Monday, December 8, 2014

Max Giesken Hangs 22 on Union Star

Max Giesken hung 22 points on Union Star as Northeast Nodaway's boys picked up their first win, 68-36 over the Trojans. Garet Jackson was right behind with 21 as Northeast was able to recover their focus after three losses to open the season that were tough to swallow. After losing in overtime to Albany to open their season, they had a bad first quarter against Jefferson and lost 59-29 in the opening round of the Platte Valley Conference Tournament. They then lost 52-30 to South Nodaway as they had not recovered from the previous night's loss according to Coach Chaim Jenkins. But Jenkins said that the team had regained their focus after a two-night layoff and proceeded to put Union Star away early to claim 7th place.

Union Star figures to be one of those teams who will be hard to predict on any given night. They only lost by 14 to North Andrew to open the tournament; however, they only have seven players on their roster, meaning that it is difficult for the coach to use the bench. The Trojans were obviously not ready to play as nobody matched up on Garet Jackson, who knocked down a 3-pointer right off the bat 10 seconds into the game. Northeast proceeded to score the first 20 points of the game as Garet Jackson scored 11, Max Giesken had 7, and Dylan Mildfeldt had 2 for the Bluejays before Union Star finally got going by scoring the last five points of the period to trail 20-5.

Powered by slashers Lane Potter and Brendon McCoy, the Trojans finally got going offensively in the second quarter, but Northeast continued to pull away to a 41-18 lead at the half. Garet Jackson had 8 more points for Northeast while Max Giesken had 7. Max showed what he is capable of when healthy as he was able to get to the rim at will. Dylan Mildfeldt had 3, Austin Jones had 2, and Andrew Freemyer had 1 as five players reached the scoring column for Northeast in the second.

Union Star made things interesting to start the third as they scored the first eight points of the third to cut it to 41-26. Northeast got away from what was working, allowing Potter and McCoy to go to their right; the object of playing man to man defense is to make the dribbler use their non-dominant hand. Star had a chance to cut it further, but then Max Giesken got a steal and a not-to-be-denied layup to break the run and draw Brock McMichaels' fourth foul. Austin Ceglenski picked up his fourth for Union Star, which hurt them given that they were down to seven players; that broke their momentum and took away their aggression. Northeast pulled away to a 49-30 lead after that. Andrew Freemyer had 4 in the period to lead Northeast while Giesken and Garet Jackson had 2 each.

Northeast pulled away from the demoralized Trojan squad in the fourth. Max Giesken had 6 in the quarter for the Bluejays. Andrew Freemyer picked up two more for Northeast to give him 7 for the night. Brayden Welch scored his first two career points as a Bluejay, Austin Jones and Rowdy West also had 2, and Dylan Mildfeldt had 5 for Northeast.

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