Dragons Imagine
Goessel Girls Basketball @ v. Halstead Dragons Eli J. Walter 50 th Anniversary Tourn. January 26, 2017
Halstead’s ball-handler Mackenzie Anderson played havoc with Goessel’s normally stifling defensive pressure
tonight. The Senior put up 15 points but more importantly imagined the Dragons up and down the court with
strong dribbles and key penetrations. The Dragons spit lots of fire on defense, holding the Blue to 11 points
the first half. Goessel won both the first and fourth quarters but spotted the Dragons 12 points in the middle
stanzas. Despite coming back from an 11 point deficit in the 4 th to close within 4 with 3 minutes to go, Goessel
could not close the gap and lost 32-38. 3A Halstead thus completed its 1-2 punch-out of two KBCA ranked
teams this week (Trinity Academy #6 in 4A-II and Goessel #6 in 1A-I) . Halstead will play in the championship
on Saturday and Goessel will play for third place.
Goessel prevailed v. Stafford Tuesday night 65-16 in a game where Eden Hiebert finished with 28. Tonight’s
opponent, 3A Halstead, would give the Blue a greater test against a solid ball-handling, good rebounding
opponent. Defensively, the Dragons did not allow Goessel to get into a running game; the Blue were able to
put up some nice stops, but initially the Dragons were able to penetrate and finish. Goessel was called for 4
lane violations on the night. In the tightly knit back and forth 1 st quarter, Halstead jumped out to a 0-4 lead
before Kara Burkholder hit two charities at the 4:44 mark, moments later Jennifer Meysing buried one from
just in back of Grace Meier’s Hello Kitty collection to take the lead 5-4. In the intense back and forth, Goessel
got a 5 second call with Eden on Anderson, Eden dribbled down and with less than one second in the quarter,
dropped a silky 9 footer in and was fouled. Fouls stood at 5-5 after the 7-6 quarter.
Goessel fell into early foul trouble with Burkholder and Brittney Hiebert each sitting. There were four lead
changes tonight, but the Dragons took the lead for good at the 4:37 mark. Halstead used that space to go on
a 6-2 run, missing on 3 of 6 charities but getting a huge trey from Williams to lead 9-13. Eden coasted one in
at 4:20, a hard-earned baseline jumper. After a Goessel timeout, Stephany Meyer jumped a Dragon pass and
cavorted end to end for the lovely highlight finish of the night. At the half it was 11-15.
With 7:00 left, Anderson was called for her third foul. Moment later she put up an off-kilter prayer that
somehow found its way home and the Dragons spewed flame with a 6-0 run to 11-21. On the break at 4:53,
Brittney was fouled but could not convert the charities. Off a nice stop/steal at center court, Eden looked like
she was going in for the lay-up but was contested, fouled and swished both FT’s. 13-21 at 4:20. With 1:45
left, fouls stood at Halstead 6, Goessel 2, perhaps symptomatic of the aggressive defense shown by the
Dragons. Williams hit her 2 nd of three big treys to go up 15-26, then Olivia Duerksen found the bucket on a
follow in the paint. The 6-13 quarter ended at 17-28.
To start the 4 th , fans were puzzled at an early no-call with Brittney getting mowed down by Williams. Goessel
looked like it was finding momentum pushing inside as Eden was fouled and hit both. At 6:41 Halstead key big
Newman was called for her 4 th and at 6:31 key ball-handler Anderson her 4 th . Both stayed in. Continued hard
pushes inside to low post Hiebert ignited Goessel on an 8-3 run, interrupted only by an Anderson three. With
a nice roll off the glass, a follow of a Meysing miss, a Meysing rebound/foul/FT, then a Hiebert follow of the 2 nd
charity miss it was 27-31 in the twinkle of 95 year old Eli J. Walter’s (present as always in the front row) eye.
Brittney was called for her 4 th and came out with 3:25 remaining. Fouls stood at Goessel 3 and Halstead 10.
Now back in, off an inbounds set with 2:15 left, Brittney could not close out the layup and back down the
other way Williams inflamed the crowd with yet another incredibly pure shot from outside the arc and it was
27-34. Eden pushed down the court, drove inside and drew the foul on Newman, who fouled out at 1:18.
With two key Dragon players in foul trouble, Goessel had finally found its “post punch” inside. Eden hit both
to close to within 5, 29-34 and Halstead spread it out. Anderson’s dribble drive was successful +1. Brittney
set and launched one from Lucky Kidd’s broadcasting perch that caught nothing but net to keep hopes alive
32-37 with 45 ticks left. Halstead gave Goessel some hope by missing twice in the 1-1, but the Bluebirds could
not find the hole at the other end and Anderson, now in the double bonus, dribbled in circles. Burkholder
was fouled but came up empty at the line. Goessel could not score in the final 45 seconds and this one
finished at 32-38.
Goessel goes to 10-2 with the loss. Stats were not yet available at this writing; one can assume that the
shooting percentage tonight was not at a desired level. Brittney Hiebert led the Blue with 12 tonight, all in
the 2 nd half and with 10 in the high-octane 4 th quarter. Eden Hiebert added 10. Eden was a perfect 6 for 6
from the line in the 2 nd half. Jennifer Meysing notched 4 including a first quarter trey. Kara Burkholder,
Stephany Meyer, and Olivia Duerksen each put up two tonight. Also in tonight for Goessel were: Abby
Hannon, Leah Booton, and Savanna Wuest.
