Patriot GBB Ends in Heartbreak
By: Carter Brabec, a freshman at Leigh High School
With an 18-6 record, the Patriot girls’ basketball team entered the C2-4 sub-district as the #2 seed on February 15, 2022.
They would battle the #3-seed, the Wisner-Pilger Gators in West Point. The Gators are a team the Patriots beat earlier in the season.
But unfortunately, beating the 15-9 Gators was not in the cards in this sub-district game.
At the end of the first quarter, the Patriots were down by 2 points. But halftime, the deficit had increased to 5, as the Gators led 23-18.
But the Patriots did outscore the Gators in both the third and fourth quarters. They had a chance to tie the game and force overtime as sophomore Chloe Hanel sunk a floater in front of the free-throw line, but the refs called a travel on the play.
The Patriots ended up losing the game 48-50.
This was the last game of the seniors’ basketball career, including Kennedy Settje, Makenna Held, and Faith Indra.
Held had a great final game, leading the scoring 13 points. She also recorded 6 rebounds and 2 assists. Settje put up 8 points and Hanel contributed 11 points and 5 steals.
Stanton and GACC were the other teams in the sub-district.
After defeating the Patriots, the Gators lost to GACC in the sub-district finals. The Patriots were very close to earning a wildcard to Sub-state.
Assistant coach Jennifer Remmereid said, “Our team played a tough season, and we are proud of the effort they put in every practice and every game. Wisner-Pilger challenged us Tuesday night and we battled as hard as we could. The loss doesn’t take away the high level that we played since January or the effort we had against some ranked teams.”
Makenna Held said, “Unfortunately, we couldn’t pull out the win. We had a great season despite this heartbreaking loss, and I will always remember the memories I have made in this sport the last four years.”
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Final
Clarkson/Leigh 10 7 14 17 48
Wisner - Pilger 12 11 11 16 50
Individual Stats: (points, rebounds, assists, steals)
Chloe Hanel - 11, 3, 2, 5; Makenna Held - 13, 6, 2, 0; Kennedy Settje - 8, 1, 2, 2; Faith Indra - 4,0, 1, 1; Jessica Hoffman - 4, 5, 2, 1; Korbee Wendt - 6, 2, 3, 0; Brynn Settje - 2, 1, 0, 0