Gridiron stars can play hoops too

Cedar Grove-Belgium High School seniors Logan Arrowood and Sam Peiffer changed sports but are keeping the same chemistry this winter.

The football stars are also leading the Rockets on the basketball court, and last Friday they helped the team to a 61-50 win over visiting Random Lake.

Arrowood zipped the ball to his teammates just like he did as quarterback, and Peiffer was the recipient of several passes and took full advantage, many on fast breaks after turnovers.

Peiffer led the Rockets with 21 points, making seven of 11 two-pointers, and Arrowood had 15. Parker Knight had 13, including going 3-for-6 on three-pointers, and Caleb Beightol had seven points.

The Rockets’ first-half defense and some cold shooting by the Rams resulted in a 34-20 Cedar Grove-Belgium advantage.

A game tied at 8 quickly turned into a 25-15 Rockets’ edge, triggering a timeout by the Rams with three minutes left in the half.

But the Rockets never let up. Peiffer scored seven points in just more than two minutes to continue the surge.

“I think we definitely capitalized well in the first half. In the second half, we slowed down a little bit but we did what we had to do and got the first win at home,” Arrowood said.

Peiffer was a focus of the Rams’ defense after scoring 37 points in the Rockets’ opener and 30 in their second game.

“I started a little slow. I didn’t take many shots in the beginning. Once I started finding the ball and finding the rhythm a little bit, then I started scoring the ball and finding people open, too,” Peiffer said.

Nobody could stop Ram forward Matt Merlo, who scored 29 points on 11-for-22 shooting. He kept the Rams in the game and helped close the gap to nine points, 42-33, with 10 and a half minutes left in the game and then to seven, 45-38, with seven and a half minutes to play.

“We had a better first half than second half,” Rockets’ coach Derek Wimmer said.

“In the second half, we had the fast breaks, we just didn’t finish layups. We had too many bunnies we missed.”

One insie bucket each by Peiffer and Knight and a Knight three-pointer pushed the lead back 52-42 with four minutes left. The advantage was never fewer than eight points after that.

It would have been a more comfortable win if the Rockets had hit their 15-footers. Peiffer went 2-for-6 on free throws in the final minute, and Arrowood went 4-for-9 in the game.

“We could have had a bigger lead,” Wimmer said.

CG-Belgium tops Sheboygan Christian

On Nov. 30, the Rockets won at Sheboygan Christian in a high-flying affair, 84-76.

Peiffer had 30 points and Arrowood had 23. Tanner Kettenhoven had eight.

For the Eagles, Michael Modahl had 27 points and Noah Heinen had 20.

The Rockets, 2-1, were to play at Elkhart Lake-Glenbeulah on Tuesday and host Oostburg on Thursday.