a credit to their program, and it’s not that anybody else…Omaha Central is good, Westside is good, Gretna is good. All the teams down here, Creighton Prep, all those teams were good. We’ve just happened to find ways to win games when we’re down here.”

--Nathan Charles | @SBLiveNeb