Gehlen Catholic went on the road to play Cherokee in a basketball doubleheader for the first time in history and came away with a win and a loss.
The Gehlen Catholic girls’ basketball team fell to #6 Cherokee by a final of 83-46.
The Jays came out to play in the first half as they led Cherokee 29-28 after one half of the game. Gehlen Catholic’s defense helped matters by holding the Braves to 9-34 from the field and 3-22 from the three-point line in the first half. Head Coach Brandon Schaecher says that the way his team started out the game was exactly what he wanted to see out of them.
The headliner of the first half for the Jays was Miyah Whitehead who had 14 points on 7-11 from the field. Those 14 she scored would be her only points as she dealt with foul trouble in the second half and eventually fouled out of the game. Head Coach Brandon Schaecher says once they can take care of the foul issue, Whitehead will be a force to be dealt with down low.
The second half flipped a switch for the Cherokee girls who scored 34 points in the third quarter alone and 55 in the second half total to win 83-46 over Gehlen Catholic who ran out of gas late. The Jays fall to 1-3 and host #6 MMCRU tonight. Cherokee is 3-1 and will be at Storm Lake next week Friday.
The Gehlen Catholic boys capped off the night with a thrilling 66-65 win over the Cherokee boys in overtime.
Gehlen Catholic and Cherokee stayed very close with each other for about three and a half quarters of the game. Neither team was able to get an advantage in a very evenly matched ball game. The struggle for the Jays, according to Head Coach Mike Langel, was the physicality that Cherokee brought and their fantastic gameplan.
Late in the fourth, Cherokee started to pull away and led by as much as six with two minutes left in regulation. Cherokee turnovers and Gehlen Catholic free throws late helped bring the Jays to a tie ball game and force overtime. In overtime, the Jays got a huge performance from Carter DeRocher. The senior had 19 points heading into overtime and had all seven of the Jays points in the extra period to seal the victory. Keaten Bonderson was the next highest scorer with 22 points. Coach Langel wanted to emphasize that last night’s win was a team victory, and how his team never gave up the fight until the game was said and done.
Gehlen Catholic continues on with a 2-0 record and hosts MMCRU tonight. Cherokee is 1-1 on the young season.
