The Galesburg boys basketball team fell to the Moline Maroons in a defensive battle Friday night at Wharton Fieldhouse, 57 - 45. The Silver Streaks scored only 14 points in the first half, but were down only by 9 at the break. That allowed Galesburg to come out red-hot in the second half , scoring 9 points right out of the gate to tie the game at 23. After that, Moline slowly clawed their way back into the lead. They led by 10 at the end of the third quarter, and then three straight technical fouls on Galesburg head coach, Taylor Thiel, in the fourth quarter put Moline at the free throw line for six straight attempts, of which they made five. Moline got the ball after that, scored, and the game was pretty much clinched at that point.
Toby Kivunina was named the Dave's Auto Body Crunch Time Player of the Game. He had the defensive assignment on the leading scorer in the Western Big 6 conference, Brady Welch. He was held to just 8 points in the first half and only one made field goal. Kivunina made Welch work all night long, with most of the points he did score coming from the free throw line.
Keigen Crummer led Galesburg in scoring with 11 points, Jaxon Wyatt finished with 10 points, Rahkim McCellan had 8 points off the bench, and Eden Mayala scored 6 points while leading the team in rebounds and blocked shots. Overall, the Silver Streaks shot 17 of 40 from the field, 4 of 12 from three point range, and 7 of 13 from the free throw line. They pulled down 29 rebounds, had 8 assists, and committed 21 turnovers.
The GHS boys are now 8 - 8 on the season and 1 - 4 in Western Big 6 conference play.
The Streaks are back home at John Thiel Gym for two conference games next week, with Sterling on Tuesday and Geneseo on Friday. Brad Bennewitz and Jason Wessels bring you game night coverage with the pregame both nights starting at 6:40pm on 93.7 FM and 1400 AM WGIL and wgil.com.
