Red Hawks beat Raiders, Schmitz makes history

When the 2023-24 boys basketball schedule first came out, Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau boys basketball coach Jared McCutchen noticed quickly that the Red Hawks’ Coulee Conference opener was against county opponent Arcadia.

The Red Hawks jumped out to a big lead in the first half of that game last Tuesday, but Arcadia (4-2, 3-1 Coulee) pushed back after halftime, cutting the lead to 12 before G-E-T left with an 87-75 win.

“I knew it’d be a battle,” McCutchen said of last Tuesday’s game against the Raiders. “We came out and jumped on them early, but that team is always going to battle.”

Another conference win over Luther on Thursday put G-E-T at 6-0 on the year and 2-0 in Coulee play. The Red Hawks host Viroqua this Tuesday as well as Elk Mound on Friday.

Tuesday’s start was a trading post of offense — Arcadia would score on one rush and G-E-T would respond with points seconds later. The teams flipped offense for the first eight minutes of the game with the hosts leading 22-19.

“Our offensive execution for about the first eight minutes of the first half was really good. We were matching them score for score,” Arcadia coach Ryan Sonnentag said. “They were hitting some really tough shots.”

Offense shifted for G-E-T at that point. The Red Hawks got crucial three-pointers from Jack Beedle and Brecken Ebersold, and senior Cody Schmitz scored numerous points in a row. The Red Hawks outscored Arcadia 29-6 to close the half.

Schmitz finished Tuesday with 39 points and ended last week as the all-time leading scorer (2,014 points) in G-E-T schools and Trempealeau County boys history with a 41-point performance in Thursday’s win. The only county player with more points than Schmitz is 2023 Blair-Taylor graduate Lindsay Steien (2,407).

“Cody had a span there offensively where he was kind of unguardable, we were hitting our shots and then Brecken (Eberosld) hit a big three and Jack Beedle came in and hit a monster three and Braden (Anibas) hit a big three,” McCutchen said. “And the next thing you know, we shot it really well in the first half.”

Arcadia responded after halftime, scoring 50 second-half points to G-E-T’s 36 and keeping it close.

Arcadia senior Maverick Drazkowski exploded on offense, scoring 22 of his team-high 26 points after the break. Prestin Scow finished with 17 points for Arcadia, which also got 11 from Kaiden Rotering and 10 from Ted Teske with the late push.

The Red Hawks held on for the win, but Arcadia learned something on Tuesday, according to its coach.

“Our guys showed a lot of heart to come back and battle, and that’s going to help us throughout the year,” Sonnentag said. “Not just tonight, it’s gonna help us in any game we play where we know that we’re never gonna give up and we’re gonna battle to the final buzzer.”

G-E-T (field goals/attempts-free throws/attempts-rebounds-fouls-points)—Seiling 0/0-2/2-0-0-2; Burns 3/3-0/0-0-1-6; Brone 3/9-7/8-5-1-14; Ebersold 4/5-0/0-5-4-9; Beedle 1/1-0/0-6-3-3; Schmitz 14/23-4/8-9-4-39; Anibas 3/5-0/0-1-1-8; Haney 2/6-0/0-1-4-5; Repaal 0/1-1/2-4-2-1.

Arcadia (field goals/attempts-free throws/attempts-rebounds-fouls-points)—Lockington 2/4-0/0-1-4-5; K. Rotering 5/14-0/0-3-0-11; J. Rotering 0/0-0/0-0-1-0; Teske 5/7-0/0-5-5-10; Scow 6/13-2/2-1-3-17; Drazkowski 8/14-7/9-12-3-26; Baier 1/6-2/3-2-3-4; Blaschko 1/1-0/0-0-0-2.

G-E-T 83 Luther 77

Schmitz was again the leader for G-E-T on Thursday with his 41 points and 17 rebounds, but Luther was no easy task for the Red Hawks.

Luther (4-1, 1-1 Coulee) trailed by four at halftime and the gap was only increased by two by the game’s final buzzer.

Luther was led by Will Huelskamp’s 22 points and  Logan Bahr’s 18. The Red Hawks received 18 points from Mason Brone and 14 from Brecken Ebersold. 

Full statistics were not reported.