Kurt Hall Hits 1000 As Jersey Boys End Basketball Season
Hall was the shining star for the Panthers in the 70-51 defeat to Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin in the Jersey 3A Regional. Hall passed the 1,000-point plateau on his first basket of the contest.
Alex Strebel added 10 as Sacred Heart-Griffin eliminated Jersey in the second semifinal of the Jersey regional at Havens Gym.
Joe Gustafson and Charlie Hamilton both led the Cyclones with 14 points, with Nick Broeker and Andrew Schulter both scoring 13 each.
SH-G, now 20-9, advance to Friday night’s final, and will go up against the state’s third-ranked team in Class 3A, Springfield Southeast. The Spartans won the first semifinal over Jacksonville 84-41.
The Panthers conclude the season at 13-19. “It should have been 36-31 at the half,” Jersey head coach Stote Reeder said. “This was a team more talented than us physically, but we looked at their score and we killed it on the passing chart at the half, and unfortunately, we were down by 11. The kids did a good job sticking to game plan but we didn’t rebound well. In the first half, I thought we defended really well; they got us on offensive rebounds. Sacred Heart shot pretty well and Broeker is a load in there. We wore down and they picked up the pressure. Their pressure bothered us. We did a great job on offense and got some good shots and but we ran out of gas in the second half. Hats off to Sacred Heart for the way they played."
Coach Reeder said overall he believes the theme for the Panthers should be they never quit all season. “These kids didn’t quit and that's a reflection on the five seniors,” Reeder said. “Nathan Goldacher knew he wouldn’t play but never missed a game or a practice because of his football injury. Our seniors were great leaders this season.”
