Blazers open with three victories
When Beckman’s seventh grade Blazers opened their season Jan. 15 against West Delaware, they pasted three losses on the black and orange.
The A team won, 37-11, the B team, 33-18 and the C team, 28-5.
In the first game, the Blazers blew to a 15-1 first quarter lead and were up 32-3 at half. Michael Keegan paced scoring with 12, followed by Tom Jaeger nine, Jack Westhoff, Sean Kluesner and Bennett English four and Luke Goedken two. Other stats include: rebounds — English five, Kluesner four; steals — Tom Jaeger four and Kluesner three.
In the second game, the Blazers saw a 10-2 first quarter lead shrink to 14-12 by halftime but hung on for the win. Isaac Schlarmann led scoring with 17, while Evan Schlarmann added six, Josh Engler five, Adam Wessels three, Willem Valant two and Luke Olberding one. Other stats were: rebounds — Engler four and Evan Schlarmann three; steals — Isaac Schlarmann two.
Game three saw the Blazers up 16-0 at halftime. The Hawks scored all five of their points in the third quarter. Eight Blazers scored, led by six points from both Mitchell Brant and Valant, four from Wessels and Olberding, and two from Aaron Knipper, Will Brehm, Victor Meyer and Jacob Sadler. Brehm and Sadler led boards with five and four, while Olberding grabbed two steals.
Eighth-grade Blazers begin with split
A split with West Delaware began Beckman’s eighth-grade boys basketball season on Jan. 15. The A team lost, 44-26, and the B team won, 26-23.
In the first game, Seamus O’Connor hit 16 points and both Brock Marbach and Dan Heiderscheit added five.
In the B game, Heiderscheit led totals with 14, Marcus Schneider hit eight and Kael Kruse four.
Beckman freshmen add two more wins
Beckman’s freshmen boys added two more wins last week, both WaMaC tests. They stopped Anamosa 59-43 at home on Jan. 13 and topped Solon there on Jan. 16, 53-42.
They trailed 11-9 after the first quarter, but rebounded to lead 32-24 by halftime and kept up the advantage through the second half. “I thought we started slowly and showed improvement throughout the game,” added coach Ryan Meissner. “Anamosa provided a little different type of game plan (which) we needed to adjust to and our kids did well. (They) also play some sophomores in the game, which can be a little intimidating, but our kids handled that well too. Our effort was again phenomenal.”
Leading individual stats were: scoring — John Gulick 20, Mitchell Gehling 13, Ryan Bildstein 12, Connor McDermott 10, Mitchell Burlage three, Scott Olberding one; rebounds — Gulick and Gehling eight, McDermott five, Bildstein three, Eric Recker two, Justin Wessel, Austin Hermsen and Camden Leonard one; steals — Conner Krantz three, Gulick, Olberding, McDermott and Bildstein two; blocks — Olberding and Bildstein one; assists — Krantz four, Gulick and Bildstein three, Olberding, McDermott, Gehling and Hermsen one; blocks — Olberding and Bildstein one.
At Solon on Jan. 19, the Blazers led, 16-12, after the first quarter, only to see that lead disappear in the second, where they trailed 22-18. They came back in the third to take a 38-30 lead and coasted to the end.
Meissner added, “After a very disappointing first half, we came out in the second half and executed both our offense and defense very well.”
Leading individual stats were: scoring — Gulick 22, McDermott 13, Krantz eight, Bildstein six, Burlage and Hermsen two; rebounds — Gulick and Gehling five, McDermott three, Burlage two, Hermsen, Bildstein, Olberding and Krantz one; steals — Gehling two, Krantz, McDermott and Bildstein one; assists — Krantz and Bildstein three, McDermott and Hermsen two, Gehling one.
The Blazers are at 11-0 overall, 9-0 in WaMaC play.
Blazer frosh-sophs split week’s games
Two games last week resulted in only the second loss of the season for the Beckman frosh-soph boys basketball team. The Blazers fell at Anamosa on Jan. 13, 54-51, but rebounded on Jan. 16 against Solon, 67-35.
“Tuesday was a tough start to the week for our team,” said coach Michael Molony. “In a highly-contested game, we couldn’t close the game after jumping to a 28-18 lead with two minutes to go in the first half. The fourth quarter got away from us (outscored 17-11) and their defense got us sideways (committed 17 turnovers in the second half).
“All in all, it was the perfect loss for us since the stats indicate our attacking style was only able to get us to the line 13 times (converting nine of those) while the predominately passing/three-point shooting Raiders (made seven) were able to generate 13 points in 24 attempts at the stripe.”
Individuals stats include: scoring — Sam Oberbroeckling 15, Jackson Bennett 14, Riley LeGrand (one three) and Sam Stelken nine, Colin Koelker six (two), Noah Sabers and Brady Arens four: rebounds — Arens and Bennett seven, Oberbroeckling six, Sabers and LeGrand two, Connor McDermott and John Gulick one; assists — LeGrand five, Bennett three, Oberbroeckling and Sabers two and Arens one.
The Blazers rebounded with a big-time win over Solon at home on Jan. 16. After edging ahead 6-4 in the first quarter, the Blazers went on a run, scoring the next 13 straight points to end the quarter up 19-4. Two players combined for all 13 points, Sam Stelken (eight) and Sam Oberbroeckling (five, one trey). Unlike Tuesday night, they maintained the lead for the rest of the game.
“There isn’t a better way to rebound (than with) Friday night, our best performance of the season,” said Molony. “Offensively and defensively we stepped our games up. Our kids have felt they should be in contention for the conference championship since last season ended. Solon came with only a few conference losses so we had to be ready for a fight. Luckily we turned them over early and jumped out to the first quarter advantage, which carried over with a total team win. The stats showed us out-rebounding them 36-20 and assisting on 19 of our 28 made baskets.
“The big thing for us to take away from last week is the fact it’s over. We have a couple hungry teams coming after us (this week) and we have to be sharp. Defensively, if we limit teams to under 50 points we haven’t lost, but we are only a .500 team if we allow over 50. Getting defensive stops will be the key if we want to be victorious this week.”
Individual stats include: scoring — Stelken 18, Oberbroeckling 15 (three), LeGrand (one) and Bennett seven, Arens and McDermott six, Sabers and Gulick four; rebounds — Oberbroeckling and Stelken seven, Bennett five, Arens four, Koelker three, LeGrand and McDermott two, Sabers and Mitchell Gehling one; assists — LeGrand seven, Sabers four, Oberbroeckling three, Gulick and Arens two.
WD wins own junior varsity tournament
Western Dubuque’s Next Men In won their own Bobcat Junior Varsity Invitational on Jan. 16 with 209.5 points.
Cedar Rapids Kennedy placed second (164.5), Hempstead third (132.5), Mount Vernon fourth (131), JV All-Stars fifth (126), Central DeWitt sixth (121), Pleasant Valley seventh (88), Dubuque Senior eighth (57) and Northeast ninth (32).
JD Kluesner, Kam Kramer, Luke Kluesner, Cody McDermott and Reid Hoefler (JV All-Stars) all won individual titles.
Keaton Bockenstedt, Cory Wernimont, Matthew Schemmel and Freddie Hosch (JV All-Stars) all placed second. Caden Burke, Evan Ellis, Jacob Close (JV All-Stars), Zach Funke (JV All-Stars) and Tom McAndrew (JV All-Stars) were third; Tyler Mensen fourth; Collin Schirmer (JV All-Stars) fifth; Nathan Simon, Austin Curl (JV All-Stars) and Dylan Nemmers (JV All-Stars) sixth.
JV Blazer girls add to win streak
Both WaMaC games last week gave the Beckman junior varsity girls basketball team its fourth and fifth straight wins of the season. The Blazers stopped Anamosa, 32-18, at home on Jan. 13 and Solon, 30-27, on the road on Jan. 16.
The Blazers took advantage of a three-point Raider second quarter to up their margin to 15-8 by halftime. That seven-point margin held until the start of the fourth quarter, but the Raiders added just four free throws during the time the Blazers hit 11 points, though they missed nine free throws in 14 attempts in the frame.
Coach Jill Knipper added, “The girls seemed flat overall tonight. (But) we played well as a team though and were able to come out with the win. The girls seem to learn something new every game that helps down the stretch.”
Individual stat leaders include: scoring — Shalyn Wessels 16, Kelli Engelken six, Abby Palmer three, Isabel Brehm, Holly Trenkamp and Olivia Schlarmann two, Amber Boeckenstedt one; rebounds — Palmer, Wessels and Malerie Reitzler three, Engelken and Boeckenstedt two; steals — Engelken four, Brehm three, Wessels, Trenkamp and Veronica Kelly two, Boeckenstedt and Palmer one; assists — Brehm, Wessels, Boeckenstedt and Shannon Hoffman one.
At Solon, the Blazers “struggled with the little fundamental things tonight that need to be done well,” said Knipper. “We were able to stay composed as a team though and come away with the win. The girls are constantly fighting for the win.”
Individual stat leaders include: scoring — Wessels 10, Schlarmann six, Engelken four, Trenkamp, Palmer, Boeckenstedt and Elise Westhoff two; rebounds — Wessels nine, Boeckenstedt four, Palmer, Engelken and Kelly three; steals — Boeckenstedt three, Engelken and Wessels two, Palmer and Hoffman one; assists — Hoffman and Boeckenstedt one.
