House Basketball Championship

House Basketball Championship

This matchup was a big one as the Pillar Gorillas played against the Zaragoza Lions. The Pillar Gorillas, coached by Brock Grubert, were a calm 4-2 going into this game against the 5-1 Lions coached by Danny Kelly and Tyler Willenbrink. The Lion’s only loss of the season was against the Eveslage Eagles. The Lions, advertised as the best team out of all the houses, were a sleeper first seed, but the Pillar Gorillas had the student vote to win this match. This game could have gone either way as the whole student body was there and could easily make any player stand out or make them deter. Zaragoza Coach, Danny Kelly, said, “I feel like, also, people kind of got flustered, because they were in front of a big crowd.” The Gorillas have won the championship in the past two years, led by senior Conner Cuozzo, who had a pivotal role in each of the championships in the last few years. Many believed that this would be the downfall of the Gorillas as the senior led team last year had lost key players like Jovan Love. Seniors Conner Cuozzo and Jake Gaerke over the past two years have not lost a single house basketball game they have played in.

Zaragoza was the first to score off a senior Charlie Nelson layup. Senior Charlie Nelson has been Zaragoza’s leading scoring and was the best player on this team all year. Danny Kelly expressed, “He was a star player on the freshman basketball team, so he attracted a lot of the defense’s attention which allowed other people to get their buckets and shine.” The Gorillas came down and hit a huge three from Jake Gaerke. As the game progressed, Zaragoza could not find an answer to Pillars 2-3 zone as every possession ended up with a turnover or a missed shot for the Lions. For the first half, the game was a slow battle between the two until Pillar started pulling away. Conner Cuozzo heated up from three hitting three straight 3-pointers and was on a hot streak even pulling up from the volleyball line and hitting it. Zaragoza was fighting back with big buckets from Grant Emery and Charlie Nelson as they brought the game back within six points with a little under a minute left. Zaragoza could not finish the game, however, missing some big shots and turning the ball over constantly at the end of the game.

Conner Cuozzo finished with a smooth fourteen-point and ten rebound stat line as the Pillar Gorillas beat the Lions 19-13. Danny Kelly stated, “That was a pretty monumental performance in the finals. I got mad at some of my guys for not stepping up, but, you know, he was hitting from twenty-five feet, so I cannot do much about that.” Many questioned the refs on the game as Mr. Engstrom was making some calls that looked like they were swinging in Pillar’s direction, but the game was a classic as Pillar wins their third straight house basketball championship.