Pirates end regular season with home loss to Owen-Withee

16 and 14 points, respectively, in a 69-34 loss to Owen-Withee that closed the regular season.

Wininger’s career high in scoring allowed him to bump Hecker out of the team’s leading scorer spot for the first game this season. He took the ball to the basket aggressively and made eight of nine free throws. He scored 10 of his points in the second half.

Hecker, as usual, was defended hard and didn’t get a ton of open looks. He scored 11 of his points in the second half as he and Wininger accounted for 21 of Gilman’s 23 second-half points.

With the loss, the Pirates finished 0-14 in the Eastern Cloverbelt Conference which, almost miraculously, got all of its 56 league games played this winter.

Owen-Withee, who finished 6-8 in league play, got off to a slow start from the field, but the Pirates were even colder which allowed the Blackhawks to create early separation.

Wininger’s free throws got Gilman on the board with 13:38 left in the first half, cutting Owen-Withee’s lead to 10-2. The teams traded points until a Hecker free throw with 7:04 left made it 16-6. That’s when Owen-Withee put the game away with a 15-0 run over the next five minutes to build a 31-6 advantage.

Logan Amacher scored six of the first eight points in the run and Caleb Geldernick added four points.

Wininger finally stopped the bleeding with two free throws at the 2:02 mark and Caleb Marion hit a bonus throw with 41.9 seconds left. Wininger’s basket in the closing seconds was only the second field goal of the game for Gilman, who trailed 35-11 at the break.

Turnovers helped fuel Owen-Withee’s 19-2 run to start the second half that opened up a 54-13 lead.

The Pirates finally got some momentum and played well in the last nine minutes, getting those 21 points from Wininger and Hecker.

Abram Wininger scored Gilman’s only basket in the first nine minutes of the half, coming off a Hecker assist. Ustianowski and Caleb Marion added one point apiece to Gilman’s scoring.

In a 72-24 loss at Owen-Withee Jan. 19, the Pirates had all kinds of trouble with Owen-Withee’s halfcourt trap. While they still had too many miscues Thursday, head coach Bobbi Marion said the Pirates handled it better.

“It was much better than the first time,” she said. “We go to New Auburn on Tuesday. This is a good game to come off of. The boys played hard. They can hold their heads up with this.”

Amacher led a balanced Owen-Withee attack with 17 points, 13 of which came in the first half. Carter Klabon scored 11 points and Aaron Ovyn had 10, including the Blackhawks’ first eight points, which included two 3-pointers. In all, 11 Blackhawks scored in the game.