Red Hawks end West Salem’s 47-game Coulee winning streak

For four years, the West Salem boys basketball program has been in a class all by themselves in the Coulee Conference. But with lessons learned from their close call against the Panthers earlier this winter, it was Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau who finally conquered the kings of the Coulee.

The Red Hawks (14-8, 8-3 Coulee) knocked off West Salem and ended the latter’s 47-game conference winning streak dating back to February 2021. Combined with a victory over Cochrane-Fountain City earlier in the week, G-E-T now rides a season-best six-game winning streak into the final week of the regular season.

The Red Hawks put a bow on conference play and the regular season when they hit the road to face Westby on Thursday at 7 p.m.

G-E-T 72 West Salem 66

For the first time in nearly 1,500 days, the West Salem Panthers suffered a loss in Coulee play.

The Red Hawks managed to finish the job they weren’t able to on the road in West Salem earlier in the year, holding on for a six-point win against the Panthers (15-6, 9-1) last Friday in Galesville.

In that first meeting back on Jan. 7, West Salem survived a major scare from G-E-T and scratched out a 71-66 victory to keep its Coulee winning streak chugging along. This time around, the Red Hawks refused to let another opportunity like that slip through their fingers.

G-E-T came out swinging to build up an early 19-7 lead nearly 11 minutes into the game. Unsurprisingly, the Panthers were up to the challenge of answering back and used a 22-8 run to briefly leapfrog ahead 29-27. The Red Hawks ultimately held a 35-32 advantage at halftime.

The second half was a similarly competitive battle that saw the two teams deadlocked at 64-64 with 1:30 to play. A Jackson Burns layup gave G-E-T the 66-64 lead with 1:25 remaining. On the following Panther possession, West Salem’s Carter Pontius was called for a foul on an offensive rebound attempt and then hit with a technical foul for his reaction to the call.

G-E-T’s Mason Brone hit three of the ensuing four free throws as the Red Hawks took a 69-64 lead and kept possession with 1:07 to go. Though the Panthers forced a Burns turnover, Nathan Dillaber missed an open look from three and G-E-T got the ball back on a jump ball during the fight for the rebound.

Brecken Ebersold made two more free throws with 43.6 seconds left to push the Red Hawk advantage to seven and West Salem would not get it closer than five the rest of the way.

“First of all, credit to West Salem and their players and coaching staff. To not lose a conference game in over four years is quite a feat, especially when you’re getting every team’s best shot each night,” said G-E-T head coach Ian Anderson. “For us and our program, this win means a ton because it shows that we’re turning a corner and can compete with and beat anyone in the conference and hopefully the sectional. It shows progress from our guys during a new season without an all-time scorer, with a modified coaching staff and after some tough losses early on. The boys are continually improving and buying in to how we’re trying to play, and that is showing especially in the last month or so.”

G-E-T leaders in their biggest win of the season were Brone with a game-high 28 points, Ebersold with 22 points and six rebounds and Travis Theisen with 10 points. West Salem’s Kyle Hehli put up 26 points to go along with six rebounds and five assists. The Panthers also had Dillaber with nine points and 11 rebounds and Brennon Anderson with nine points.

G-E-T 61 C-FC 52

A strong stretch run allowed the Red Hawks to handle business against Cochrane-Fountain City (20-2) last Monday in Galesville. The Pirates entered the game ranked No. 7 in Division 5 in the WisSports.net coaches’ poll.

The two teams were tied 27-27 at halftime and the Pirates used a 10-3 run to seize a 37-30 advantage early in the second half. G-E-T answered with its own 12-0 run to surge ahead 42-37, followed by C-FC’s 9-0 run to make it 46-42 Pirates.

The final, decisive run came from the Red Hawks, who rattled off 13 straight points to go ahead 55-46 with a minute left. There’d be no answer from the Pirates this time.

Leading the charge for G-E-T were Brone with 21 points and five rebounds, Burns with 19 points, eight rebounds and four assists and Ebersold with eight points and five rebounds. 

C-FC leading scorers included Aidan Lisowski with 12 points, Cameron Lipinski with 11, Porter Ehrat with 10 and Reed Schmidtknecht with nine.