G-E-T wins two, just miss Coulee title

Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau did their part with an outside shot at splitting the Coulee Conference up to four ways heading into last week, but did not get the help they needed to clinch a share of the title.

Entering last Thursday’s action within a game of West Salem (8-3) and Black River Falls (8-3), the latter of whom G-E-T played that night, the then-7-4 Red Hawks had a chance to finish knotted up in the Coulee with a win and a Panthers’ loss. G-E-T ran away from the Tigers in the first half to stay alive after a Tuesday win over Westby, but a West Salem road win over Viroqua clinched the conference outright for the Panthers. 

G-E-T finishes their regular season 8-4 in the Coulee and 12-10 overall. The win was their fourth in their final five games after dropping three consecutively prior to that stretch. Head coach Jared McCutchen said he was excited for what his team has shown in stretches recently when playing as a unit defensively.

“We’ve been so up-and-down this year that it’s kind of like a Jekyll and Hyde offensively and on defense,” McCutchen said. “I think we have a team that can beat anybody. But that said, if we don’t play good defense, we can also lose to anybody.”

The Red Hawks also received a sixth seed in the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association Division Three regional playoff bracket. G-E-T hosted 11th-seeded Nekoosa (4-18) on Tuesday, with the winner advancing to a road date with third-seeded Mauston (15-7) on Friday.

G-E-T 49 Westby 30 - The first of two necessary wins to stay alive for a Coulee title came last Monday as the Red Hawks took care of Westby at home. 

G-E-T led 19-15 at half, and pulled away thanks in part to 18 points off 20 Westby turnovers. Grant Beirne led scorers with 23 points, followed by 14 from Sawyer Schmidt, five from Roger Niederkorn, three from Luke Vance and two each from Tyler Hammond and Kyle Scherr. 

Schmidt and Beirne led the team in rebounds with seven each, and Schmidt added four steals to lead the team as well. Lance Lettner led the team in assists with five, followed by Schmidt’s four.

G-E-T 62 BRF 52 - In perhaps the most influential game of three taking place last Thursday to decide between one and four Coulee champions, the Red Hawks decisively set the tone midway through the first half.

Trailing 8-7 with just under nine minutes remaining in the opening half, Schmidt drained a three to give the Red Hawks the lead. Hammond converted a layup through contact for an and-one the next trip down, followed by Beirne’s second and-one conversion of the half that made it 16-8. Scherr and Beirne added another layup each, with Beirne’s coming again with the foul before a final Beirne layup to cap the 16-0 run. 

After a bucket by BRF to draw back within 23-10, G-E-T finished the final four minutes on a 10-0 run that included a pair of free-throws from Hammond and a pair of buckets each from Beirne and Schmidt. McCutchen said it was the team effort on defense that set up fast break opportunities to build the lead.

“I think defensively as a whole unit we stood out,” McCutchen said. “We know good things happen when we force turnovers. Grant got loose on quite a few of those for layups and and-ones, and for quite a while we looked like a force to be reckoned with.”

As G-E-T fans in BRF began to shift their focus to the West Salem-Viroqua game that would decide their Coulee fate, turnovers and missed free throws by the Red Hawks started to make things interesting. 

After being held to a combined four points in the first half, Trey Cowley and Elliot Bird of the Tigers both began to find their shooting strokes. The duo combined for 31 second-half points as the G-E-T lead dwindled towards single-digits as Cowley and Bird drained a combined seven three-pointers. McCutchen said the half provided teaching moments to his team before they enter postseason play.

“We got nervous at times with the basketball and at the free-throw line. We talked about that a little bit, how in big games there’s gonna be some big parts to knock down free-throws and take care of the ball. We’ll learn from that, but I’m happy we came here and took care of business tonight,” McCutchen said.

A buzzer-beater by Cowley changed nothing but the final margin as G-E-T dropped BRF to 8-4. Both teams missed their chance at the Coulee as West Salem hung on to win 64-51 and take the conference outright over the Red Hawks, Tigers and 8-4 Onalaska Luther.

Leading the Red Hawks were Beirne’s 22 points that included three converted and-one opportunities. Following him were Schmidt’s 18 points, Scherr and Hammond each with nine and Lettner and Harshman each with two. Scherr led in rebounds as well with 11, and Beirne was credited with six steals.