The Fog Lifts
Goessel Varsity Guys Basketball v. Little River @ 40th Annual Burrton Tournament January 15, 2019
After several desultory outings following the Christmas break, Goessel’s Bluebirds took to the Burrton hardwood in the first round of the 40th annual Burrton Invitational. Opponent Little River’s roster contains two potent backcourt players: Sophomores Jayden Garrison and Graham Stephens. The slashing guards provide speed, quick hands and the ability to penetrate and dish off for easy buckets against a less than vigilant defense. Goessel played one of its best games of the season and Coach Guhr was “exceptionally proud of how the team competed, battled, and felt this might be a signal that Goessel is ready to head in the right direction this season.” Dylan Lindeman had a career high 29 with five huge treys, leading the ‘Birds to two winning quarters. In the end Garrison was too much, putting up 34 to lead the Redskins into the 2nd round against Berean on Thursday; LR pulled ahead by as much as 11 and finished 67-60.
Amid the winter freezing fog, Goessel came ready to play. Drew Lindeman fought hard underneath going back up in an early scrum to lead 2-0. Little River stayed in man nearly the whole game and Goessel put the clamps on the Redskin slashing dribble drive offense with a zone. The contest was punctuated with nearly half a dozen outstanding hustle moves from the Bluebirds, saving balls from out of bounds, offensive boards, and 2nd efforts. The first came from Jerah Schmidt who leaped nearly into the middle school, threw it back to a waiting Lindeman who buried it from 15 to lead 4-2. Dylan pulled up for 2 more but it went to 6-12 before the Bluebirds recovered again, breaking the press with a nice finish from Hagewood. Next time down the floor, Goessel went back door to Schmidt, causing the Redskins to take a timeout up 10-12 at 2:03. Goessel got an excellent bounce follow from Miguel Ballesta to close to 12-14, but Garrison Sr. buried one to lead 12-17 at the end of one.
On a long DL miss, Miguel caught the carom and plopped it back in, then at 6:20 Drew buried one from so far back it created so much energy it remotely re-started Larry’s bus that had broken down earlier today. Down the floor the next time #33 pushed hard to the hoop and got the bucket +1 to go up three 23-20. Each time Goessel was able to move into the lead, the Little River angst got stronger, fans and coach became noisier, and those on the floor seemed to raise the ante. Goessel stayed tough on D, keeping the slash and burn penetration offense at bay, and Hagewood caught and popped from 12 feet to close to 27-28 to close the 15-11 quarter. Most of the Little River scoring in the half came either on layups or threes. The Redskins have a potent set of guards but have a thin bench and several Redskins sat with fouls.
Out of the break, with barely any time expired Dylan cruised one in from Yoder Ornamental Concrete to retake the lead 30-28, hit two charities and then swooshed one in so expertly from long range that every jaw in the Redskin cheering section went askew. Unfortunately, Drew was called for his 3rd and had to sit at 7:00. Hagewood got hustle points underneath and LR took a timeout at 5:05. With a great move to the bucket and yet another giant trey, Dylan upped the ante and the lead to 40-34. Goessel did a marvelous job on the Redskin ball handlers, who seemed to lose a bit of cool in the 3rd as several of their key players remained in foul trouble. On giant hustle moves, Goessel’s Hagewood upped it to 42-39, got a retrieve, was fouled and buried both charities in the 1-1. Next time down, Hagewood posted low and used a quick step inside, was fouled and got one more for the single-handed 5-0 run. Goessel had pulled off another winning 18-11 quarter and led by 6, 45-39 going into the final stanza.
To the beat of “Let’s Go Goessel…..Blue..birds….” led by the Goessel cheer team, the Blue came out hopeful in the 4th. Barely out of the huddle, #33 was called for #4 but stayed in at 7:35. Jake Hiebert put a well crafted stop and pop to lead 47-40, equaling the largest Goessel lead of the night. Moments later at 7:09, against slashing guard Stephens underneath, Drew was whistled for his 5th. Dylan was able to push inside attempting to create havoc at the other end, was fouled twice and hit 3 for 4 from the line to lead 50-43. Timeout Goessel at 6:47. Dougherty fouled out at 5:43. Little River used the timeout to put their defense into Defcon 1 and went on a key 9-1 run to retake the lead 51-52. Timeout Goessel 4:21. Ball handling woes left the Bluebirds without offensive answers and it went to 52-56 on 1 for 4 free throw shooting in the double bonus. Little River called time at 2:24 leading 52-58 and went into a spread offense. At 1:49 Dylan was able to notch the 2nd field goal of the quarter with another giant trey to close back to 55-60. Little River’s guards were able to play hide and seek and the Bluebirds could only foul. Hiebert hit the back end of two FT’s to stay at 56-62 as Rolfs fouled out at 1:07. Hagewood fouled out at :27 with it at 52-67. To close the contest, Wuest stroked a nice jumper 58-67 and Lindeman scored once more to close it at 60-67 in a well executed contest. Little River’s staunch defensive effort in the 4th quarter led to a 15-28 result. Goessel won both the 2nd and 3rd quarters tonight but could not keep the game corralled in the 4th. The lead changed hands nine times, five in the 1st half and interestingly 4 times in the 2nd half. The Bluebirds’ effort tonight would have easily given them wins in multiple other contests earlier this year.
Dylan Lindeman had a career night, putting up 5 giant treys and finishing with 29. The Junior was also 6 of 8 from the free throw line and caused numerous deflections and defensive positives. Jake Hagewood had a huge hustle night and was solid from the charity stripe, going 4 for 6, and scored 10. Drew Lindeman was whistled underneath against the quick step offense and put up 8 in three quarters. Jake Hiebert came through with 4, all in the 4th quarter and was also credited with one of his best hustle outings. Miguel Ballesta came off the bench to score 4. Jerah Schmidt put up a FG in the 1st and one charity for 3 and pulled a disproportionate number of rebounds on great savvy; Skyler Wuest scored 2 on the night. Zach Zogleman started for the Blue but did not score.
The Burrton Tournament is renowned for having its Freshman free-throw contest. Dylan Lindeman won this as a Goessel freshman two years ago in 2017. The only other Goessel winner was Mike Hiebert in 1982. Tonight Skyler Wuest competed representing the Bluebirds but fell to Schafer of Little River 14-15 at half time. One of this writer’s favorite Burrton tournament awards is “Most Inspirational Player”; Goessel’s Shane Goerzen won this award in 2013. The award is unique in tournament lore as players who may not receive MVP have a great shot at being honored for their contributions that may not show up in the stat book.
Goessel will play Pretty Prairie in the consolation bracket on Thursday afternoon. Also in the consolation bracket are: Fairfield and Burrton. Winning their first round games are: Inman, Central Christian, Little River and Berean.
The sun set on Burrton tonight as the day’s fog lifted. It felt like the fog that has enveloped the Bluebird squad since Christmas may also have fallen away as this effort tonight showed some of what this Bluebird team is capable of. Work!
-Karl Brubaker
