Rockets return to scene of upset and win again

Kohler remembers that the Cedar Grove-Belgium High School boys’ basketball team pulled off a last-second playoff win in the Joe Wolf Gym last year and is none too happy about it.

The Blue Bombers still aren’t pleased after the Rockets beat them, 68-62, on Monday.

Cedar Grove-Belgium won despite a first-half shooting percentage somewhere in the range of this week’s high temperature.

“We couldn’t hit any jump shots in the first half,” coach Jake Hock said.

But the Rockets were only down, 29-27, at half. Griffin Knight carried the team with 12 points in the game’s first 24 minutes.

Carter Schmitz got hot, scoring 19 of his 21 points in the second half, and the Rockets took the lead and never let go.

Knight finished with 18 points. Owen Gulke had 15 points and Thomas Wiesner had 11.

“You just can’t guard all four,” Hock said. “They pick up each other’s slack when one is cold.”

He also praised post player  Noah Lukens for his “great visiion” and Sawyer Knutson for his effort off the bench.

“He played really good defense,” Hock said.

The gym was also the site of Wiesner’s half-court overtime buzzer-beater that beat Roncalli in last year’s playoffs.

It was the Rockets’ eighth win in a row. They won at Kewaskum, 82-67, last Friday, and beat Sheboygan Christian, 80-35, at home on Jan. 13.

Knight had 24 points and 14 rebounds against Kewaskum. Gulke had 23 points.

Gulke had 27 points against Sheboygan Christian. Wiesner had 20 and Schmitz had 16.

The Rockets, 4-2 and in third place in the Big East South and 10-2 overall, play at St. Mary’s Springs on Saturday, Jan. 24, and host Campbellsport on Tuesday, Jan. 27.