With only a couple of weeks of practice in, the first game for the Gillett High School boys basketball team was going to be a feeling out process.
That’s especially true with a new coach in Todd Carlson.
“I don’t know the players very well yet and they don’t know me very well yet, and we’ve got a long ways to go,” Carlson said. “I think this is a bunch that’s going to work to get there. We’ve got a lot of young players we’re putting in there, too; some freshmen we’re trying to have compete – that’s asking a lot.”
Gillett stayed with Bonduel early on in a nonconference matchup in the first game for both teams on Monday. However, Bonduel used a 17-4 run to start the second half to pull away and cruise past the Tigers 54-35 in Gillett.
“We left one of their shooters open a little bit and we didn’t rebound too well,” Carlson said about Bonduel’s second-half run. “I didn’t think we got bodies on players, and we need to. We’re not a very tall team, you can see that, and if don’t do the little things it’s going to be hard for us to compete.”
The run was fueled by Bonduel senior guard Trevor Pedersen. He scored 11 of his game-high 15 points during that stretch with two steals, each followed by three-point plays.
“I think we just started executing,” Bonduel coach Duke Copp said. “We got a few fastbreaks, and the kids just started making shots.
“We’re trying to play better defense this year and I think for that period of time we created offense out of defense, which is what we want to do.”
Peyton Czarapata added 14 points for Bonduel. At 6-foot-5, he had 4 inches on the tallest Gillett player. Bonduel tried to utilize its big man, who scored 10 in the opening half, and pulled down six rebounds. A number of those boards were put-back chances on the offensive glass.
“We were going to go inside first and see what we could get,” Copp said. “We have some kids who can shoot 3s, too. I think we missed a lot of easy shots, but we got a lot better as the game went on.”
Bonduel, which had 17 assists on 23 made field goals, got a good all-around game from Preston Robaidek. The senior had seven rebounds, seven assists and six steals.
Bonduel led 9-7 midway through the first half before finishing on an 18-8 run to go into halftime up 27-15. The Bears took their biggest lead of 26 points, 52-26, before a late 9-2 push by Gillett.
“I didn’t think they gave up,” Carlson said. “I thought their hearts were in the game, which is nice. I told the kids before, ‘It comes down to a lack of skill or a lack of will. I can live with a lack of skill, because we can come back and work and get better. But I can’t live with a lack of will. There’s no coach that’s going to bring the will out of you, that you’ve got to have.’”
Gillett’s second man off the bench, Brock Warden, led the team in scoring with 10 points – five in each half. Leeland Kahler – the team’s leading returning scorer from last season – added nine points.
The Tigers finished with just 13 field goals and had a rough first half, shooting under 25 percent.
“We just need to know which ones are our shots and which ones aren’t,” Carlson said. “I thought they forced some things just because they thought we needed to score. But you need to take out the turnovers and have that shot somewhere down the line. A defense will break apart if you work it well enough, and that’s what we’ve got to have these guys do a little more.”
Despite the loss, Carlson and his players take away plenty of positives from the opening game.
“We talked about that and that’s what we build on,” Carlson said. “There’s not all bad, there’s a lot of good things that happened, too. I very proud of them.”
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