Goessel boys end season with loss to Lebo, 52-43 years ago
By DELBERT PETERS
Contributing writer
Goessel's two seniors, Ryan Janzen and Jake Meeks, played in their last basketball games as Bluebirds on Friday night in 43-52 loss. Goessel matched up well with the 22-1 Lebo Wolves in the first round of the 1A Substate tournament.
Even though the teams had completely different records, the Bluebirds stayed close to the Wolves for 28 minutes. Tyler Schroeder and Ryan Janzen scored the Bluebird points in the first quarter in a slow-paced deliberate game. A Garrett Hiebert layup and a Travis Buller three-pointer gave the Bluebirds their first lead in the game 13-9 early in the second quarter.
Lebo took back the lead 15-13 with a long pass down court for a layup with 4:15 to play in the second quarter. Several Goessel turnovers against the full court press allowed the Wolves to get ahead 19-15 at half time.
Janzen scored first in the third quarter and then found Hiebert wide open under the bucket twice for easy baskets. Jordan Voth hit a three pointer from the left side but the Bluebirds still trailed by one point 24-25 with 4:00 minutes to play in the third period. Lebo went on a small scoring spurt with several offensive rebounds and layups, but the Bluebirds trailed by only four points at the end of the third period 29-33.
Goessel fans were a bit uneasy as the Wolves grabbed a 37-30 lead, but Hiebert converted a basket and free throw and Janzen hit a six foot jumper to get the Bluebirds as close as 35-37 at the 4:21 mark. Goessel misfired on several possessions allowing Lebo to again build a six point lead.
After a Bluebird time out with 1:55 to play, Goessel applied the full court press when Lebo had the ball out of bounds. The Wolves were able to work around the pressure and Goessel had to foul in order to stop the clock and prevent easy baskets. Lebo hit five of six free throws in the last two minutes of the game to post a final score of 52-43.
Scoring for the Bluebirds were: Janzen 15, Hiebert 12, Schroeder 6, Voth 5, Buller 3 and Justin Fensky 2. Goessel ended the season with an overall record of 8-16. Lebo did advance to the State Tournament by defeating Thayer by 33 points on Saturday.
