The War Eagle Conference basketball schedule began last night in Akron as the Jays and Westerners split a girls and boys basketball doubleheader.
The Gehlen Catholic girls opened up the evening falling to Akron-Westfield by a final of 42-30.
Offense was hard to come by in the first half with the first quarter ending at a 5-5 tie. Once the offense picked up in the second quarter, it was mainly coming from Akron-Westfield. The Westerners outscored the Jays 18-8 in the second quarter to lead 23-13 heading into the break. Gehlen Catholic Head Coach Brandon Schaecher says that his team just didn’t have the fire in them at the beginning of the game.
Lauren Heying led the Jays again offensively as she had 17 points on 6-17 from the field and 4-9 from the free throw line. Miyah Whitehead was behind her with eight points. Akron-Westfield had a trio of girls finish in double figures scoring. Chloee Colt led the way with 12 points, Natalie Nielsen had a big second half and finished with 11 points, and Taryn Wilken scored 10 points before dealing with foul trouble in the second half.
The Jays have three home contests that all count towards the War Eagle Conference standings coming up. Coach Schaecher says that his team will be putting in work to make sure they have better first halves in their upcoming games.
The Jays have lost five in a row and fall to 1-5 overall and 0-1 in the War Eagle Conference. Akron-Westfield is 2-2 and starts the conference schedule 1-0.
In the boys game, sixth-ranked Gehlen Catholic upended Akron-Westfield 58-42.
The score may suggest otherwise, but this game was very close throughout the majority of the contest. The Jays led 25-20 at the halftime break and Akron-Westfield kept it within 10 points at the end of the third trailing 41-33. Akron-Westfield put up 16 points and 20 points in their last two games heading into the contest. Gehlen Catholic Head Coach Mike Langel says that his team may have noticed that and, in turn, overlooked their opponent last night.
The second half saw a turnaround and a big performance out of the Jays’ scoring leader, Carter DeRocher. DeRocher had 13 points in the second half and 20 in the game on 8-11 from the field and 2-2 from the free throw line. Coach Langel says it was leadership from seniors like DeRocher that turned things around for his team in the second half.
Keaten Bonderson had 15 points and Keaton Logan had 12 points in the win for the Jays. Freshman Tatum Wilken led the Westerners offensively with 16 points on 5-9 from the field. Gehlen Catholic improved to 4-0 overall and 1-0 in the War Eagle Conference. Akron-Westfield falls to 1-3 and 0-1 in the War Eagle Conference.
