Senior Night
Goessel Guys Basketball – Udall Eagles @ Goessel – February 20, 2024
The outcome of tonight’s final regular season game was never in doubt, as the visiting 3-16 Udall Eagles could find no answers for the Bluebird’s Noah Schrag tonight. Senior Schrag had a career night with 16 in the first quarter, dropped a trey in each quarter, thrilled the crowd with a breakaway jam, finished with 6 long range tallies and 37 total points. Just to be clear, that is half of the Bluebird’s winning total of 74 on Senior night. Seniors Schrag, Wade Spurlin, Jake Flaming, Javin Schmidt, Eli Boden, and Chevy Gagnon all played their final games on the Bluebird court. Goessel coasted to this win 71-49.
Ten seconds in, Schrag balleted to the hoop for two, then socked in finishes so smooth the opponent could not have stopped them under any circumstances. Koy Smith hit for a very long two and Goessel was credited with great aggressiveness inside on D and on the boards. The Eagles’ MO was tucking the ball in and going to the hoop; the strategy got them to the line and they put up 22 free throw attempts. Schrag was simply everywhere tonight, unstoppable despite being doubled at times. Smith shampooed a near perfect corner three in late in quarter. With Schrag putting up 16 points in the Bluebirds’ 21-10 first quarter, it was a sign of things to come.
Noah was out to start the 2nd and Goessel was able to get some excellent stops with Jake and Jack showing gritty inside. Noah was back in at 5:28 23-10. The offense kicked in with finishes from Smith, Nickel and Schrag’s #4 jam at 4:00:04, utterly igniting the student section and sending them into “more cowbell” mode. Chevy Gagnon went down the lane, flying with the Eagles and coasted a runner into the hoop 31-16, then Schrag got two charities + yet another giant three, then Jake Flaming caught the sphere from around the horn, saw time expiring, set and let one loose from way east of Pine Edge Golf Course and found nothing but net at the buzzer. 39-20.
The 3rd started tentatively, with the Eagles staging a rally and an 11-3 run. Timeout Goessel 5:03 at 44-31. Goessel used inside punches to put together a 7-0 return run on finishes from Javin, Wade and Koy. On the great assist of the game highlight, Schrag snuck a pass through no man’s land into Spurlin who laid it in for the “basketball play of the night” 52-33. After that giant moment, Schrag set and launched two more threes so inspiring all the Community Foundation basketballs spontaneously rose up and created an image akin to a helium balloon fest. 58-36. The 3rd quarter ended 58-41.
The Bluebird mascot led the assembled student section in the roller coaster and the Blue cheer team was on the floor again doing a great job leading the faithful. Jack got a putback and Koy snatched a huge hustle steal; Jack was credited with a humongous block and Smith skated coast to coast for two more. Jake followed his own miss for 2 and Schrag slalomed his final trey at the 2 minute warning. 71-49. At 1:55 Senior Gagnon fouled out at center court and at 1:07 the crowd rose as one to acknowledge and applaud the other Seniors as they left the game. In for Goessel in the waning moments were : Trey Gaddis, Levi Schrag, Evan Walker, Adam Wonser and Luke Stucky.
A highlight for the Udall team was seeing Senior Jenson Harness score his 1000th career point. Congratulations to Jenson on this accomplishment!
On Senior night, Noah Schrag had a career night with 37, Koy Smith notched 13, scoring in every quarter, both Jack Nickel and Javin Schmidt had 6, Jake Flaming 5, Wade Spurlin put up 4, Chevy Gagnon had 2 and Trey Gaddis 1. Goessel will play Thursday night at Little River in a sub-state that is wide open. Best wishes Bluebirds! -Karl Brubaker
