The Gehlen Catholic girls basketball team opened up their postseason run with a 42-26 win over Remsen St. Mary’s in the opening round of the regional tournament on Thursday.
For Remsen St. Mary’s, the season has been a rocky one that started with a bus accident that significantly impacted their team in November. When all was said and done, they finished the season 6-12 overall getting a majority of a season played. Head coach Joseph Loutsch says the road was tough, but the end was rewarding.
In the game, Gehlen Catholic shut the Hawks down with some strong defensive intensity that held them to just four points in the first quarter and two points in the fourth quarter. Gehlen Catholic head coach Brandon Schaecher says he was proud of his team’s ability on the defensive end.
Coach Loutsch says Gehlen’s pressure defense did a great job at limiting the impact of his top scorers.
In the second half, the Gehlen offense picked up some steam to match what the defense had been doing throughout the night. Coach Schaecher says that came from getting out and running aggressively after making a stop on defense.
The Hawks struggled to do what they needed to do to make a comeback in the fourth quarter due to facing immense foul trouble from their top scorers. Coach Loutsch says that hampered the gameplan for his team.
Gehlen Catholic finished with Ayla Schmidt, Ella Ruhland, and Halle Walgenbach all scoring in double figures on the night. Coach Schaecher says sometimes his team is too selfless with the ball, but they still did a good job finding the open girl.
For Remsen St. Mary’s, the Hawks graduate one senior off the team in Grace Galles who was one of the three significantly injured in the bus accident. Her senior year did not look like what she had planned, but Coach Loutsch says she still was able to have a major impact on the team.
Gehlen Catholic improves their record to 9-13 on the season and secures a date with South O’Brien in the regional quarterfinal round on Tuesday night. Coach Schaecher says the Jays handled what the Wolverines wanted to do a week ago when they played in the regular season, and he’s hoping they can do it again on Tuesday night.
Tip-off is at 7:00 PM in Paullina. KLEM Radio will broadcast the game with coverage beginning at 6:45 PM.
