GILMAN BOYS BASKETBALL - Pirates hang tough early, but opener gets away in second half
GILMAN BOYS BASKETBALL
The new era of Gilman boys basketball under head coach Tyler Pockat started Tuesday with, as promised, some patiently-run offense and some solid man-to-man defense. But after a competitive first half, Thorp exerted its will, knocking down more shots and getting more transition opportunities while pulling away for a 57-20 non-conference win.
Thorp senior Brady Stewart was quiet early, but after a steal and breakaway dunk that put the Cardinals up 20-7 late in the first half, he got rolling and scored 21 points to lead his team to its second win of the season. He was the only player in double figures for either side as Thorp was fairly balanced beyond Stewart with seven other players finding the scorebook.
Gilman’s best offensive success came when it was able to break down Thorp’s defense and get the ball inside to its big men. Caleb Marion led the Pirates with nine points, seven of which came in the first half. Max Ustianowski added eight.
“Defensively, I was happy about the first half,” Pockat said. “We had some great stops and kept it close, our patience on offense was pretty good in the first half, and our turnovers were limited. We need to get up more shots and let our bigs clean the glass. I thought the boys competed well until it slipped away midway through the second.”
Thorp scored the game’s first seven points, but Gilman kept it close through the first 13 minutes. A Dalton Wisocky steal led to a Marion basket off a Tony Syryczuk assist to make it 7-4 with 9:30 left in the half. Ustianowski answered a Dylan Mattson 3-pointer with a threepoint play inside, which came off another Syryczuk assist, to make it 10-7 with 6:49 to go.
The Cardinals put up a lot of 3s in the game and Mattson and Logan Hanson connected on two of them to open up a 16-7 lead for the visitors. That lead grew to 22-7 before Gilman got two offensive putbacks by Marion to get within 23-11 at the half.
Ustianowski scored twice to keep Gilman within 29-15 early in the second half, but that’s when Thorp put the game away with 18-0 run that covered about six minutes, making it a 47-15 game with eight minutes to play.
Joey Syryczuk added a late bucket and Brayden Olynick got a late free throw to enter the scoring column for Gilman. Mattson scored nine for Thorp, Hanson added eighth and Evan Hoehn and Denzel Sutton scored six points apiece.
“Our turnovers were an issue in the second half with our offensive struggles, and that is a bad combination against a good Thorp team,” Pockat said. “We did see a lot of positives from our guys and we talked about them after the game. We were proud of their effort, but they know we have work to do. I also thought the atmosphere was great for the kids. For the first game of the year it had a playoff feel in the gym and the community was loud and out to support us.”
Gilman will try to break into the win column in a non-conference game at Cornell today, Thursday, that starts at 5:45 p.m. to start a boys/girls varsity doubleheader. The Pirates are at Flambeau Monday before opening Eastern Cloverbelt Conference play at home Dec. 7 against Owen-Withee. Tip times for those games are 7:15 p.m.
