When players for the Hoopsters sixth- and seventh-grade Yellow Jackets and Blue Devils took the court on Jan. 23 in their respective yellow and black jerseys, they formed a row of stripes resembling the Yellow Jackets’ mascot. The court appeared to be dominated by a giant bee, and incidentally, it was the Yellow Jackets who dominated the Blue Devils for three long quarters winning the last game of the regular season, 29-17.

The first quarter began with the Blue Devils’ getting out to a 4-2 lead. Levi Baker started the quarter strong by contributing one of those baskets for the Devils. The team also put their passing skills to work in search of a loophole in the Yellow Jackets’ defense.

The Yellow Jackets coupled their solid defense with a secret weapon of their own. Forward and point guard Chris Gatson pounded down the court to score basket after basket for the Yellow Jackets. He began his streak swinging under the basket with two swishers and then wove around the Blue Devils’ defense for a coast-to-coast shot. Gatson finished off his scoring stretch in the first quarter with another two-pointer to secure the Yellow Jackets a six-point lead over the Blue Devils, 10-4.

In the second quarter the Blue Devils attempted to answer Gatson with players Madeline Brungardt and Tyler Brenn.

Brungardt offered height and power that forced the Yellow Jackets to evaluate their game plan, while Brenn showed superior ball handling skills by capturing a rebound for the team. He also attempted a shot off an assist from teammate Jacob Vonfeldt.

The Jackets utilized rebound attempts, steals and goal opportunities to hold the Devils in a point deficit throughout the second quarter.

“At the beginning of the game we had a lot of rebounds and steals,” forward Jawuan Rouser said. “We out- played them.”

Other team members also contributed to the Jackets success in improving on an area of play their coach has been working on with them.

“Our coach told us to set better picks and we tried to do a lot of that in the game,” point guard Kamp Wiebe said. “It also helped that our team had some bigger players.”

The team used their coach’s advice as they matched up against the Blue Devils on the court in their offensive play. The Yellow Jackets kept the Blue Devils from scoring as the clock ran out on the second quarter and took three more buckets to secure a 14-point lead at the half.

The Blue Devils tried to keep up in the third, scoring the first bucket of the quarter. Player Aaron Groene set out to aggressively challenge the Yellow Jackets from snatching any more buckets away, but could not pin the team down on his own.

Wiebe attempted a significant amount of shots for the Yellow Jackets at his small stature. He shot a free-throw bucket that got the crowd cheering and pumped up. Calloway Schmidt followed up Wiebe’s free throw with a hard chuck to Jonathan Gragg, who scored another basket pushing the Yellow Jackets’ point tally to 23. Gatson ripped around the Blue Devils’ Brenn for a field goal for the Yellow Jackets, pushing their score to a staggering 27-8.

After the Yellow Jackets pinned them down to three low-scoring quarters, the Blue Devils fought back with a vengeance in the fourth. Brungardt used her height, jumping up to interrupt a rebound attempt for the Yellow Jackets. The Yellow Jackets eased up a bit in the last quarter and the Blue Devils found the strength they needed to give them a chance to win.

The Blue Devils banked some more baskets to push their tally up to 17 points with 57 seconds left on the clock.

“In the last quarter we didn’t do real well at getting the ball down the court,” Wiebe said.

The weakness wasn’t enough to keep the Yellow Jackets from winning. The Jackets added one more bucket before the clock ran out leaving the team victorious 29-17. Yellow Jackets’ players were excited to end their season on a high note.

“I think we all did pretty good in this game,” Gaston said. “We really hustled a lot and came together as a team.”