WIAA DIV. 5 BOYS BASKETBALL - Winter knocks out the Pirates with high-scoring first half

WIAA DIV. 5 BOYS BASKETBALL

Not many teams have slowed down Winter’s offense this boys basketball season and the Gilman Pirates were no exception in Tuesday’s WIAA Division 5 regional quarterfinal.

The Warriors, who average 82 points per game, pulled away from the 14thseeded Pirates in the first half, whether it was scoring inside, getting offensive rebounds, hitting 3s or turning turnovers into points and ran away with an 87-48 win to continue their 18-7 season.

Gilman’s first season under head coach Tyler Pockat ended at 3-21.

The Pirates did have two leads in the opening moments, getting a jumper from Logan Halida for the game’s first basket and a putback from Brayden Olynick to go up 4-2. The third-seeded East Lakeland Conference champions took off from there, getting 28 points from their leading scorer, Gunnar Greuel, 22 from Adam Bednorski and 17 from Carter Petit. Greuel also had 15 rebounds.

Bednorski hit three 3-point shots as the Warriors pushed out to a 22-8 lead. Greuel sank two 3s and Petit made his mark by turning steals into points in another Winter run that made it 37-14. Greuel’s steal turned into a three-point play and added another hoop for a 42-14 edge and the Warriors put an exclamation point on their first half by getting late 3s from Malte Collander and Bednorski to lead 4916 at halftime.

While not nearly enough to keep up, the Pirates did have some offensive highlights and played a closer to even second half, getting outscored only 38-32 in the last 18 minutes.

Max Ustianowski continued a strong finishing stretch to his junior season with a team-leading 11 points. He scored seven of those points in the second half, including a 3-pointer. Joey Syryczuk hit double figures for the third time this year, scoring 10 points. He drained two second-half 3s. Dawson Grunseth came off the bench and hit a tough jumper and two free throws. Tony Syryczuk sank a 3 and scored off a steal for his five points before fouling out with just over three minutes to go.

Seniors Dalton Wisocky and Caleb Marion both made their final baskets as Pirates in the final minute. Wisocky had four points in the loss. Halida finished with six points, scoring his last basket off an assist by senior Adam Draeger, and Beau Pockat was four for four from the free throw line.

Winter advanced to a Friday regional semifinal against sixth-seeded Hurley, who beat 11th-seeded Mellen 69-46 Tuesday.

While wins were still hard to come by, the Pirates did show signs of improvement in their rebuilding project, breaking the program’s long losing streaks both overall and in Eastern Cloverbelt Conference play. Still very young overall as a program, there is plenty of room and time for growth next year and beyond.

game –– with 23 seconds left got Gilman within 43-19 at the half.

But Stewart opened the second half with a trey, and Sutton and Stewart each scored to give Thorp its largest lead at 5019.

The Pirates chipped away a bit at that lead the rest of the way, led by Ustianowski’s scoring. They got as close as 17 at 59-42 with 2:10 left following a Pockat steal that led to a Tony Syryczuk layup.

Pockat had five points for Gilman, Joey Syryczuk scored four and Draeger had a steal and score in the final seconds.

Thorp had a slight 36-34 rebounding edge and Gilman had one less turnover than Thorp with 14.