Bangor halts G-E-T boys despite 38 points from Schmitz
Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau senior Will Mack lobbed a shot toward the rim during last Tuesday’s 67-58 loss to Bangor at G-E-T High School. (Times photograph by Benjamin Pierce)
The energy from the Bangor boys basketball team’s bench and fans could be felt in the gymnasium at Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau High School when the clock hit zeros for halftime last Tuesday.
It was that same momentum to open the second half that helped Bangor edge G-E-T in a 67-58 win. Defending Coulee Conference champion West Salem, which lost in the WIAA Division Three state championship a year ago, is set to host G-E-T on Thursday.
The Red Hawks struggled to match Bangor’s energy to start the second half, and it was hard to battle back from that as a young group, G-E-T coach Jared McCutchen said.
“Sometimes for young teams eight or 10-point games seem like a 40-point game. We’ve just got to get over that hump, we’ve just got to continue to battle. We were hanging our heads a little bit early on,” he said. “I thought we responded nicely for a while there, but then we got tired.”
The two teams traded chances early, and G-E-T held a lead as late as midway through the first half. Bangor pushed ahead late in the first half with some inside shots and by attacking the hosts’ 1-3-1 formation.
Bangor hit a couple corner threes early, too, and that energized the team. Ten different players scored for the visitors, which prevented G-E-T from focusing on any one player. That spread attack is hard to defend, McCutchen said.
“When you’re getting contributions from four, five, six guys, it makes a difference no matter who it is. They did a nice job playing as a team tonight.”
The Red Hawks were not as efficient from deep on Tuesday, shooting 2-for-19 from beyond the arc.
Junior Cody Schmitz continued his strong start to the season with a 38-point performance for G-E-T, while Bangor was led by an 18-point effort from Dustin McDonald.
The loss is another step toward the Red Hawks’ top goal for this season, a conference championship, McCutchen said, adding that his team is headed in the right direction but can continue to clean up the details of their game.
“Every night is a learning experience, and we still have some pretty young guys on the team. So we’re learning early on.”
G-E-T (field goals/attempts-free throws/attempts-rebounds-fouls-points)—K. Seiling 0/2-3/5-1-3-3; Mack 3/8-4/5-2-2-10; Burns 0/0-0/0-1-2-0; Brone 1/3-0/0-0-3-3; Beedle 0/2-0/0-6-2-0; B. Seiling 2/5-0/0-2-3-4; Schmitz 14/29-9/11-7-4-38; Anibas 0/0-0/0-2-1-0; Corcoran 0/0-0/0-1-0-0.
