2/15/2025 vs. Gretna East ... NONCONFERENCE / home / REGULAR SEASON /

Season Game #: 22 / Current Record: 18 - 4

WAHOO: 20 ... 8 ... 18 ... 1210 ... .... 68
Gretna East: 11 ... 17 ... 14 ... 1619 ... .... 77

The Gretna East Griffins ended Wahoo’s twelve game win streak with an overtime 77 – 68 win over the Warriors on Saturday. The deciding factor in a close fought game was turnovers. Wahoo committed a season high 20, three of them coming at the opening of the overtime period when the Griffins went on a 12 – 2 run, taking a 72-62 lead. Coach Bomar commented, “We just can’t win a game like this without taking care of the ball.”

The loss came despite a career high 30-point performance by Dylan Simons. Gretna East’s Taylan Hovie did even better, pouring in 34 points for the Griffins. Both players added significantly to their totals in the overtime period. Simons scored 8 of Wahoo’s 10 points while Hovie scored 10.

Wahoo had a chance to end the game in regulation as Cody Hesser connected with Simons on a baseline back door and an accompanying free throw to give Wahoo a 58-55 lead with under a minute to go. However, after Wahoo missed two free throws, Hovie drove to the rim, scored and was fouled. The traditional three-point play tied the game with :26 to go and Wahoo couldn’t score as time ran out.

It appeared early like Wahoo would handle the Griffins as they had been with opponents for twelve straight games. Wahoo took the lead at 3-2 with a Jase Kaminski three and increased that to 20 – 11 at the end of the quarter. Kaminski had scored 8.

But the momentum changed in the second period as Gretna East scored the first eight points of the quarter. The Griffins took a brief 26 – 25 lead on a three-pointer by Grant Rice with 2:57 to go. Kaden Christen hit a three to tie the game at 28 – 28 for the half.

Early in the third period it again looked like Wahoo would assert itself and claim an easy victory as Wahoo outscored Gretna East 12 – 4 in the first six minutes. However, Gretna East scored six points in the final minute and Wahoo’s lead was only 46 – 42 heading into the final stanza of regulation.

Hesser joined Simons in double figures with 16. Led by Kip Brigham’s 10, the Warriors had another great game on the boards, grabbing 36 caroms to the Griffins’ 20. It was one of the Warriors’ weaker three-point performances, making only 4-out-of-15 (27%). The loss was Wahoo’s fourth of the season, three of them coming in overtime. The Class B fourth ranked Griffins improved their record to 16 – 6 with all the losses coming from ranked teams.

Noteworthy:
Leading Scorer: Dylan Simons 30 pts.; Rebounds -- Kip Brigham 12 ; Assists -- Kip Brigham; Dylan Simons 5 ; Steals-- Landon Glock; Cody Hesser; Dylan Simons; Jase Kaminski 1

Wahoo
freethrows: 18 / 22 82 % ; fieldgoals: 23 / 45 51 % ; three point: 4 / 15 27 %

Gretna East
freethrows: 21 / 24 88 % ; fieldgoals: 24 / 54 44 %; three point: 8 / 25 32 %

This was an exciting challenge for us.  Gretna East is a new team on our schedule.  They are young and aggressive, and we welcomed the challenge.  I thought this was just a fun high school game.  We ended up on the short end, but I felt for the most part we competed hard.  We were able to get an 8-point lead on both halves and we had them on the ropes with a 3 point lead with under a minute left with 2 free throws to shoot.  We ended up missing both. Then on the other end we gave up 2 offensive rebounds on three-point attempts, then gave up an and 1 to Hovie at the rim with about 30 seconds left.  We ended up not getting a very good look to end regulation.  In overtime, Gretna East jumped out early, due partially to some bad turnovers by us, and we just couldn’t recover from there.  Our 20 turnovers in the game proved to be the deciding factor.  I was proud of our efforts, but we need to clean up our execution has we head into the postseason, or we are destined for an early exit.

GRETNA EAST STATISTICS