PERFECTION: Gibsonburg completes undefeated season

GIBSONBURG – Just a couple weeks into the season, Gibsonburg boys basketball coach Brent Liskai gathered his team. He told the Golden Bears, though they were off to a good start, to forget any notion of going undefeated. Doing so, he said, wasn’t possible.

Friday night, Liskai’s team proved him wrong.

Gibsonburg completed its regular season with a 70-46 win over Hopewell-Loudon, lifting the Golden Bears to 22-0 and into school history.

“It feels even better than I thought it was going to,” senior Derek Angelone said. “Early into the year coach told us ‘You guys are doing great but you can’t expect to go 22-0, it doesn’t happen in this day and age.’ …Our goal was to go out and prove him and wrong.”

Even as his team closed in on the perfect season, Liskai insists going undefeated was never a notion that struck him as being a realistic goal.

“No, never,” he said. “My assistants look forward a lot more than I do and I’m like, ‘no, no.’ We get everyone’s best shot and when you start looking ahead is when you stumble.”

While the Golden Bears entered Friday on the cusp on history, Hopewell-Loudon did not let Gibsonburg waltz to an easy win.

Though Gibsonburg took a 35-18 lead into halftime, Hopewell-Loudon knocked the Golden Bears back early in the second half. The Chieftains opened the third quarter with three 3-pointers in the opening two minutes and out-scored Gibsonburg 11-2 in the period’s early going and whittled the deficit down to just eight points.

Entering the fourth quarter with a 48-37 lead, the Golden Bears finally put the Chieftains away. Erik Jahna scored the opening baskets of the period. Angelone then hit a jumper, followed by fast-break layup by Bryce Ernsthausen. Moments later Angelone hit a 3-pointer to grow Gibsonburg’s lead out to 20 just three minutes into the fourth quarter.

Jahna, who scored six points, along with fellow reserves Josh Ernsthausen (four points), Josh Dyer and Mateo Flores all played key roles in spelling Gibsonburg starters Bryce Ernsthausen, Angelone and TJ McGough as they battled foul trouble for at least portions of the night.

“We’ve had a lot of moments like that we our bench has stepped up and tonight was like that,” Liskai said. “We had guys in foul trouble and we got some great minutes out of Mateo, Josh, out of Erik. We were 10 or 11 deep on our bench and doing a great job with it.”

Seniors Jordan Kreglow and Angelone each scored 19 points for Gibsonburg while Bryce Ernsthausen added 10 as all three, along with McGough and injured senior Matt Tille, played their final game at Gibsonburg.

“It’s really tough to do,” Kreglow said. “You get every team’s best towards the end of the season and every game gets harder. We stuck together and we kept working.”

rmcgowan@gannett.com

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Twitter: @RMcGowan1