FRIEND, Neb. - A historic season for a newly combined athletics program will continue at the state tournament. #7-seed EMF (23-4) was excellent in the second quarter again and defeated #10-seed Perkins County (19-5) 74-58 in a district final on Saturday night in Friend, sending the Bobcats to the NSAA Class C2 boys basketball state tournament in Lincoln in just their second year as a combined force.  

A 20-plus win season and a berth in a district final wasn’t a common occurrence in the late histories of any of the individual programs that now make up EMF: few boys basketball teams from Exeter, Milligan, Exeter-Milligan, or Friend have ever produced a season quite like this. But this year, in just year two of the combined Exeter-Milligan/Friend Bobcats squad, they have established themselves as one of the best teams in C2 boys basketball, and are one of the final eight teams standing, an impressive achievement.  

Many of the Bobcat boys have been playing football together for a few years now – EMF co-oped for football a few years before joining forces in other sports – so the familiarity is already there, but to translate that into a season like this on the hardwood in just their second year as high school teammates is significant. But this state tournament berth did not come without challenges: the Bobcats trailed early in all three games they hosted this week, and needed a strong turnaround over the middle two periods to ultimately secure the win.  

An argument could easily be made that EMF was the best team that Perkins County had to play all season. But the Plainsmen, who made a long trek of nearly four hours east from Grant to Friend for Saturday’s showdown, did not look weary from the trip. Instead, they came out flying to start the contest and put together an eye-catching first quarter in all phases. A 9-2 run helped the Plainsmen snare a 14-10 lead that they carried into a 25-20 edge after the first period on the road.  

But despite an impressive start by their opponents, EMF quickly settled in to begin the second quarter, ripping off 16 of the first 19 points in the period to quickly assume control, and the Bobcats never backed down from there. EMF outscored PC 18-6 in another excellent second quarter this week, and then added a 20-11 edge in the third to begin to put the game beyond reach.  

The Plainsmen never truly felt out of the game, but they simply could never recapture the energy they exerted in the game’s opening stanza. Perkins cut EMF’s lead down to 10 twice in the fourth quarter but could never get closer, and the Bobcats prevailed 74-58 in a game that felt tenser than a 16-point final margin might indicate.  

Grady Bresson authored another excellent all-around game for EMF, thriving under the expectations he and his team have set for him and scoring a game-high 26 points. Zach Vossler added 12 for EMF and Mikey Bartu scored ten in a strong week from the EMF senior. Ryder Potts was tremendous after halftime in the final game of his Perkins County career, scoring a team-high 25 points, while Jackson Wykert started strong and finished strong to score 18.  

EMF is now one of the final eight teams remaining in Class C2 boys basketball and is safely into the state tournament, which begins next week in Lincoln. Final pairings and tipoff times are still to be determined, but EMF’s first game next week will be on Thursday, and whenever it is, we will bring you live coverage of every EMF game at this year’s state tournament live on Ol’ Red 99.5 FM and olred995.com.