Rockets start rolling after opening loss

Two nonconference games helped the Cedar Grove-Belgium High School boys’ basketball team get on track after a tough opening-season loss to a Big East Conference South Division contender.

The Rockets dropped its opener at home to Sheboygan Lutheran, 80-73, in a game filled with typical mistakes that happen early in the season.

Senior Owen Gulke, who eclipsed 1,000 career points last season and is on his way to finishing among the school’s top all-time scorers, led the team with 20 points on 10-for-21 shooting. Junior Griffin Knight scored 19 points on 8-for-16 shooting and grabbed eight rebounds. Carter Schmitz scored 16 points on 4-for-10 shooting and had six assists.

The Rockets trailed, 41-35, at halftime and could never quite get over the hump, only getting as close as two points the rest of the way.

Brennen Hackbarth had 29 points and 15 rebounds for the Crusaders, who outrebounded the Rockets, 37-25. McCoy Michael added 22.

“They’re so well coached. They’re just mentally prepared,” Rockets’ coach Jake Hock said. “We are still getting in the groove.”

The Rockets bounced back with two straight home victories.

First, they beat Kiel, 71-47, on Dec. 2. Knight had 21 points on 9-for-15 shooting, seven assists and six steals. Gulke had 20 points on 9-for-12 shooting. Schmitz had 17 points on 7-for-12 shooting.

Last Saturday, the Rockets beat Valders, 78-48. Gulke had 17 points on 8-for-13 shooting and Schmitz had 16 points and nine rebounds. Senior Thomas Wiesner had 11 points and 18 rebounds. Knight had eight points, nine rebounds and five assists.

It was the third straight game the Rockets scored in the 70s and the second that they held their opponents to less than 50.

“I think with the athletes we have I believe we have a defense that can cause a lot of problems for teams,” Hock said.

“I think all our guys can score. But with our defense, that carries no matter who has an off night or not. That’s a big emphasis for us — Griffin is a freak athlete, Wiesner continues to grow and be a smarter basketball player, anticipating things on defense before the offense knows they happen.”

Gulke will always get his points, Hock said, and Schmitz can go off as well.

Noah Lukens is the other starter and will be an inside presence. Any of the other four can take care of ball-handling duties.

From the bench, Hock praised seniors Bradley Mentink and Sawyer Knutson, both getting their first significant minutes on varsity.

“He’s just playing phenomenal defense for us. He’s getting touches and rebounds and box outs, doing the dirty work,” Hock said of Mentink, adding Knutson is “doing a great job.”

The Rockets come off a 4-8 season in the Big East South and a magical playoff run that included an upset of Kohler thanks to Gulke’s late free throws and a half-court buzzer-beating upset of Roncalli thanks to Wiesner. The season ended with a 61-58 loss to the Prairie School in the sectional final. They finished 16-13 overall.

The Rockets lost point guard Brody Halleman and his 3.4 assists per game and forward Cade Borden, who was third on the team in averaging 9.2 points per game, but much of their scoring power returns. 

Gulke was third in the Big East, averaging 19.3 points per game — making 49.5% of his shots — and was named to the league’s first team. The 6 feet, 3-inch guard was second on the team in rebounds, grabbing 4.7 per game.

Schmitz was named to the second team after averaging 17.1 points and 4.3 rebounds per game.

Knight averaged 6.5 points and 4.3 rebounds per game.

Wiesner led in rebounds with seven per game and he was second in assists with 2.3 per game.

Last year’s playoff success has the Rockets hungry for another deep run.

“I’m fired up,” Gulke said. “We have really high expectations. We all believe we can do something good this year. I just think we’ve gotta keep our head up.”

“We have aspirations that we should contend in every game we play. Our guys have a good mindset of every time they’re on the floor they think they can win a game,” Hock said. “If I do my job and if our coaches do all of our jobs together, I think we can have a really great fun season, a special season.”

Hock is now in his third year at the varsity helm and his fourth with these seniors. He was the junior varsity coach when the seniors were freshmen.

“We’ve been able to grow together, me as a coach and them as players,” he said.

The Rockets face three rivals in eight days. They were to play at Oostburg on Tuesday, Dec. 9. They host Ozaukee on Friday, Dec. 12, and play at Random Lake on Tuesday, Dec. 16.