Moul hits 1,000 as Springs survives again

The game looked to be in control for St. Mary's Springs, which were up 6 with about 15 seconds left.

Then came the mistakes.

Springs turned the ball over on back-to-back possessions, giving Lomira a chance to get back into the game. Fortunately for the Ledgers, Lomira couldn't get both 3s to fall and they escaped with a 65-62 win.

The first turnover resulted in a Charlie Cole 3-pointer to bring the Lions within 3. Springs threw away the ensuing inbounds pass, giving Lomira one final look at the buzzer.

Jackson Goebel, who was playing with his eyebrow heavily bandaged after catching a stray elbow earlier, got a good look from the right win, but was just off on his game-tying 3.

"I'm proud of our guys," Lomira coach Dan Domask said. "The fight that we showed was an A level.

"I didn't know if we could compete here tonight to be totally honest with you. I come out of here, I'm not happy with a loss ever, that's just not me, but I am happy our guys can compete at this level."

Lomira (9-2 overall, 4-2 in Flyway) acquitted itself well in the game despite being outsized at nearly every position on the floor.

During several stretches, Springs had 6-foot-7 Emmitt Huhn, 6-foot-4 Caden Pitz, 6-foot-3 Noah Moul and 6-foot-2 Braeden Freund on the floor together. All four are also strong at more than 190 pounds.

Coach Kyle Krueger said it was important for Springs (10-3, 6-0) to use their size and physicality to try to combat the speed and quickness of Lomira.

"Our best lineups aren't as quick as Lomira, but our best lineup is more physical and bigger," Krueger said. "You've seen that in a couple of other games as well. We're just trying to figure it out one possession at a time.

"I guess we made enough plays on both ends of the court to win."

Springs was successful, for big-men Noah Moul and Emmitt Huhn scored 23 and 17, respectively. Huhn's night included a pair of dunks; one was a 180-degree reverse slam.

Moul highlighted the night for the Ledgers in the first half when he scored a layup that put him over the 1,000-point mark for his career.

"It means a lot," Moul said. "It's a lot of hard work and dedication that you've got to put into it."

Krueger said Moul has done the work to put himself in position to achieve the scoring mark as a four-year varsity player.

"Noah has put in a ton of time," Krueger said. "He just kind of plays hard. He's the proverbial bull in the China shop and I like him down the stretch, too, because he can knock down free throws."

Junior Ben Baker was once again an x-factor for Springs, guarding Goebel much of the night while also running the show on the offensive end. He also scored 16.

Krueger said he thinks Baker has been the Ledgers most complete player.

"I've said multiple times, I think he is our best, most well-rounded player," Krueger said. "People don't always see that. If there's a better on-ball defender, tell me who that is. He had a couple of [steals] today. I'll take him on the best perimeter player any day of the week and I like our chances.

"He knows the game. At 5-foot-10, is he the quickest guy in the world? No. Is he the tallest? No. But he can ball. He's fun [to coach], who doesn't want to have a kid on your team that does everything for the team first and doesn't care about anything except winning."

Lomira got a team-high 16 points from Goebel and also 13 points from sophomore Keegan Kell.

Domask said the team is not as far along as he would like, but that is because there are players that are new to varsity since Jake Broeske's injury.

"We're playing a lot of guys more minutes right now," Domask said. "We're just asking that they play harder. We can't win if we don't play harder than our opponent. It's just as plain and simple as that.

"I'm resting even my better guys, but I'm just amping up the expectation. They get no minutes off."

PHOTO GALLERY: Lomira at Springs boys basketball - 1/16/2025