LINCOLN — After losing the district championship game to South Sioux City, Omaha Skutt still received the top seed in the Class B state tournament despite needing a wild card berth to make it to Lincoln. It didn't take the Skyhawks long to prove they deserved the honor in their quarterfinal matchup with Crete.

The Skyhawks opened the game on a 14-0 run and were never challenged, easily dispatching Crete 78-34 at Pershing Center.

Skutt (20-6) led 27-3 at the end of the first quarter and was up 43-13 at halftime thanks to hot shooting and pressure man-to-man defense that fueled the Skyhawks' imposing transition game.

"Our offense really flowed from a great defensive effort," Skutt coach Jon Burt said. "It started with Jacob Smith did a great job defending the point. We really fed off that."

Smith was one of three Skyhawks in double figures with 13 points. James Hajek, Skutt's 6-9 senior center, led all scorers with 14 points while senior Danny Phelps added 10. The box score featured 12 different Skutt players in the scoring column as the Skyhawks emptied their bench in the fourth quarter, where Skutt led by as many as 42 points.

In fact, sophomores Craig Wurtz and Matthew Miller, who were both postseason additions from the junior varsity roster, scored their first varsity points of the year.

"This was a great start to the tournament," Burt said. "We were pretty beat up the last month of the season. We had a great start but our schedule had absolutely no break. We got thumped a couple times.

"We felt like that was the culmination of a rough month, but luckily we did enough before that to deserve the top seed. I'm just really proud of our kids."

It was a brief stay for Crete after a surpise run to state. The Cardinals advanced to the state tournament despite a sub-.500 record after district upsets of Aurora and Seward. Senior Mitch Marvin led Crete (7-15) with 14 points, but the Cardinals shot just 13-of-48 from the floor (27 percent).

"This was a good experience for our kids," said Crete coach Greg Hobza of his team's improbable run to state. "We're pretty young across the board and I hope this pays dividends for us later on."

Crete (7-14)...................3 10 16 5 -- 34
Omaha Skutt (19-6)...........27 16 16 19 -- 78
• C: Mitch Marvin 14, Grant Harms 9, Ryne Reeves 4, Derek McGinnis 3, Luke Ruhlman 2, Colten Mach 2
• OS: James Hajek 14, Jacob Smith 13, Danny Phelps 10, Michael Guinane 9, Charlie Wallrapp 8, Cale Barges 5, Matt Miller 5, Travis Homan 5, Corey Homan 3, Michael Zabawa 2, Craig Wurtz 2, Myles Jablonski 2

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