03-07-2016
BY JACK BULLOCK
JACKSONVILLE - The Waterloo Gibault Hawks (24-9) return to the supersectional for the third time in the program's history, and the second trip in three seasons, after taking care of long-time rival Okawville on Friday night, 48-40 in winning the White Hall North Greene 1A Sectional title.

Head coach Dennis Rueter's club once again faced a “who's who” of tough teams throughout the 2015-16 campaign and the gauntlet of games have paid dividends with a trip to Jacksonville for the super.

The Hawks have been led most of the season by 6-foot-4 junior Trevor Davis and 6-foot-6 Brian Deterding.

This duo have produced nearly identical numbers in points and rebounds for the Hawks with Davis tossing in 15.7 points a game compared to 15.5 points per contest from Deterding.

Davis also leads in rebounding, grabbing 9.3 rebounds per outing while Deterding is right there with 8.9 boards.

Deterding helped the Hawks pull the upset of the week topping state-ranked and ABV number one Okawville by scoring a game-high 22-points while Davis “cleaned the glass” with 11-rebounds.

The defensive effort from Gibault on Noah Frederking of Okawville should be mentioned as they held the high scoring junior forward to just eight-points in the victory in the rubber game between the two clubs.

Jacob Rueter, a 5-foot-11 senior guard, is another double-figure scorer for Gibault as he adds 10.8 points a night for the Hawks.

Waterloo Gibault is seeking its second trip to Peoria, the first since their second place finish in 1999.

The team standing in the Hawks' way is Liberty, a western Illinois team from the Pike County and West Central conferences with an enrollment of 189 students.

The Eagles enter the supersectional have won four-straight games since the postseason began and sit at 28-4 overall.

Coach Greg Altmix has his team playing well at the right time of the season, as are all teams remaining in the state tournament.

The Eagles resume shows they won the Pittsfield Thanksgiving Tournament, taking down the host Saukees in the title game 58-46.

They also nabbed the championship of the Winchester Invitational Tournament beating Payson-Seymour in overtime in the title game.

Liberty took home third place honors at the Macomb-Western Holiday Tournament.

Two of the four losses were to Pittsfield, a 2A team who is well known around the state for boy's basketball.

One was in the semifinals of the Holiday Tourney and the other one was a regular season ending 52-49 defeat on February 19.

Coach Altmix has a mixture of seniors and juniors leading the charge.

Six-foot-one senior Reed Wolfmeyer and 6-foot-2 junior Cole Wellman came up huge in the sectional final at Bushnell-Prairie City, as they upended state-ranked Peoria Quest Academy, 71-62.

They rallied from a ten point first quarter disadvantage to take control in the final three quarters for the win.

Liberty hit 31-of-40 free throws in the contest and Wellman hit 23-of-28 of those attempts as he ended up with 35-points.

Wolfmeyer added 22-points for the Eagles (four 3-pointers) as they will make their second supersectional appearance in the last ten seasons on Tuesday night.

They made it to the Class A supersectional in 2006, losing to Carlyle.

The best state finish for the program were a pair of fourth-place efforts in 1981 and 2005 in Class A.

Six-foot-two Tayton Roe and 6-foot Levi Obert are both seniors on the club who contribute as do 6-foot-4 senior Daniel Mast, 5-foot-11 junior Logan Graham and 6-foot-1 sophomore Dalton Lentz.

Waterloo Gibault and Liberty have one common opponent, Brooklyn Lovejoy, who were lopsided victims to both of the supersectional combatants.

Liberty beat the Wildcats 85-49 in the Pittsfield Thanksgiving Tournament while Gibault easily handled the 'Cats 84-47 back on February 19.