The Gehlen Catholic girls basketball team won their first postseason game in three years defeating Akron-Westfield on the road by a score of 49-45.
The Jays got out to a 7-0 lead and never relinquished control of the game the rest of the night. Gehlen Catholic head coach Brandon Schaecher says the girls were very excited after the big win.
Gehlen put up 30 points in the first half on over 40% shooting from the field. Rysaiah Sitzmann had 13 points after the first two quarters and says everybody was sharing the ball in order to have success.
Sitzmann’s 13 points allowed her to break Addison Weber’s all-time career scoring record at Gehlen Catholic. Sitzmann was quick to credit her teammates for helping her set that record.
The Gehlen defense had one goal throughout the night, and that was to keep the Westerners from going into the post. In turn, the Westerners shot 34 three-point field goals in the contest and made just eight of them. Coach Schaecher says he was really impressed with the defensive effort.
After trailing by 13 at the halftime break, the Westerners started storming back and cut the lead down to three very quickly. The Westerners continued to keep it close throughout the rest of the second half with more charges at Gehlen’s lead. Coach Schaecher says the girls played good team basketball down the stretch to get the win.
The Jays improve to 12-11 with the tournament victory. Gehlen was not even at full capabilities due to sicknesses that are going around at this time of the year. Coach Schaecher says getting everybody healthy before the next round will be key.
The Jays will be at Woodbury Central in the region quarterfinal round on Tuesday, February 18 at 7:00 PM. You can listen to the game on KLEM.
