The Gehlen Catholic boys ended their season at the hands of their rivals Remsen St. Mary’s on Saturday night in the substate final. The Hawks beat the Jays at Le Mars Community’s gym by a final of 49-38.
The 11-point deficit would suggest a game that was not super competitive and suggest that the Hawks kind of ran away with the win. Gehlen Catholic head coach Mike Langel knows that is far from the truth saying his kids played incredibly hard all throughout.
The Jays gameplan on defense was to shut down Collin Homan and not let him beat the Jays after going off for 20 points and 11 rebounds in their last matchup. They succeeded there. On the offensive end, the Jays had a lot of things going their way with good ball movement and everything except for converting the shot. Coach Langel says sometimes the shots do not roll your way.
Part of the problem for the Jays most of the night came from the pace the game was played. Remsen St. Mary’s wanted to and did slow down the game to a crawl on the offensive end. They were very meticulous using a large portion of the shot clock before getting up an attempt. Gehlen Catholic was quick in their possessions with a lot of one-and-done opportunities. Coach Langel says that ultimately led to some fatigue as the game went along.
This game brings the coaching career of Langel to a close after 18 successful years as the head coach of the Jays. After the game, Langel was still content with his decision saying that he really wanted to go out with this special senior class.
This class of senior Jays is probably the biggest to go through the Gehlen Catholic basketball program. The class sports 10 seniors on its roster, and Langel says every one of them was a pleasure to coach.
The Jays end their season with a strong record of 20-6 becoming the sixth team in program history to win 20 games. Langel ends his coaching career with a record of 277-141. Remsen St. Mary’s is advancing to the state tournament with a record of 22-2.
