By Tony Chapman
sports.desk@theindependent.com

But it was Oman who got to walk out of Grand Island Senior High with a 64-59 victory. His Islanders (15-4) played a flawless first half, built their lead to 21 points early in the third quarter and then held on as the Navigators clawed back to within 58-56 in the final two minutes of the contest.

"We played extremely well in the first half," Oman said. "But at halftime we talked about keeping up our intensity and playing four quarters. We certainly didn't do that tonight, so that's disappointing."

If you stayed for the fourth quarter, you almost couldn't believe your eyes.

Ninth-ranked Grand Island (Omaha World-Herald) led 45-23 with 7 minutes, 25 seconds left in the third quarter after Sam Carstens scored twice to start the second half. Then, the wheels fell off.

North Star closed the quarter with an 18-8 spurt as the Islanders could manage just a Kyle Ludwig lay up in the final 5:09 of the period. North Star's Darian Davis scored eight of his team-high 16 points to pull the Gators to within 53-41 entering the fourth quarter.

"We wanted to get the game within 10 points going to the fourth quarter," Quattrocchi said. "We got it to 12 and we had some confidence. We started scoring and that allowed us to get into our press."

It got worse for GISH in the fourth quarter. The Islanders committed nine of their 20 turnovers in the final frame, but when a Kash Kalkowski free throw made the score 58-46 with 5:14 left, things appeared safe.

But, LNS didn't stop.

The Navigators embarked on a 10-0 run over the next four minutes and when Michel Mikaya made two free throws with 2:33 left the score was 58-56. GISH turned the ball over on their next possession and then Ludwig forced a steal of his own with 1:30 left that set up the first of four straight Slade Bolles free throws which sealed the contest.

"Slade made some big shots for us at the line," Oman said. "And it's good to have Kyle back for us inside. He's been hurt so much this year. We are going to need him down the stretch playing well."

Ironically, Quattrocchi said the Gators wanted Bolles at the line.

"He was the guy we targeted," he said. "We charted their free throws and we thought he'd be the guy we wanted to foul. He made big shots for them.

"But, I'm extremely proud of our kids. We were resilient tonight and we gave ourselves chance to win after being down 21 points."

North Star's second half rally nearly erased all the good things the Islanders did before halftime.

Kalkowski scored 16 of his game-high 17 points before halftime as the Islanders made their first seven shots and 15 of 19 overall in the first half to lead 41-23 at the break.

After North Star scored first for its only lead of the game, Kalkowski scored nine points and assisted on a Bolles bucket in a one minute, 27 second stretch as GISH bolted to an 11-2 lead. The Islanders led by 20 - at 30-10 and 34-14 in the first half - twice in the second quarter.

"That's about as good as we can play," Oman said. "We moved the ball well, we were playing excellent defense. But a lot of times when you get a big lead you lose your focus and we did that tonight."

GISH hit a red-hot 23-of-35 shots from the field and outrebounded the Gators 28-20. Carstens added 16 for the Islanders (15-4) and Jory Crouch 12. Davis scored 16 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for LNS (4-15), while Jerry Key added 14.

LINCOLN NORTH STAR (4-15)

Key 4-8 6-7 14, Taylor 2-6 2-2 7, Shoecraft 3-6 2-4 9, Davis 8-16 0-0 16, Ziemba 2-6 0-0 6, Mikaya 2-5 3-5 7, Boone 0-3 0-0 0, Begovic 0-1 0-0 0, Palmer 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 21-51 13 18 59.

GRAND ISLAND (15-4)

Crouch 5-9 2-3 12, Bolles 1-1 6-8 8, Carstens 6-8 2-4 16, Kalkowski 6-7 5-7 17, Kropp 1-3 0-0 3, Lorenz 2-4 0-0 4, Ludwig 1-1 0-0 2, Ayoub 1-1 0-0 2, Jeffries 0-0 0-0 0, McCarty 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 23-35 15-23 64.

North Star 10 13 18 1859

Grand Island 23 18 12 1164

3-point goalsLNS 4-13 (Taylor 1-5, Shoecraft 1-1, Ziemba 2-6, Mikaya 0-1), GISH 3-11 (Crouch 0-2, Carstens 2-4, Kropp 1-2, Lorenz 0-2, McCarty 0-1). ReboundsLNS 20 (Davis 10), GISH 28 (Kalkowski 9). Fouled out Kalkowski. AssistsLNS 4, GISH 12 (Bolles, Kalkowski, Kropp 3). Total foulsLNS 12, GISH 18. Steals LNS 10 (Taylor, Davis 3), GISH 7 (Kalkowski 3). TurnoversLNS 12, GISH 20. TechnicalsDavis.