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 Stanton HOliday Tournament Winners - The O'Neill Boys Basketball Team took first place in the Stanton Holiday Tournament last week. Pictured are front row (l-r): Brock Schueth, Jacob Emme, Riley Wakefield, Tyson Hostert, Nate Gotschall and Jonathan Hunt. Back row (l-r): head coach Seth Kallhoff, assistant coach Nick Hostert, Dylan Belik, Michael Hedlund, Donnie Taylor, Jackson Latzel, Derrick Hostert, Cody Belzer, Charley Burtwistle and assistant coach James Burtwistle.
The Eagles traveled to Stanton last Thursday and Friday and brought home the Holiday Tournament Championship with wins over Madison in the first round and Stanton in the finals. The first game was a rematch of a few weeks ago with the Eagles taking the first contest handily. This time around the Dragons were looking for redemption and pushed the Eagles well into the fourth quarter but O’Neill closed the door and took home the opening round win 57-44. Leading all scorers on the night was Michael Hedlund with 20 points. Other Eagles in the scoring column included Derrick Hostert with 15, Charley Burtwistle 13, Donnie Taylor five, Riley Wakefield three and Nate Gotschall with one from the charity strip. Hedlund had an all around good night with 10 rebounds, three steals, and two assists. “Our players are really basketball savvy and understand that when someone is hot we need to feed that fire and that showed against Madison as Burtwistle had five assists, Taylor added four and Hostert dished out three," commented coach Kallhoff. The championship game was Friday night against Stanton. The Eagles put together one of their best team efforts of the season and came out victorious 73-48. “We haven’t shot real well lately so it was nice to see us pass the ball around and get great looks and thankfully those shots started falling tonight,” commented Coach Kallhoff. Leading the Eagles in the scoring column was Charley Burtwistle who finished with 25 points by going 3/5 from behind the arc and 6/8 at the free throw line. Others in double digits included Donnie Taylor with 13, Derrick Hostert and Jackson Latzel each dropped in 10 apiece. Michael Hedlund led the team in rebounds with 13 to go along with his nine points, and Burtwistle and Latzel grabbed seven caroms each. Hostert put together one of his best overall games by tying a school record with nine steals, as well as dishing out seven assists. “This was a great way for us to start back up after the Christmas break and we will look to build off this as we push forward with some tough competition added," Coach Kallhoff. Next action for the Eagles is tomorrow night, Friday, as they travel to face the Cardinals of Boone Central. Then the Eagles host Elgin/Elgin Pope John on Saturday before heading to West Point to make up a game previously postponed due to weather against GACC on Monday.
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