Gresham boys basketball team's rally falls short in sectional final

The Gresham High School boys basketball team’s valiant second-half comeback effort came up short in a 84-66 Division 5 sectional final loss to the Green Bay N.E.W. Lutheran co-op on Feb. 27 in Green Bay.

Third-seeded Gresham had difficulty rebounding against the top-seeded Green Bay NEW Lutheran co-op, which used its size to its advantage. When Green Bay wasn’t scoring in the paint, it was grabbing offensive rebounds to get second and third chances at scoring on the possession.

Gresham was able to build a little momentum at the end of the first half and then put together a strong second half, but the team’s surge eventually fizzled out and the hosts were able to pull away.

The hosting Blazers took control early by scoring nine of the first 11 points, doing most of the scoring in the paint.

A couple of buckets by Will Jensen helped Gresham cut into the deficit, but Green Bay then went on a 21-6 spurt to go up 20 points, 32-12, with less than three-and-a-half minutes to play in the opening half.

“I think in the first half, we were kinda like a deer in the headlights out there,” said Gresham coach Jeff Zobeck.

With Green Bay on the verge of blowing the game wide open, Gresham found some much-needed answers. The Wildcats got three-point plays from Belasaire Vele and Jensen and then a 3-pointer from Vele to trim the deficit to 15 by halftime.

After struggling against Green Bay’s pressure defense in the first half, Gresham decided to return the favor in the final half, using full-court pressure to slow the hosts and take them out of rhythm. While the Blazers still controlled the boards, the Wildcats did a better job of boxing out and securing rebounds to turn the momentum.

“I don’t know if I said a lot. Actually, some of the guys on the team said ‘We’re not doing what we do.’ They encouraged each other,” said Zobeck of what the team talked about at halftime. “We made a few adjustments to what we we’re doing in the first half.”

The second half started with two Vele free throws before a bucket by Jake Hoffman, who missed a lot of the first half after picking up two fouls.

The hosts responded with a 6-0 run before Gresham settled in and quickly started erasing the 17-point deficit.

Hoffman started the run with a bucket before Austin Sperberg hit a triple. Jensen later knocked down two free throws and then Hoffman converted a three-point play. Hoffman hit another field goal before Jensen converted a shot to make it an eight-point contest, 47-39, with still 11-and-a-half minutes to play.

Green Bay got back to attacking the basket and used a 7-3 run to regain some control. But Gresham still had plenty of fight remaining.

Jensen converted a three-point play before making another shot less than 15 seconds later to make it a 54-47 game with 9:21 to play.

Over the next few minutes, Green Bay was able to work back out to a 13-point lead. Gresham’s chances of making a comeback then took a hit when Jensen had to leave the game with 6:53 remaining after a hard fall to the floor.

The Wildcats continued to battle though, as Sperberg hit a 3-pointer, Vele converted a field goal and Sperberg hit a free throw to make it 69-60 with 4:40 to go.

That was as close as Gresham got the rest of the way, as Green Bay used a 6-0 run to push its lead back to 15, and was able to put the game away from there.

“They were a really fast team; they can shoot, drive, just an all-around team,” said Vele. “I think when we put our press on, we slowed them down a little bit but we just fell short. We didn’t have enough energy, I guess you could say, to come back. We got right there, but we couldn’t make it all the way back.”

While it was a tough way to end a special season for the Wildcats, the players didn’t hang their heads.

After an 8-16 season last winter, with a number of close losses and blown leads, Gresham flipped its record to 16-8 this season. The Wildcats fell just short of a Central Wisconsin Conference-North Division title.

“Definitely teamwork,” said Hoffman on the reason for the team’s improvement this season. “Teamwork was the main thing this year. Last year, we had players that would try to take the ball and just be solo the whole game. This year, we had teamwork going in, you could tell by the Prentice game (on Feb. 25) — we had five players score over 10 points.”

With just two seniors — Hoffman and Jonah Surprise — graduating from the team, the Wildcats will have high hopes heading into next season.

Gresham 21 45— 66

GB NEW Lutheran co-op 36 48 — 84

GB NEW Lutheran co-op (82): Lucas Dhein 0-0 15, Joseph Misovec 0-0 2, Elijah Lange 0-0 12, Elijah Meerstein 2-2 4, Tristan Lynch 2-5 16, Caleb Gosse 0-0 2, Marshal Bukowski 2-3 33.

Gresham (66): Belasaire Vele 6-7 17, Jack Haffner 0-0 3, Will Jensen 4-4 18, Lukas Pecore 0-0 5, Austin Sperberg 1-2 9, Jonah Surprise 2-2 2, Jake Hoffman 1-1 12.

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