Bohnert is fourth Crusader to reach 1,000-point plateau

Gabe Bohnert's quest to reach 1,000 points in his high school basketball career sent Saxony Lutheran High School officials scurrying through their scorebooks.

Bohnert topped the 1,000-point mark Friday night in the Crusaders' 53-34 victory over Meadow Heights. The senior forward converted a lob pass from junior center Jack Lake at the 3 minute, 58 second mark of the third period to surpass the milestone. Bohnert finished with 15 points and now has 1,005 for his four-year career.

Officials at Saxony were unsure if Bohnert was the first Crusader to surpass 1,000 points in a career. A check of old scorebooks shows that Bohnert was the fourth.

Casey Petzoldt, a 2006 graduate of Saxony, finished his career with 1,136 points, while classmate Tim Lorenz finished with 1,054. However, both were three-year totals, as Saxony's first official varsity season -- according to the school, at least -- was the 2003-04 season.

Former Saxony basketball coach John Daniel explained that while the Missouri State High School Athletic Association recognizes the 2002-03 season as the Crusaders' first, that squad played a number of junior varsity teams that counted in the official record.

Saxony Lutheran’s Gabe Bohnert scored his 1,000 career point Friday against Meadow Heights. (ADAM VOGLER)

Saxony didn't play a full varsity-opposition schedule until the 2003-04 season, so school records use only the statistics from that season forward. Which means Petzoldt and Lorenz topped the 1,000-point threshold in just three seasons.

Alex Jauch, a 2007 Saxony graduate, finished with a four-year total of 1,095 points.

Second glance

The Meadow Heights girls basketball team's record of 12-11 might not be too impressive at first glance. But a closer look at the competition proves otherwise.

The Panthers, a Class 2 school, sport a 9-0 record against Class 1 and 2 competition. They are 3-11 against Class 3, 4 and 5 competition.

"Against the 3, 4 and 5s, that's where we get hurt," Meadow Heights coach Mark Verticchio said.

Compounding the problem is the fact Meadow Heights suits up just six players. The Panthers can get away with that against smaller schools with similar roster deficiencies. That's not the case against larger schools, which can draw from a much larger student population.

That was the case Friday night when the Panthers played Saxony Lutheran even for about the first nine minutes of the game, trailing the Crusaders 14-10 early in the second period. But that's when the Panthers' tank began to run low, and Saxony, playing with a bench some 10 girls deep, took control, reeling off 42 consecutive points.

"We played [Saxony] three times this year and all three games were the same," Verticchio said. "We stay with them for a quarter, but then they just wear us out."

The Panthers host Bismarck tonight and close the regular season at Jackson on Thursday. The Class 2 District 3 tournament begins Saturday at Bismarck.

Tough loss

They say nothing is harder to achieve than perfection.

Jarrett Reisenbichler would agree.

The Jackson sophomore came into the 106-pound finals of Saturday's Class 4, District 1 wrestling meet with a 41-0 record, but suffered his first loss when he was forced to call a third injury timeout just 29 seconds from the end of a match he was leading on points 9-5.

"He's had a knee injury for awhile," said Jackson coach Steve Wachter. "He had to call a third injury timeout. When you call timeout three times, that's the match.

"He's going to wrestle at the state meet. I think he'll be all right. We just couldn't take a chance there. It was a tough way to lose, but that's part of it."

Reisenbichler (41-1), a two-time SEMO Conference champion at 106, placed fourth at last year's state meet while finishing with a 49-5 record.

-- From staff reports