Bluebirds Clawed by Cougars
Goessel Basketball – @ Goessel v. Centre Tuesday, February 4, 2025
Having Luke Stucky direct the Goessel band was not enough to bring a win home tonight. The Goessel cheer team kept the crowd in it all night with great leadership and presence, but the band and the cheer support were not enough to carry the night, as the Blue could not find traction at the charity stripe in the 2nd half, going 1 for 8. A difficult start put the home team down 2-10 after one. Goessel won two quarters tonight, with a 12-10 effort in the 2nd and 8-4 finish in the final stanza, but could only manage one field goal in the first quarter and two in the 3rd. Halftime score was 14-20 with the final 26-31.
Goessel led this one 2-0 off a nifty put back from Evan Walker, but it was off to the races for the young visitors, who play virtually all freshmen and sophomores. It was 4-16 with a Goessel timeout at 5:00 in the 2nd quarter. The Blue got two charities from Sommerfeld and a beyond NBA finish from Smith to bring it back to 9-16, then Adam Wonser lit up the jumbo-tron with a nifty turn and bank in the paint. At the buzzer, Koy launched one so impressively arced the design team from the St Louis arch sent a complementary case of valentine candies.
Goessel got many blocks tonight but could not find answers for the pesky Cougar zone. To start the 3rd quarter, again Gaddis zig-zagged to the hoop for a quick bucket, but there was nothing more in the fridge after that for the home team. Nickel finally was able to get a nice inside move to drop off the glass to stay close in the back and forth quarter 18-24. Key threes from the visitors put this one out of reach tonight.
At 5:50 in the final quarter, Koy launched another, this time such a hot streak it melted all remainder snow piles within a 250 meter radius. Key inside man Brunner was called for his 5th while laying on the floor, but it was too late. Goessel could not get punches into the paint to fall, but drew within 5 24-29 at 1:46. With 13 seconds to go, Jack was able to get a nice roll to the bucket to drop in off the glass 26-31. Plenty of time for the Chiefs, but not quite enough on the hardwood. Centre put up 2 of 6 from the line to leave the door open but time expired in the 8-4 fourth quarter 26-31 .
Koy Smith led Bluebird scorers with 9 on three giant treys. Jack Nikkel socked in three nice finishes for 6, Trey Gaddis scored 5 and Evan Walker, Wyatt Sommerfeld and Adam Wonser each fought hard for two. Also putting in hard minutes for Goessel was Brayton Base.
-Karl Brubaker
