Bluebirds 4th at Burrton Invitational
Goessel Guys Varsity Basketball January 25, 2020
Goessel opened its Burrton Invite appearances with a solid 61-16 win v. Fairfield Tuesday at Burrton, but could not find traction against Little River (59-49) on Thursday. Little River went on to play Berean Academy for the championship on Saturday night, and Goessel faced the Inman Teutons , who had narrowly lost to Berean on Thursday, for third place. Inman had started off the 19-20 campaign handing Goessel its only loss (37-31) prior to Thursday night, so the re-match was anticipated. Inman raced to an 0-9 lead and led by as much as 22 in a late January match-up that simply did not go well for the Bluebirds. The Teutons hit 9 of their final 10 free throws and Goessel went 2 for 12 from the line in the 4th quarter. The Inman Teutons were presented the third place hardware after the 57-38 win.
Goessel’s Jake Wiens was crowned this year’s Freshman Free Throw Contest Champion as he sank 18 of 25 tonight at halftime of the championship game. Wiens out-shot Creighton Kukula of Berean Academy. He had previously eliminated Ethan Waters of Fairfield on Tuesday shooting 22 of 25 and Blake Stucky of Pretty Prairie on Thursday shooting 23 of 25. Congratulations Jake! He joins only two other Goessel Freshmen to win the honor in 40 years: Mike Hiebert in 1982 and Dylan Lindeman in 2017.
Inman ripped into Goessel’s starting man to man, going 0-9 in a jaw-dropping sequence. Nate Zogleman put back Goessel’s first bucket at 4:10 but the Blue could not slow down the “Too Tall Teutons.” After the 2-15 start, Goessel moved to a zone, Dylan Lindeman pounded a nice runner in down the lane, Jake Hagewood finished in a zipline run from center court and Lindeman socked in two charities to come back to 8-18 to end the quarter.
Skyler Wuest stroked one from 15 feet and the Bluebirds looked poised to make another run with a beautiful finish from Zogleman, a sensational break and feed from Luke Wiens to Zogleman for two more and a Jerah Schmidt drop-dead trey from beyond the cinnamon roll table in the lobby. 18-27. The 2nd quarter went better, 10-11, but the Bluebirds still seemed out of sorts in the unusual lighting and open end court demeanor of the Burrton Coliseum.
Lindeman swatted one so hard the trophy table rattled. Hagewood put up a nice jumper at 5:46 and down the floor took a charge to earn the ball back. Zogleman finished to close within 13, 22-35, and Lindeman polished a long trey off from way behind the arc to leave it at 26-42, then put his head down and drove hard to the hole for a fantastic finish. Off a finesse pocket pick, Jerah coasted one in to bring it to 30-45, then Hagewood bagged two charities and it was 32-45. The 3rd closed with hope at 32-47.
Fouls were knotted at 6-6 and it appeared the Teutons were going into a spread offense to kill the clock. Goessel was able to get to the charity stripe for 12 attempts in the quarter but was able to convert only 2. On several breakaways and forays to the bucket, the Teutons went to the line and went 6 for 6, effectively putting the game in the proverbial “deep freeze.” Inman won each quarter tonight, including the 4th 6-10 and the game ended 38-57. Goessel goes to 8-2.
Dylan Lindeman put up 11 tonight, Nate Zogleman had an excellent shooting night with 9, Jake Hagewood added 8, Jerah Schmidt 7 and Skyler Wuest 2. Caiden Duerksen added 1 for the Bluebirds. Also in for Goessel tonight was Luke Wiens. Illness, the weather and schedules in January have been challenging; the Bluebirds have also had to adjust to the loss of Junior Jake Hiebert. Despite all, continue to Pound The Stone!
-Karl Brubaker
