Flatonia Boys Beat Schulenburg in Basketball to Stay Undefeated
The Flatonia high school boy’s basketball team squared off against district rival Schulenburg Saturday afternoon in Flatonia and won the match with a final score of 64-51.
“These guys work really hard,” said Flatonia head boy’s basketball coach Chris Sodek. “They’ve practiced hard all year. We’re without some players right now. We had to play shorthanded and find a way to pull this thing off. We played against a great team in Schulenburg. They’re well coached, got a bunch of good players, and they’re one of the best teams in the state. We kind of zoned in and we decided we’re going to get after it and give it our best shot. That’s the way it worked out and it ended up being a good team win.”
Flatonia improved to 7-0 overall and 1-0 in district with the win.
On the Schulenburg side, the loss puts them with an overall record of 4-4 and a 1-1 district mark.
“Flatonia shot the ball really, really well today,” said Schulenburg head boy’s basketball coach Rich Hoogendorn. “We didn’t contest it well in the first half. I thought we contested it a little better in the second half. We struggled with our trap a little bit. They didn’t let us get our fast break going, which is our bread and butter. They did a great job on our big guy. I think (Alex) Lozano had 15 or 16 last night and I think he had 5 today. They scouted us well. It’s a competitive district. Coach Sodek’s a very good coach. The other thing is, I probably screwed up scheduling them back-to back. We could’ve played this after Christmas. But I felt like I wanted to go ahead and get it done Friday and Saturday night. We were coming off a big win against Weimar last night, so we were a little flat today. I’ll take that. We’ll be fine. We’re going to continue to get better. We need a good break, but we’ll be fine.”
The Bulldogs opened the game with a three pointer made by senior power forward Collin Bosl, who finished the afternoon with 20 points and hit six three pointers in the first half.
“Every time I got that ball, my mind just went blank,” Bosl said. “I was just focused on the basket and putting the ball in the hole. It was a good team win.” Flatonia went into a 1-3-1 full court press with about six minutes to go in the first quarter and made it tough for Schulenburg to get any kind of offense going throughout the first half.
A 17-10 first quarter lead spiraled into a 37-22 advantage at halftime thanks to Bosl’s hot hand from beyond the arc and an aggressive performance as a team on defense. The Bulldogs went back to their 1-3-1 press in the third while sophomore guard Keyshaun Green relit the fire on offense with his shooting stroke. Flatonia also was able to continue scoring in transition until they decided to slow the ball down and hold a 55-37 edge going into the final quarter.
Schulenburg started to chip into the lead during the fourth, which included a fancy euro step by Kenny King on a fastbreak for a layup to make it a 14 point game. As the Shorthorns were gaining momentum, Flatonia called a timeout around the four minute mark, but it didn’t stop the visiting team’s late surge when senior guard Bryce Wilson made a steal and a layup on the ensuing possession to cut it to 12 at 57-45. Then at the 1:50 mark, Flatonia sophomore Holden Kloesel swiped a steal and layup of his own to put an exclamation point on a 64-51 statement win.
12/19/20
Flatonia boys 64, Schulenburg 51
Flatonia 17 20 18 9 – 64
Sburg 10 12 15 14 – 51
Schulenburg scoring: King 22, Johnson 6, Wilson 10, Ryba, Speed 5, Herrera, Anthony 1, Lozano 6, Schramek 1.
Flatonia scoring: Keyshaun Green 20, Holden Kloesel 7, Reese Ramirez 2, Luke Law 11, Collin Bosl 20, Hagan Wagner 4.