Loyal boys win against Greenwood at home Loyal senior Drew Stieglitz honored

A Cloverbelt Conference rivalry continued when Loyal and Greenwood faced off on the basketball court last Friday, with the Loyal Greyhounds earning the victory. The Greyhounds took a commanding lead from the get-go, which they built on in the second half.

In the first two-and-a-half minutes, Loyal scored 10 unanswered points. A timeout was called and Loyal coach Brandon DeSmet encouraged his team to keep doing what they had been doing.

“Be intense and fill those gaps. You’re doing a great job,” he said. “Be patient, guys, so we can get those great looks.”

After the timeout, the Greyhounds indeed needed patience as they had trouble finding a good look. But a minute later, Drew Stieglitz made a quick turnaround in the paint to put up a shot, making it 12-0.

The Greenwood boys were playing with a lot of hustle, but struggling to make baskets. Senior Ryver Glynn changed that at 13:45 when he completed a layup to get his team on the board. It would take a few more minutes for the Indians to add to that lead, but Greenwood was determined to keep it competitive.

At 10:32, senior Christian Thomas fought through heavy defense inside to score two for Greenwood. A minute later, Rogan Travis hit a 3-pointer from the side to bump Greenwood up to seven points. It was another minute before Greenwood scored again, this time from another Thomas layup followed by a free throw. James Durrstein also made two layups, one right after the other, bringing Greenwood’s point total to 14.

In the same time it took Greenwood to score 14 points, Loyal scored 12. That left the score at 24-14 with seven minutes left in the half. Loyal called a timeout.

“Take care of the ball! Otherwise that happens — we give them four free throws,” DeSmet told his team.

Please see Loyal vs. Greenwood, page 10

On left, Loyal’s Isaac Jakobi hits a jumper in the home game versus Greenwood Feb. 17. He scored eight points for his team. On right, senior Christian Thomas puts up two for Greenwood that same night. Thomas scored eight points total.

VALORIE BRECHT/STAFF PHOTOS Loyal vs. Greenwood,

from p. 9 Right after the break, Loyal freshman Reed Stieglitz put in three. Greenwood took the ball down the court but before long, Bryce Deegan knocked it away and raced back to Loyal’s end to put in two. Then it was tit-for-tat throughout the rest of the half, with Glynn making a layup and a free throw, Deegan making another layup and Glynn completing two more free throws.

That left the score 31-19 at halftime, not an insurmountable gap by any means.

Just 30 seconds in to the new half, Travis picked up an offensive rebound and put it back in to score, making it 31-21, or a 10-point gap between the teams just like the start of the game.

Right after that though, the Greyhounds went on an eight-point scoring run, with baskets by Jacob Schill, Drew Stieglitz, Isaac Jakobi and Connor Genteman. Greenwood added 10 points over the next three minutes while Loyal added five, leaving the score at 46-31. However, then Loyal went on another scoring streak, this time with baskets from Jakobi, Reed Stieglitz and Cain Toufar, to go up another six points. That left the score at 50-33 with just under eight minutes remaining.

Greenwood lost some energy after that and was not quite as vigilant on defense. The team has struggled with a lack of depth all season, as there is an experience gap between the starters — four seniors and one sophomore — and the rest of the team, all sophomores or freshman. At the same time, Loyal kept plugging away.

The Greyhounds scored 12 more points over the rest of the game to give them the victory, 62-38. Both teams scored the same number of points in the first half as the second.

Glynn led the way for scoring for Greenwood, with 16 points, the most of anyone on the court that night. Thomas and Travis each had eight. Durrstein had four and Luke Plechacek had two.

Loyal saw eight players successfully score points: Drew Stieglitz had 14 points, his brother Reed had 13, Jakobi and Schill each had eight, Genteman had seven, Toufar had six, Deegan had four and Parker Smith had two.

After the game, DeSmet took the time to honor the lone senior on the Loyal squad, as is tradition for the team’s last home game of the regular season.

DeSmet had many positive things to say about Drew Stieglitz. He said Drew always helped people get up from the floor during games, including his opponents. He also said Drew seemed to know someone from every school and was always chatting with someone from another team during games.

“The demeanor he has is infectious at school. He’s always willing to talk with you,” DeSmet, who also teaches math at Loyal, said.

“Drew has been really, really good for our team. With seniors graduating, we lost 90 percent of our starters last year. But Drew had that calm, cool composure that helped us as we dealt with that. He has never wavered in what we’re trying to accomplish.”

DeSmet said he has seen Drew grow as a player on both ends of the basketball court.

“Drew has that big frame that can guard with the bigs. He’s a pretty strong defensive player. As far as offense, about four weeks ago he was probably feeling pretty frustrated with his offensive game. And I told him good things come to those who just keep working, that are there every single day at practice, grinding like he does. And that his time was going to come, when the ball bounces his way. And I think in the last six, seven, eight games — whatever it’s been this last three weeks — he’s been scoring like 17 points a game for us, and he’s been a big offensive player against some really good teams. We’ve had some great battles, and he’s a big part of that… As a senior, he helped his team get to double-digit victories, the second time in a year that’s happened for us.”

Off the court, Drew maintains high grades to qualify for honor roll. He is part of National Honor Society, student council and Fellowship of Christian Athletes. He plans to attend the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point to study biology.

Ryver Glynn lobs the ball inside to James Durrstein, which turned into a basket for Greenwood. Not only did Glynn regularly assist, he also scored 16 points of his own throughout the game at Loyal Feb. 17.

VALORIE BRECHT/STAFF PHOTO