In Review: Gehlen upsets No. 10 Lawton-Bronson in districts

(Sentinel file photo) Gehlen's Craig Schlesser puts up a shot against Lawton-Bronson as the Jays upset the ranked Eagles in last winter's district tournament. [Click to enlarge]

Sports Editor

Playing a tough War Eagle Conference schedule and finishing the regular season with a .500 record can have its advantages.

Look no further than the Gehlen boys basketball team which has endured consecutive seasons with 3-6 conference records. But once the 2A and 3A competition has been removed, the Jays have shown their true postseason mettle.

Gehlen has advanced to the district semifinals or further every year since 2005 and the 2007-08 season was no exception.

In their opening round contest last February, the Jays easily handled Remsen St. Mary's by a 60-33 margin. That victory earned them a matchup with No. 10 Lawton-Bronson.

The Jays led 27-26 at halftime, but Lawton-Bronson opened the second half with a 10-0 run that gave them the 36-27 lead.

But senior Craig Schlesser hit a key 3-pointer and Eric Rohe scored five straight to end the third quarter and Gehlen trailed just 38-35 heading into the fourth.

Schlesser hit 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions and Rohe added another in the fourth quarter as the Jays reclaimed the lead and held on for the 60-57 victory.

Rohe iced the contest with a pair of free throws with seven seconds remaining and finished with 26 points and 11 rebounds on the evening. Schlesser finished with 15 points in what was head coach Mike Langel's second victory over a ranked foe - the first over No. 8 Alta three seasons ago.

"Nothing was bearing on the Alta game. This was in the tournament," he told the Daily Sentinel on February 20. "It makes it a little more special that way. It was probably one of our biggest wins in the last two or three years."

Gehlen advanced to take on Boyden-Hull in the district final. The Comets were a familiar face to the Jays as B-H ended Gehlen's season the previous two years: 76-47 in 2006 and 70-55 in 2007.

Unfortunately history chose to repeat itself yet again as the Comets defeated Gehlen 76-54 to end the Jays' season for third consecutive year.

"Boyden-Hull is just a really tough team to beat in the tournament," Langel said in the February 22 edition of the Daily Sentinel. "They don't make many mistakes, they control the ball and control the tempo. We'd make some small runs at them then they'd answer with some buckets of their own. We just couldn't get anything going on them."

Langel said a big key to the Comets' victory was their physicality, which led to a 21-9 B-H rebounding advantage during the title contest.

Langel has made being more physical a part of the Jays' mantra this season.

"We have to get more physical and control things inside," Langel said in the Daily Sentinel's winter preview on December 5. "I don't think we were very physical last year. We had kids who didn't like to mix tup inside so much and that affected us toward the end of the season."

Rohe averaged 17 points and 7 rebounds per contest as he earned unanimous War Eagle Conference first team honors. He is currently a freshman on the Briar Cliff University varsity team.

Schlesser averaged 11.6 points and earned WEC honorable mention.