Swede boys basketball coach Roger Koehler wanted the last home game for his eight seniors to be a memorable one Friday night.

All of them played—with the exception of Alix Meisinger who was sick—and all of them contributed to Gothenburg’s 67-62 victory.

“It’s nice to get to put everyone on the floor,” Koehler said. “That doesn’t always happen.”

From the start of the game, the Swedes pushed to a 14-1 lead at the 2:30 mark of the first quarter.

“We were confident and in control,” the coach said. “We got off to a really good start and bumped up the score through the first half.”

Gothenburg led 16-8 at the end of the first quarter and had a 34-23 advantage at halftime.

“We did a lot of good things,” Koehler said. “We looked to run the ball and we had plenty of opportunities. We also passed the ball well and played good defense most of the game.”

Gothenburg pushed the pace through the second half as well, extending the lead to 17 points at the end of the third period and the Swedes still had a 17-point lead with two minutes left to play.

But Ogallala kept pressing with a few of Gothenburg’s more inexperienced seniors on the floor.

At the same time, the Indians found a couple of hot hands to score 26 points in the final frame and close the gap.

“I wanted those seniors to finish out the game,” Koehler said. “I felt good about what they’d done to that point.”

Junior Logan Koehler led Gothenburg’s scoring effort with 18 points and he completed a double-double with 12 rebounds.

Senior Brett Dockweiler contributed 15 points, all from three-point goals.

The Swedes close out the regular season with a 15-7 record and a No. 2 seed in the C1-11 sub-district, which began Tuesday in Lexington.

Gothenburg faced 14-9 Chase County while 14-5 Hershey played 4-16 Ogallala in the semi-finals.

Winners of those two games will play at 7 p.m. Thursday in Lexington for the right to advance.

Look for complete coverage in next week’s edition of The Times.