Sevastopol’s Zaul Valdivia (4) dribbles past Gibraltar’s Liam Lindenberg (10) during Thursday’s game at Sevastopol. Photo by Kevin Boneske.
Winning in the Packerland Conference is becoming contagious for Sevastopol’s boys basketball team.
The Pioneers, who snapped a 68-game league losing streak spanning four-plus seasons after winning a road game Tuesday at NEW Lutheran, won their second straight conference game Thursday with a 52-35 home victory over intra-county rival Gibraltar.
Sevastopol, which hadn’t won two straight Packerland games since closing out the 2019-20 regular season, also broke a string of nine consecutive losses against the Vikings and split the two games between both teams this season. Gibraltar won the Jan. 3 matchup on its home court, 53-48.
The Pioneers pulled out to a double-digit lead in the first half of this season’s rematch when the Vikings’ top scorer, Kayin Jackson, picked up his third foul when also being called for a technical and ended up sitting on the bench for several minutes.
However, even with Jackson out of the game, Gibraltar battled back, with a three-pointer by Brady Kita cutting Sevastopol’s lead to 26-21 at halftime.
The Pioneers pulled back in front by double digits in the second half when the Vikings weren’t able to get their offense back on track with only 14 points in the final 18 minutes.
Sevastopol was led by Zaul Valdivia with 17 points. Bo Tanck added 12 points, with Logan Schuh scoring 10 more.
Marco Jauregui led Gibraltar with 13 points, followed by Kita with 10.
Sevastopol, which improved to 2-4 in the Packerland and 6-5 overall, will seek its third straight conference victory Saturday afternoon when the Pioneers host Oconto.
Gibraltar (2-6, 2-9) plays a conference game Saturday afternoon at Algoma.
