Lincoln Pius X will be among the Nebraska high school boys basketball teams competing in the 14th annual Heartland Hoops Classic on Feb. 13 at Grand Island’s Heartland Events Center.
Eight games are planned that day, with Pius X taking on last season’s Class C-2 state runner-up Grand Island Central Catholic in a 5 p.m. contest.
The final two games of the day will pair national prep school powers against the two teams that finished on top in Class A a year ago.
Defending state champion Bellevue West, led by Super-State guard and Wisconsin commit Chucky Hepburn, will take on Sunrise Christian Academy from the Wichita, Kansas, area. Sunrise is currently ranked No. 2 in the MaxPreps’ national Way-Too-Early Top 25.
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Following that 6:45 p.m. contest is the 8:30 nightcap between perennial national power Oak Hill Academy and 2020 Class A state runner-up Millard North, led by Super-State captain Hunter Sallis, who has scholarship offers from Kansas, North Carolina and Gonzaga, among others. Oak Hill is ranked No. 18 in MaxPreps’ early national rankings.
Another game worth noting has a pair of two-time defending state champions doing battle — C-1 Auburn against C-2 BRLD.
Here’s the eight-game lineup:
8:30 a.m. – Mullen vs. Loomis; 10:10 – Elkhorn North vs. St. Paul; 11:50 – Ashland-Greenwood vs. Northwest; 1:30 p.m. – Mount Michael Benedictine vs. Grand Island; 3:15 – BRLD vs. Auburn; 5 – Pius X vs. Grand Island Central Catholic; 6:45 – Sunrise Christian Academy vs. Bellevue West; 8:30 – Oak Hill Academy vs. Millard North.