Lincoln East pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the season on Thursday night, knocking off Lincoln Pius X 66-59 behind a big night from a pair of seniors. Pius took a 14-1 record to East’s gym and went home with its second loss, while the Spartans picked up win No. 7.
Here are five thoughts on the game.
Welcome to the Glenn Show
Lincoln East senior point guard Carter Glenn probably shouldn’t be playing basketball right now. He needs shoulder surgery thanks to an injury suffered during the football season, but he’s putting that off and playing through the pain for his team.
Glenn has been one of the best guards in Class A this season, and he was the best player on the floor on Thursday night. Glenn finished with 26 points on 10-of-15 from the field (2-of-4 from 3) and 3-of-4 from the free-throw line, and he chipped in a pair of assists as well.
Glenn has developed a terrific pull-up jumper, and the lefty feasted from the mid-range all night long. He hit a couple of big 3s as well and seemed to have an answer for the Thunderbolts every time they made a run.
Glenn scored 12 points in the fourth quarter alone, converting all four of his field goals. With East leading 57-49, Glenn went for a steal and took a shot to the mouth as he committed a foul with 3:15 to play. He came up bleeding and had to leave the game to get it stopped. He checked checked back in with 1:35 to go and finished the game, shooting 3-of-4 from the foul line to help seal the victory.
Glenn is one of the toughest kids you’ll find, and he’s a pretty good basketball player on top of it.
Hastreiter Has a Chance
The Thunderbolts fell behind by 10 at halftime, and it would have been much worse without junior forward Sam Hastreiter stepping up. He had 13 of Pius’ 24 in the first half and was the only Bolt with more than one bucket. He finished with 18 points on 8-of-14 shooting (2-of-6 from deep), a team-high eight rebounds including three on the offensive end, two steals and an assist.
I’m sure Hastreiter will want a couple of those open looks from the perimeter back, but he did hit two of them and was also very efficient inside the arc. The 6-foot-6 wing converted a couple of put-backs and also had a few of nice post moves while facing up his defender.
There’s a lot to like about Hastreiter and as he continues to polish up his skills over the next year he’ll have a chance to add to the Idaho offer he received back in September. Isaac Traudt and Jasen Green have garnered much of the attention in that 2022 class, but Hastreiter certainly looks the part of a D-I prospect as well.
Career-High for Henrickson
Glenn was the star of the night, but senior forward Trevor Henrickson had a huge game as well and the Spartans needed every bit of it. East’s starting center finished with a career-high 20 points on 9-of-10 shooting and also grabbed five boards.
East hasn’t posted the box scores from its last two games online just yet, but Henrickson scored in double figures in just two of the Spartans’ first 12 games. He scored nearly three times his season average against the Bolts after scoring just two points the first time the teams squared off.
East has a couple of dynamic guards in Glenn and junior Brayden McPhail and Henrickson did a great job of converting on their passes around the rim. He also created his own offense at times, crashing the offensive glass and scoring in the post a couple of times including an and-one.
Henrickson outscored the three guys that played the majority of the center minutes for Pius 20-1, and that’s a huge reason the Spartans came out on top.
Hoiberg Heroics Come Up Short
The Hoiberg twins combined for just five points in the first half on Thursday night. That was a big reason the Thunderbolts trailed by six after the first quarter and by 10 at halftime. Henrickson scored to open the this quarter and put the Spartans up by 12.
Then the Thunderbolts stormed back into the game with a 12-0 run (five by Hastreiter, four by Charlie Hoiberg and three by Sam Hoiberg). From there, Glenn and Sam Hoiberg traded buckets as Hoiberg answered a Glenn layup with one of his own. Glenn buried a pull-up jumper, then Hoiberg knocked down a 3 on a baseline out-of-bounds play to give the Bolts their first led of the night at 41-40.
Henrickson scored the last five points of the quarter to give East a 45-41 lead heading into the fourth. Sam Easley provided a spark off the Pius bench with six points early in the fourth to cut the deficit to one, but East slammed the door shut with a 9-0 run as the Pius offense dried up.
Sam Hoiberg matched Hastreiter with 18 points while also chipping in five boards and three assists. Charlie Hoiberg added 11 points, five rebounds and three steals. But the duo shot just 3-of-14 from deep. In Pius’ first loss of the season, at Bellevue West on Jan. 12, the twins shot 1-of-14 from deep. Together, the Hoibergs are shooting 34.1% from deep in the rest of their games combined, so they’re certainly capable.
Calming the Storm
Heading into Thursday’s game, the Thunderbolts had swept through the competition in Lincoln, beating Lincoln North Star (twice), Lincoln Southeast, Lincoln Southwest and Lincoln Northeast by an average of 25.6 points. The only team from Lincoln that had played the Bolts to within a couple of possessions was East in their first match-up of the season — a 47-43 Pius win in the HAC Tournament back in December. That was just the third game of the season for each team and Glenn didn’t even play for the Spartans.
For whatever reason, East seems to match up better with the Bolts than almost anyone else. That was a huge win for the Spartans as it was the first game of a very difficult stretch featuring games at Bellevue West on Saturday, against Lincoln Southwest at home and at Omaha Westside next week and at Papillion-La Vista in a couple weeks.
As for the Thunderbolts, they’ll look to regroup at Omaha South next Friday before heading to Grand Island to take part in the annual Heartland Hoops Classic against one of Class C2’s best in Grand Island Central Catholic.
