2025 1A Div I Substate Basketball
Goessel Basketball – @ Goessel v. Allen-Northern Heights Monday, February 24, 2025
Goessel’s first round substate matchup at home v. the Northern Heights Lady Cats pitted the #5 seeded
Bluebirds against the 12 th seeded Lyon County squad. The Canton-Galva sub-states feature the #1 ranked (Div
1A 1) Little River girls and three of the top 10 ranked Div 1A-1 boys team in the state (Olpe #2, Oxford #7, and
Burden Central #5). Goessel’s Bluebirds had a chance to tune up their game tonight against yet another very
young team, as the Lady Cats played mostly freshmen and sophomores.
This would be the last time in a varsity contest in the Bluebird gym for Seniors Aimee Funk, Logan Bryant,
Adriana Duerksen, Abbigail Funk, and Brooklyn Wuest. Band Director Scott Taylor was also recognized for
participating in what will be his final basketball band night prior to retirement. Thank you Mr. Taylor!
It was “Drive Your Tractor to School” day and students in the district watched the traditional tractor parade this
morning. After so many frigid days and nights, central Kansas citizens basked in the beautiful 65 degree winter
day.
Barely 8 seconds into this contest, Goessel threw low to a waiting Delaney Duerksen for the stop and pop to
lead 2-0. The young ball-handlers for the Lady Cats showed fierce for their size and experience and knotted it
at 2-2 a moment later, but Goessel’s front court press caused the eyes to get big and the nerves to explode. It
was 11-2 before you could say “Hawaiian shirt on hardwood.” Isabelle Alderfer and Abbigail Funk were both
perfect from the line in the first stanza to lead 15-5, Logan Bryant got a light touch off the window to fall
underneath, and Duerksen skated coast to coast from the redwood forests to the gulfstream waters for two
more to leave it at 19-5 after one.
At 6:26, Coach Hoopes was not happy with something; there was no clipboard slam or foot stomp, but there
was literal steam coming out of the ears. Brooklyn Wuest got the finish out of the timeout, then Northern
Heights cut it to 22-9, immediately calling time at 3:35. Abbigail drove to the hoop and laid a pretty finish in,
then Delaney caught a “long arc pass” from #3, was fouled and kept the Blue FT charge going. In her first Sport
Center highlight of the night, Abigail Johnson jumped a pass out front and just kept going, outpacing the Lady
Cat cross-country runner for the coast to coast finish. Abbigail sallied to the hoop again and then Aimee took a
turn and it was 32-9. As two Bluebirds attempted to defend on the break, Johnson had her second highlight of
the night. The pylon cam caught her inbound flying like a golden eagle doing a swan dive right into the Bluebird
end pads. It ended up as graceful as it sounds, but she bounced right up. The 2 nd quarter ended 34-11.
With 6:27 left in the 3 rd , Abbigail found nothing but net from 10 feet out, then to the beat of the metallic
magenta visitors’ pompoms, Aimee put one up from pretty near Emma Creek to lead 39-11. NH answered
with their only trey of the night, and Abbigail sandwiched that one with a spectacular answer from the SE
corner to lead 42-14. Abbigail scooted in on the break and was fouled by Junior ball-handler Pierce, who
collected her 5 th on the play. 44-16.
With 5:11 left, Abbigail put things into running clock, letting one loose from somewhere near the music room.
Aimee fouled out at 4:45 and all subs were in at 2:40. Goessel found Claire Claassen loose underneath and she
popped one in off the glass for two. Just before the final buzzer, Hailey Rosfeld set and delivered from just
under 10 feet for the finale, closing out the 7-4 quarter and the game 51-20. Goessel will play their next round
of sub-state at Madison on Saturday with the winner likely playing Little River at Canton on Friday 3/7. Tonight,
Abbigail ignited for 20, scoring in every quarter. Delaney Duerksen popped for 9 and Aimee Funk scored 8.
Each of the Funks had twin threes. Brooklyn Wuest, sporting #14 tonight instead of #24, put up 4. Five
Bluebirds each scored 2 in tonight’s contest: Logan Bryant, Abigail Johnson, Isabelle Alderfer, Hailey Rosfeld,
and Claire Claassen. Also in tonight were : Jayley Schmidt and Jenna Flaming. Best wishes Bluebirds!
-Karl Brubaker
