Hartsburg-Emden falls on Senior Night to Heyworth 100-65
*Heyworth senior Jeremy Witten scores 45 points and reaches 1,000 career points

[February 17, 2018] 

The Senior Night festivities were off to a great start in Hartsburg Friday night as the evening kicked off with a chili supper in the cafeteria and a JV win on the court.

The Stags JV team picked up a nice 55-45 win over the Hornets as two sharp-shooting sophomores led the way. Sophomores Wyatt Hopkins led Hartem with 19 points and fellow underclassman Josh Wright poured in 18 points for the Stags. Freshman Connor Zinser also reached double figures with 11 points. All, very bright spots in the Stags future.

The cheerleaders await the player introductions on Senior Night. 

​The Hartem seniors on the court with their parents. 

The senior athletes and cheerleaders, along with the lone senior band member, Kayla Zimmerman, were introduced at center court with their parents following the JV win. This year’s senior basketball players are Ashton Rademaker, Alex Vetter, Joe Garcia and Zach Phillips. Shyanne Conrady and Hayley Matson are the senior cheerleaders who were recognized Friday night. Talia Andrade was also recognized as a senior cheerleader but she was unable to be in attendance.

A special treat for the crowd was the singing of the National Anthem by seven young ladies from Hartsburg-Emden High School. These ladies did a marvelous job performing the song to perfection. Their voices harmonized perfectly together and it was indeed one of the most beautiful moments of the evening up to that point.

Tip-off of the Varsity game featured Ashton Rademaker versus Alex Cilento and with Heyworth controlling the tip it took just mere seconds for the Hornets to get on the board.

Jeremy Witten (remember that name) connected for his first three of the game and the Hornets were off and buzzing.

Zach Phillips scored Hartem’s first bucket on a layup before the Hornets put up back-to-back baskets to extend the lead to 8-2.

Alex Vetter cut the lead in half with his first field goal of the night and the game was moving quickly in the first quarter. Witten notched a free throw at the 4:49 mark for Heyworth but the Stags charged back with two strong moves in the lane by Rademaker, who narrowed the lead to 9-8 with his shots that fell in from the paint.

The teams traded baskets the rest of the first quarter, with Vetter getting one to roll through the net for Hartem and then Joe Garcia connecting in the lane and picking up the "and one” for the Stags. Heyworth got buckets from Tate Eller, Justin Moore and again Witten to round out the first quarter scoring with a 15-13 lead over the Stags.

Vetter quickly tied the game to start the second quarter and then Phillips showed off his nice dance moves through the lane to give Hartem their first lead of the game, 17-15 now the score. Heyworth stole the lead back as Colin McCubbins scored in the paint at the 5:55 mark and his extra point from the free throw line was good for a 20-17 Hornets lead.

After Dawson Watt entered the game and fired a sweet pass into Phillips for a bucket, Hartem trailed by just a point, 20-19. But the Hornets got down to business after that and went on an 8-0 run to extend the lead to 28-19.

Sophomore Wyatt Hopkins drained a three for Hartem to make the score 28-22 at the 3:14 mark and it’s obvious the crowd really likes his soft touch.

With just under 3:00 minutes to play in the second quarter, Witten put together his own little sideshow that entertained the red crowd among the bleachers. His quick hands led to a steal, which led to a layup, and that was just the beginning of his hot hands. The crowd had no idea what would happen on this night. Witten followed the layup with a three-point basket, and then he impressed everyone with another steal and this time a layup from the left side.

Heyworth was up 35-22 now and Hartem had to call a timeout to regroup. Despite free throws to finish out the half by Hopkins and Garcia and a field goal by Rademaker, the Stags still trailed the Hornets 39-27 at the half.

Witten had 13 points for Heyworth at the half, in case anyone is taking notes.

The two teams combined for four three-pointers in the first half, again take note of that stat.

Eight local Hartem youth take to the court at halftime for a game. 

Get your umbrellas out because it’s about to be raining threes in the second half.

Witten would hit the first three for Heyworth in the third quarter.

Phillips answered back with a trey for Hartem. There were two-point field goals in the mix as well. Cilento actually gave Heyworth a 50-30 lead as he connected for two points with 5:37 showing on the third quarter clock. Witten hit one of those two point baskets, too.

Then Phillips connected again from beyond the arc at the 4:25 mark but Heyworth maintained a 54-33 lead. Back-to-back threes by McCubbins and Witten extended the lead to 60-33 with 3:16 remaining in the quarter.

Vetter’s three allowed the score to be 60-38 and then a steal and a basket by the senior cut the lead back to 20 points. But the Stags just couldn’t get past that deficit on this night.

Vetter hit again from the three-point line and he was followed by Watts getting in on the three-point action but the Hornets were doing the same at their end of the court.

Tazden Eller dropped one in from long range and the Hornets were up 67-46 with under a minute to play in the third quarter. Tazden Eller hit for two more points yet in the quarter while Phillips closed out the Hartem scoring here with his third three in the third quarter and the Hornets still boasted a 69-49 lead.

Jeremy Witten (11)  with his eye on the ball

At the end of the third quarter Witten had 21 points for Heyworth.

Witten went on a tear to start the fourth quarter. The young man, who had been battling the flu and a cold as of late and who still wasn’t feeling well on the court Friday night, put on quite a fourth quarter show that left Hartem fans confused until the end of the game.

Witten began draining threes here. He made it rain. He poured in five straight nothing-but-net shots from behind the arc and then some, to single-handedly put Heyworth up 84-51 at this point. Even a fan in the crowd said, “He’s on a streak now.” With less than 5:00 minutes to play Witten was sitting on 36 points and the Heyworth fans were sitting on the edge of their seats at this performance.

Hartem continued to play their hearts out on Senior Night for their fans, but wow, the Hornets were pumped up to say the least.

Vetter continued to pace Hartem with his baskets. He got the bucket and the foul shot to make the score 84-54 and his teammate, Rademaker, who was having a great game in his own right, also poured in a couple field goals down the stretch here.

But the night belonged to Witten. Two points here by the young man followed by a field goal by his teammate, Eric Wills, kept the score a distant 88-58 lead over Hartem.

Hartem seniors Joe Garcia, Alex Vetter, Shyanne Conrady, Hayley Matson, Zach Phillips and Ashton Radsmaker pose following the game on Senior Night. Not pictured are Talia Andrade and Kayla Zimmerman.

A timeout was called by the Stags. This time Phillips emerged from the timeout to drain a three for the Stags but on the following drive by Witten, Heyworth fans would learn something new. As Witten drove the lane and hit the shot he had not only made 40 points on the evening but a couple of his teammates ran by the visitors side of the bleachers and said to the JV players sitting in the front row, “He’s only five away.” What? “He’s only five away….from 1,000.” The words were repeated with the 1,000 being added for effect.

Witten made the free throw and the countdown was on and the JV players got excited, to say the least. At the 2:03 mark Witten managed another basket in the lane, and yes the score at this time was a whopping 93-62.

Witten would launch one from practically Emden on the next possession, but it would miss by a ricochet off the front of the rim. The rebound landed in the hands of Heyworth and that guy immediately kicked it back out to Witten.

This time Witten chose to drive towards the lane and he tossed up his 1,000th point along about the right side of the free throw line. Red uniform number 11. He hits 1,000. Nothing but net. A milestone reached. An elite milestone in high school basketball. Very few accomplish this feat.

Heyworth’s coach, Tom Eller, immediately called timeout and the Hornets swarmed around Witten at mid-court to hug and congratulate the young man. He was an exhausted and sweaty mess but he flashed a smile for teammates as he was mobbed.

The Hartem announcer, John Robertson, was honestly unofficially unaware of what had happened, as were many in the gym. So during the timeout, Robertson made the announcement, “There is still free containers of chili left in the cafeteria and if you are interested the cost is donation.”

Free chili + 1,000 point moment = PRICELESS.

Meanwhile Coach Eller approached Hartem Head Coach Jason Garber to let him know what had just happened. Coach Garber took note and saved the game ball for Witten. Class act by a first class coach and much appreciated by the Heyworth coach.

With just around a minute left in the game, Witten took a seat on the bench for a much needed rest. The score at this moment was 95-63.

Hartem would get one more basket on Senior Night. Rademaker would toss in the final shot for the Stags for a career-high of 12 points. He just started playing this season for the Stags.

Over on the Hornets side, Wills scored one more time and then with the score 97-65, the littlest guy on the court, Bobsin, who may have gotten that long rebound off of Witten’s earlier miss at the 1,000 point attempt, tossed up a three at the crowd’s urging.

Bobsin hit nothing but net with 23.9 seconds left in front of the Heyworth bench and the Hornet fans were buzzing as their team had just stung the Stags by a final score of 100-65.

Fans were also treated to a total of 21 threes made by Heyworth and Hartem. The Stags connected for 8 three-point baskets and the Hornets hit for 13 three-point baskets.

Game over but what a night for Jeremy Witten. Scoring 45 points while battling sickness. A little flashback maybe to 1997 when Michael Jordan scored 38 points for the Chicago Bulls versus the Utah Jazz in Game 5 of the NBA Finals. Jordan was deathly ill with the flu that game and even received IV fluids before and after the game. The Bulls won that game 90-88. The Bulls would clinch the the NBA championship that year in Game 6 in Chicago. Just a little before Witten’s time.

After the game, Heyworth Coach Tom Eller explained what had transpired over the final quarters of game. "So it was one of those things where coming into the game he needed 45 points to break 1,000,” Eller said of Witten. "Obviously, we didn’t expect that he was going to get it tonight. But with the way that he was shooting, the points that he had…I think I looked up and saw that he had 27 probably midway through the third….and at that point I thought maybe we can get him there. So even though we started subbing and taking out a lot of our starters, the kids all knew where he was with respect to 1,000. I mean, I didn’t even say anything. The kids knew. But I didn’t say, “Hey let’s start getting Jeremy shots.” They just did it on their own. So it was kind of fun to watch that aspect of it because it was the thing that united us tonight. I mean the kids were all excited when he hit it. They were all doing it on their own accord, getting him open, setting screens for him and getting him the ball so that he could achieve that. In the locker room after the game, it was kind of an emotional thing because again it was the whole team that felt part of that. They were part of that experience so it was very cool from the coaching perspective to see that."

Jeremy is hugged by his mom, Sharon, following the game. A proud mom moment, too. 

Coach Eller also explained the difficult situation that was unbeknownst to Hartem fans. "I felt bad because we had some fans behind us that were yelling at me about running up the score. Well they didn’t know the situation. Once he hit it, we called timeout and I went and told their coaches so they were aware of what was going on and that we just weren’t trying to be poor sports or anything. We were trying to get him to that milestone. You can sit back and say. “Why can’t he get a couple points in the next game?" But he could go out and twist an ankle in the very first play of the game and he’s done. So it was one of the things where we wanted to ride it while he was hot.”

There is no denying Witten was hot and scoring 45 points on the last regular season game of his high school career just makes the memory even cooler. When a player gets that hot and he’s that close it’s hard to deny him the opportunity to hit that milestone. It’s inarguably one of the greatest highlights of any high school basketball player’s career.

Over on the Hartem side, Coach Garber was proud of his seniors and the effort they have put forth throughout their careers. “Zach Phillips, Alex Vetter and Joe Garcia have been a part of the program for four years so I am really proud of those guys. I’ve coached them the last three years. They are all three great guys. They have put a lot into this program so I am glad that they were able to get in the scoring column a lot tonight and get a lot of minutes. So that was good.” Vetter led Hartem with 21 points and Phillips tossed in a second-best 18 points. Garcia contributed six points for the Stags in his last game on the new court.

First-year senior, Rademaker, also had the game of his life with 12 points. "We are really proud of Ashton Rademaker,” said Garber. "It’s the first year he’s gone out and he’s our big guy down low. He scored a career high tonight in points and rebounds. We were thrilled that he went out in a small school like this. It was critical to have as many guys go out on the team. We are pretty proud of those kids for being leaders for us all year.”

The crowd really likes Rademaker, too. Every time he touched the ball the fans cheered.

"He’s a fan favorite that’s for sure,” agreed Garber.

Of the score being 100-65, the good-natured Hartem coach, who scored 1,000 points for the Stags back in his day, said, "It happens, When you’re scoring like he was and he’s got a good chance to score 1,000...you gotta give him a chance because nothing is ever given in the next game. He doesn’t know if he’s ever going to get another chance at it. So I’m glad he did it. He’s a good kid and he’s had a good career for Heyworth. I am not going to miss playing him anymore though,” laughed Garber.

Garber also touched on the fact that he was some younger guys in Hopkins, Wright, Watt and Coit who often see Varsity minutes. In addition to them, Hartem will return Brody Baker next year who will look to lead the team as a senior.

Regionals begin next week for Hartem. Their first opponent will be Illini Central.

Varsity scores by quarter:

Hartem 13 27 49 65
Heyworth 15 39 69 100

Hartem (65)

Alex Vetter 21
Zach Phillips 18
Ashton Rademaker 12
Joe Garcia 6
Wyatt Hopkins 5
Dawson Watt 3

Heyworth (100)

Jeremy Witten 45
Tate Eller 16
Colin McCubbins 15
Alex Cilento 6
Tazden Eller 5
Justin Moore 4
Eric Wills 4
Steven Bobsin 3
Matt Schultz 2

JV scores by quarter:

Hartem 12 28 39 55
Heyworth 9 24 33 45

Hartem (55)

Hopkins 19
Wright 18
Zinser 11
Coit 7

Heyworth (45)

Hicklin 13
Bobsin 11
Tazden Eller 8
Eric Wills 6
Carlton 3
Logan Wills 2
Brucker 2

[Teena Lowery]