Red Hawks overcome slow start on offense to stay unbeaten in Coulee, suffer first loss Friday

There was a visual difference after halftime in both ends of the court for the Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau boys basketball team last Tuesday.

The Red Hawks had a narrow 35-32 lead over Viroqua in a Coulee Conference game at G-E-T High School, and the hosts talked at halftime about needing to reset in the second half.

“The biggest thing was to play with energy,” G-E-T coach Jared McCutchen said. “We didn’t match up very well in the first half. We were trying to find our man after they had already shot it, so our transition D was poor. Offensively, we were pretty stagnant. We were just kind of standing and watching whoever caught it. So, the second half message was we just had to play hard.”

That message resonated with the Red Hawks, who opened the second half on a 26-7 run and ended up outscoring Viroqua 52-25 after the break to improve to 7-0 on the year and stay unbeaten in conference play.

The Red Hawks (7-1 overall, 3-0 Coulee) suffered their first loss of the season on Friday, falling to Elk Mound 65-60 in overtime.

Against Viroqua (4-5, 1-3 Coulee), G-E-T’s defense lacked for parts of the first half as Solomon Mourdock continued to find ways to score for the visitors. He finished the opening 18 minutes with 10 points and co-led the Blackhawks with 14 points alongside Andrew Fassbinder.

The visitors also had 13 points from Benson McDowell.

Senior Cody Schmitz scored 28 points and recorded a double-double with 11 rebounds for G-E-T as he continues to climb the leaderboard for area players in career scoring.

“In the second half we actually moved a little bit on offense and found cutters—and actually had some cutters—and then when we get some layups that opens up our three-point shooters. … those are the things that if we put two halves together it would have been a little bit even better outcome tonight,” McCutchen said.

Junior Brecken Ebersold has been a welcomed surprise for the Red Hawks this winter after playing almost entirely on the junior varsity team a year ago.

Ebersold had 11 of his 17 points for G-E-T in the first half and continued to provide offense for G-E-T in the first half lull. Ebersold is averaging 10 points per game this winter.

“He’s putting some complete games together for us,” McCutchen said. “He put a lot of time into it this off-season, and it shows. … I’m proud of him.”

Senior Jack Beedle had his best offensive performance this season with 11 points.

G-E-T (field goals/attempts-free throws/attempts-rebounds-fouls-points)—K. Seiling 0/0-2/2-1-0-2; Puent 0/0-0/0-2-1-0; Andre 0/3-2/2-0-0-2; Burns 3/5-0/0-2-2-6; Brone 2/5-4/6-2-0-9; Jimenez 1/1-0/0-1-0-2; Ebersold 6/10-1/2-5-2-17; Beedle 3/5-2/4-2-3-11; Schmitz 11/24-1/2-11-1-28; Haney 2/6-0/0-2-0-6; Repaal 1/1-1/2-3-1-3.

Elk Mound 65 G-E-T 60 

The Mounders got a taste of revenge from a loss to the Red Hawks last season when they trekked to G-E-T High School on Friday.

The Red Hawks held a 30-28 advantage at halftime before the teams ended regulation tied at 54.

Elk Mound had a pair of players produce for much of the night, as Kaden Russo and Sam Wenzel combined for 52 of the hosts’ points.

Schmitz led G-E-T with 35 points and 14 rebounds in the Red Hawks’ first loss of the season, and Beedle again had 11 points.