Bluebird Season Ends at Allen-Northern Heights
Goessel Varsity Guys Basketball - v. Allen-Northern Heights @ Allen February 25, 2019
Cold winds blew off the Flint Hills in the 1st round of the 2A Marion sub-state Monday night. The homestanding Wildcats from Allen-Northern Heights came in 9-9, but have a firecracker point guard, Cameron Heiman, and were ready to play. The Bluebirds fell victim to one of their worst cold shooting streaks of the season and the wily ‘Cats put this one away with easy buckets in transition and in the paint. Goessel came in at 9-11 and almost needed to make a 911 call tonight as the Wildcats ran downhill. Against common opponents this year, the Wildcats had defeated teams that Goessel had lost to, so the home team was a clear favorite, but Bluebird fans hoped for a spirited contest.
In the first quarter, Dylan Lindeman dropped one in from 12 feet to tie at 2-2, but Heiman slashed and burned his way to 2-8. At 2:40, Jake Hiebert went hard to the rack and was hammered for the +1 to stay close at 5-8, but big man Preisner barreled and bucked inside to go to 5-16. Miguel Ballesta went up inside, was fouled and hit the front end of two to close the 6-16 first stanza. The front court pressure from the Wildcats took the Bluebirds completely out of rhythm and the savvy slash and dish offense from #23 led to many open lay-ups on D.
Dylan started the 2nd quarter by going to the bank 8-16 and Jake Hagewood blew past his opponent and went to the line to close to 9-16. At this point, three Wildcat starters were on the bench with two fouls each, but the Bluebirds could not capitalize. The home team bench stepped up with three pirouettes in the paint to lead 9-22 and Coach Guhr called time at 5:14. Jake Hiebert launched one from Admire, the only three of the night for Goessel, to close to 12-22. In the noisy house, the Wildcats looked comfortable and the fierce head-banded bearded dude in shorts and socks was rattling the rafters. With it at 12-30, Drew was back in and immediately hit two charities and caught a nice Hagewood feed, then had a really incredible ball fake and roll left to score, bringing hope at 16-30. The half ended 16-31.
Goessel came out of the break with a tumultuous finish on a nice coast to coast run, 18-31: A great feed from Drew to Dylan and solid finish. Moments later Jerah also found the nylon off the glass to go to 20-33, then again to buzz to 22-35, but the wheels fell off and this one was lost as the Cats flew to 24-47 on finishes from everyone except the afore-mentioned fierce head-banded bearded dude in shorts and socks. With time waning, Dylan hit both ends at the stripe, 24-47 and Drew scored another bucket on another solid roll inside. This one was pretty well decided with the
2-12 run and the quarter closed 26-48.
The Bluebirds saw several great stops underneath, but 5 out of 8 times the Wildcats were able to find a way to pass and slash or shoot around either the man or zone defenses. Hiebert caught an in-pass from Drew for a nice-lay in and Dylan pulled up with a short 10-footer 30-53 but three straight finishes from unheralded Waters put it into running clock 30-60. At 3:43, the home team cleared their bench; Dylan tried to bury one on the break but could not get the dunk; Skyler finished this one for the Bluebirds and the game closed 33-62. Goessel finishes their season 9-12 and Allen-Northern Heights moves on to Marion to likely play Eskridge-Mission Valley, whom they lost to earlier this year by a large margin.
Congratulations Goessel Seniors Drew Lindeman and Zach Zogleman for all you have contributed to Bluebird basketball! Thanks to all the fans who have followed this Bluebird squad this year!
The winds howled off the Flint Hills and kept the Bluebird shooting at a frigid level. It could also have simply been the high decibel Wildcat crowd’s less than friendly environment that created a Buffalo Wild Wings “rim closure.” Dylan Lindeman led Goessel with 10 tonight, scoring in each quarter and going perfect from the line. Jake Hiebert was credited with the only three of the night for the Bluebirds and finished with 8, Drew Lindeman tallied 7, Jerah Schmidt added two quick buckets in the 3rd for 4, Skyler Wuest 2, and Miguel Ballesta and Jake Hagewood each put up 1 to round out the visitors’ scoring. Also playing were Zach Zogleman, Kale Funk. Nate Zogleman, Lucas Wiens, and Eddie Gaeddert. -Karl Brubaker
