Red Hawks get ‘gritty’ to beat Sparta as Coulee openers lie in wait

As time ticked away in the second half of last Friday’s nonconference boys basketball game at Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau High School, Sparta had an opening.

The host Red Hawks led by multiple possessions but had three starters, including leading scorer Cody Schmitz, one hard play away from fouling out.

Sparta erased what had been a 15-point lead for G-E-T in the opening minutes of the half before taking a 70-69 lead — their first of the game — with eight minutes to play.

Taylor Haney gave the Red Hawks the lead back with an inside shot moments later, and junior Brecken Ebersold followed up to make it a two-possession game.

The Red Hawks saw five players score in double digits on a night their depth gave them a 91-84 win, one coach Jared McCutchen classified as “gritty.”

“For the bench guys to come in and step up and be able to get some of those big minutes. … those little things don’t show up in the box score but they’re big deals,” McCutchen said. “We were able to get those bench guys going a little bit. The lead got away from us a little, but tonight we didn’t panic and were able to take care of it at the end.”

Sparta (2-2 this season) held Schmitz to four points in the first half, but a widespread offense gave G-E-T (3-1) a nine-point halftime lead.

Senior Braden Anibas scored all 14 of his points in the first half, which were helped by 10 more from Mason Brone and nine from Haney.

Brone finished with 18 points on Friday, Haney matched Anibas’ 14 and Jackson Burns scored 11. Schmitz found more offense in the second half to lead G-E-T with 25 points.

Nick Puent came off the bench for G-E-T late, as did Jack Beedle and Carter Repaal.

“Every night now it’s been a different guy for us,” McCutchen said. “There are other guys stepping up, and we have confidence in about eight, nine guys to be able to come in. A sign of a special team is when you can bring guys in and you don’t lose much momentum, and right now we’re seeing that.”

Sparta erased the G-E-T lead with the help of fouls, and a big night from Gavin Rhead (34 points).

The Red Hawks open their Coulee Conference schedule this week — Arcadia visited on Tuesday and Luther is readying to host the Red Hawks this Thursday.

“One of our goals this year is to win conference, and you can’t win conference if you lose your first games,” McCutchen said. “We’ve got two really big conference games next week, so 4-0 is great, we’re happy with that. But we’re looking at it as next game up.”

G-E-T (field goals/attempts-free throws/attempts-rebounds-fouls-points)—Puent 0/0-0/0-1-0-0; Burns 4/8-3/4-4-4-11; Brone 4/11-10/11-1-1-18; Ebersold 4/8-0/1-7-2-9; Beedle 0/3-0/0-1-0-0; Schmitz 6/10-11/17-5-4-25; Anibas 5/19-0/0-5-0-14; Haney 5/11-0/2-2-4-14; Repaal 0/0-0/0-4-3-0.

G-E-T 65, Tomah 44

Brone had 19 and Schmitz scored 23 for G-E-T in last Tuesday’s win against a different Mississippi Valley Conference team, the Timberwolves (1-3).

The Red Hawks scored 41 points in the second half.

Tomah was led by an 18-point night from Owen Laudon.

G-E-T (field goals/attempts-free throws/attempts-rebounds-fouls-points)—Andre 1/1-0/0-1-0-2; Burns 0/4-0/2-3-0-0; Brone 5/10-9/9-5-2-19; Jimenez 0/0-0/0-0-1-0; Ebersold 3/4-1/6-5-1-10; Beedle 0/0-0/0-2-0-0; Schmitz 7/19-8/11-14-4-23; Haney 3/8-0/1-3-3-9; Repaal 1/1-0/0-4-3-2.