Ogallala Boys' struggle to Douglas County West in High School Varsity Basketball in State Tournament Semifinals on Friday, March 13th, 2026; To play Auburn for 3rd Place on Saturday, March 14th, 2026
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By: Evan Troxel
The #1 seeded Ogallala Indians High School Boys' Varsity Basketball team struggled to score points on Friday, March 13th, 2026, in the Class C1 State Tournament in Nebraska in the semifinal round and ultimately lost to the #4 seeded Douglas County West Falcons by a final score of 43 to 39 at the Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Ogallala on Friday, like on Thursday, had to play a 9:00 a.m. Central Time (8:00 a.m. Mountain Time) game for the second straight day in a row!
Ogallala defeated Douglas County West earlier this season on the last day of 2025 by a final score of 57 to 28. You can read about that game right here on my personal website.
Lane Smith scored 13 points for Douglas County. He made four three-pointers and one free throw and in that order!
Sawyer Smith scored 19 points for Ogallala. He made one three-pointer and four free throws.
To start the game, Edan Cain made a two-pointer for Ogallala.
Then, Douglas County (DC West) scored the next 13 points.
Zane Wohlers and Trey Olsen each scored two-pointers for the Falcons.
Then, a three-pointer swish from Trey Schieber gave DC West a 7 to 2 lead with 4:10 left in the opening period.
Kayden Foster made a three-pointer for the Falcons.
After a Lincoln Gillen offensive foul by Ogallala with 3:02 left in the first quarter, Nolan Asher hit a three-pointer and the Falcons led 13-2.
Sawyer Smith then made a three-pointer and a two for Ogallala.
Tanner DeCastro then committed basket interference (goaltending) on the offensive side for Ogallala right as the ball was on the rim, so Douglas County West got the ball and Ogallala got zero points on the play near the end of the first quarter.
After one quarter, DC West led 13 to 7.
To start the second quarter, Nolan Asher hit a three and Trey Olsen made a two for the Falcons.
With Ogallala trailing by double digits, Sawyer Smith made a two-pointer and a free throw immediately afterwards for the Indians.
Rhys Gilmore then made a couple of free throws for Ogallala to cut the deficit to six as DC West led 18 to 12 with 5:01 left in the second period.
Lane Smith then hit a three for the Falcons.
After a Sawyer Smith travel with 3:20 left in the second quarter, Tanner DeCastro only made the first of two free throws for Ogallala.
Sawyer Smith then picked up his third foul for Ogallala with 2:25 left and DC West leading 21 to 13.
Lane Smith drilled another three-pointer for DC West and the Falcons were 6/10 from three at that point of the game.
Edan Cain then only made the first of two free throws for Ogallala.
Edan then got a layup and Ogallala trailed 24 to 16 late in the first half.
Trey Olsen then made a two-pointer for DC West and missed the free throw immediately afterwards.
Edan Cain then made another two-pointer for Ogallala and it was 26 to 18 in favor of DC West at that point.
Tanner DeCastro then got called for defensive goaltending and DC West was awarded two points.
After two quarters, Douglas County West led 28 to 18 at halftime.
For DC West, the top scorers in the first half were Nolan Asher, Trey Olsen and Lane Smith each with six points.
Asher and Smith each made two three-pointers!
The Falcons were 11 of 21 in field goals in the first half!
The top scorers in the first half for Ogallala were Sawyer Smith with eight points and Edan Cain with seven points.
Sawyer Smith made one three and one free throw in the first half.
Edan Cain made one free throw in the first half.
To start the third quarter, no team scored through the first two minutes and eight seconds at least.
Zane Wohlers made a two for the Falcons to start the scoring in the third period.
Nolan Asher then made a two-pointer but missed the free throw to complete the three-point play and DC West led 32 to 18 with 4:07 left in the third quarter.
Ogallala was 1/12 from three-point land and 6/24 from the field at this point of the game.
Tanner DeCastro got fouled and only made the second of two free throws for the Indians.
DeCastro made a two-pointer and got fouled again but missed the free throw to complete the three-point play.
DC West led 32 to 21 with 1:13 to go in the third quarter.
Lane Smith then made a three for DC West and the lead was back up to 14.
Sawyer Smith then finally got on the scoreboard for the Indians in the second half by making a two-pointer and after three quarters DC West led 35 to 23.
Edan Cain then made a two-pointer for Ogallala to start the fourth period.
Then, Nolan Asher made a two-pointer for DC West with 5:57 to go in the fourth quarter.
Zane Wohlers then missed two free throws for the Falcons with DC West holding a 37 to 25 lead!
Sawyer Smith then made two free throws for Ogallala to cut it to a ten-point game!
Sawyer Smith then got a two-point bucket for the Indians and DC West called timeout with 4:11 left in the fourth quarter!
Smith then made two more two-point baskets for Ogallala and DC West's lead was just at four at 37 to 33 with 3:18 remaining in the fourth quarter.
Trey Schieber then only made the second of two free throws for DC West and the free throw make ended up being gigantic for DC West by the end of the game!
Tanner DeCastro then made a two for the Indians and it was only a three-point game!
Lane Smith drained a very important three for DC West and they led 41 to 35!
After a two-pointer by Rylan Gilmore for Ogallala, it was back to a four-point game with 1:36 left in the fourth quarter.
Edan Cain then picked up his third foul for Ogallala with 1:17 to go in the fourth period.
Trey Schieber then only made the second of two free throws for DC West and they led by five 42 to 37 with 1:05 remaining.
Zane Wohlers and Trey Olsen each missed two free throws for DC West around this point of the game!
Tanner DeCastro then only made the second of two free throws for Ogallala and it was DC West 42 and Ogallala 38.
Zane Wohlers then fouled out actually for DC West and Sawyer Smith made only the first of two free throws for Ogallala with 31 seconds left in the fourth quarter!
Nolan Asher then missed two free throws for DC West as the Falcons gave Ogallala plenty of chances to take the lead late in the fourth quarter.
Sawyer Smith then got called for traveling and that was very consequential for the Indians.
Rylan Gilmore then picked up his fourth foul for Ogallala with less than 31 seconds remaining.
Lane Smith then made only the second of two free throws for DC West and they led 43 to 39.
Ogallala then called their final timeout with 7.2 seconds left.
Lincoln Gillen shot a three but that got blocked, Sawyer Smith shot a three and missed, Edan Cain couldn't get the ball to go in the hoop and the ball went out of bounds with hardly any time left.
Rylan Gilmore then shot the ball for Ogallala and missed and that was the game as the Douglas County West Falcons defeated the Ogallala Indians to make it to the Class C1 State Championship Game by a final score of 43 to 39!
It will be interesting to see how Douglas County does at the free throw line tomorrow on Saturday.
DC West is now 23-6 on the season.
Ogallala (now 26-1) was the last remaining team to be undefeated in the entire state of Nebraska in Boys' High School Varsity basketball.
For DC West, Nolan Asher scored ten points. He made two three-pointers!
Trey Olsen scored zero points in the second half and totaled six points. He made three two-point baskets.
Trey Scheiber scored five points. He made one three-pointer and two very important free throws.
Zane Wohlers scored four points.
Kayden Foster made a three and totaled just three points.
For Ogallala, Edan Cain scored nine points. He made four two-pointers and one free throw.
Tanner DeCastro scored seven points. He made three free throws.
Rylan Gilmore scored two points.
Rhys Gilmore made two free throws and totaled two points.
In the other Class C1 semifinal game, Ashland-Greenwood (now 27-1), the defending champions who have won the State Title two out of the last three years (and three out of the last four years) defeated Auburn by a final score of 67 to 52 on Friday morning/afternoon.
So Ogallala will play the Auburn Bulldogs (25-2) for third place at 11:00 a.m. Central Time at Lincoln Northeast High School in Lincoln, Nebraska, tomorrow on Saturday, March 14th, 2026.
The Bulldogs from Auburn lost the State Championship game three years in a row in the actual years of 2022 through 2024, before taking a break from being in the State Tournament last year!
The Indians have only made it to the State Championship Game once during the Andy Gillen/Carter Brown head coaching era (eight seasons), with this being Brown's first season as the head coach for Ogallala.
Auburn defeated Ogallala six years ago for the State Title on March 14th, 2020, 58 to 34, so Ogallala should have plenty of motivation heading into tomorrow's game.
Carter Brown at least will get to re-live his playing days a little bit and get a chance to at least try to avenge Ogallala's loss in the actual year of 2020 to Auburn for the State Title, but this time he will be the Indians head coach and Auburn and Ogallala will be fighting for a third-place trophy.
Auburn won the State Title three straight years in a row in recent memory in the actual years of 2019, 2020 and 2021.
The Bulldogs also lost the State Title in the actual year of 2018.
This will be new territory for the Auburn Bulldogs to play in a third-place game as they made it to the State Title game seven years in a row (if I am not mistaken)!
Douglas County West on the other hand has only won two games ever at the State Tournament right now and that has happened in each of the last two days.
Ogallala perhaps can take solace in the fact that they already defeated the eventual State Champions in Class C1 earlier this season!
Ogallala also defeated Ashland-Greenwood on Valentine's Day 2026, 56 to 52.
The Indians now will still get a chance to win their final game of the Varsity season and Saturday's (tomorrow's) game will be the first game of the season after a loss!
Ogallala went undefeated in the third-place game in the actual years of 2019 and 2023 during the Andy Gillen heading coaching era.
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Be sure to follow me on Gab.com at Gab.com/Evan_Troxel for live in-game scores and statistical updates of Ogallala's game against Auburn tomorrow morning on Saturday, March 14th, 2026, and also the final score and all of (or at least most of) the scorers for each team again at Gab.com/Evan_Troxel. Gab is a free speech social media platform, so if you really believe in free speech, you should follow me on there because I love to tell the truth and also you should join Gab.com before Facebook and X permanently ban you for life for telling the truth!
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