Unbeaten Rebels move past Falcons in Section 1A quarterfinals
Published 7:49 pm Tuesday, March 4, 2025
Southland's Tate Goergen gets past the Fillmore Central defense. Rocky Hulne/sports@austindailyherald.com
Southland's Cole Miller drives against Fillmore Central's Clayton Schoepski in Mayo Civic Auditorium. Rocky Hulne/sports@austindailyherald.com
Southland's Henry Wiste attacks the hoop. Rocky Hulne/sports@austindailyherald.com
Southlandl's Noah Goergen cuts through the Fillmore Central defense. Rocky Hulne/sports@austindailyherald.com
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ROCHESTER – The No. 2 seeded Southland boys basketball team showed they can still win big when their offense isn’t on fire as they outlasted No. 7 Fillmore Central 63-36 in Mayo Civic Auditorium Tuesday night.
The Rebels (28-0 overall) took a big lead early on and they cruised the rest of the way.
The seniors delivered for Southland as Noah Goergen finished with 17 points, five rebounds, and three assists, Cole Miller added 13 points and eight rebounds, and Maverick Hannah provided eight points and three assists.
“This is a memory I’ll never forget, especially with the group of guys that we have. All of our starting five has played here and lost here before,” Miller said. “We knew we had to come out fast early. We came prepared with conditioning this whole year to get ready for this point.”
The Falcons (12-16 overall) had cut Southland’s lead to 42-19, but after a quick timeout, Southland sophomore Tate Goergen came up with back-to-back steals for lay-ups to make it 46-19 with 12 minutes left.
“We get a little tired sometimes, and we took that timeout to get them some air,” Koenigs said. “They did come out and play hard after that. It’s tough because we don’t play a lot of guys. Our second wave of guys is about a year away from being able to help us (in games like this).”
Southland didn’t waste any time getting into an offensive rhythm as it opened the game on a 17-1 run. Hannah hit two of the five Southland three-pointers in the first five minutes of the contest to build that lead.
From that point on, the Rebels slowed down on offense, but they never led FC back into the game. Southland finished with 11 threes made as a team.
“At times we played really, really well and at other times we were a little sloppy,” Koenigs said. “I thought early on we were going to have another 100 point night, but we cooled off a bit and they did a good job of slowing it down and packing it on defense. I thought we did what we needed to do.”
Sophomore Henry Wiste gave the Rebels a strong inside presence as he finished with 10 points and 12 rebounds.
Southland will now play No. 3 Rushford-Peterson in a Section 1A semifinal at 1:30 p.m. Saturday.
Southland hasn’t played in a lot of close games this season, but the team knows that things will be a battle from here on out.
“We’ve been staying together all year long,” Hannah said. “It’s going to be a dog fight every single game and we just have to stay together as a team.”
FC 13 23 – 36
Southland 33 30 – 63
Southland scoring: Noah Goergen, 17; Cole Miller, 13; Tate Goergen, 10; Henry Wiste, 10; Maverick Hannah, 8; Kaleb Yunker, 5
FC scoring: Greg Kennedy, 14; Josh Haugerud, 7; Anthony Kiehne, 3; Tyler Gulbranson, 3; Atlee Hershberger, 3; Carter O’Connor, 2; Bridon Bahl, 2; Clayton Schoepski, 2
