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For them, but also for Gavin
LaPorte City Union Community’s boys’ basketball team fell Tuesday night to West Lyon in a Class 2A state tournament quarterfinal, ending a magical postseason run, in part inspired by late teammate Gavin Rohrbach, who died in an automobile accident in the fall
Mar. 11, 2025 11:45 pm
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DES MOINES - This is about them, but also about him.
LaPorte City Union Community basketball players wear black warmup tops with “Rohrbach 12” on the backs of them. Most of them wore green and white Nike shoes Tuesday night.
The Philadelphia Eagles were Gavin Rohrbach’s favorite team. The Union senior and multi-sport athlete died in an automobile accident in September.
Surely he was watching from above as his Knights played West Lyon in a Class 2A state tournament quarterfinal at Wells Fargo Arena. The outcome wasn’t too good, as the second-seeded Wildcats won, 81-50.
But he had to be proud of his team, his friends. Getting to this game was a big deal for Union (17-10), which had three upset wins on its tournament trail, including a shocker against second-ranked Carroll Kuemper in a substate final.
This state qualification was just the second for the school, the first since 2008.
“He’d be proud,” said Union’s Caden Sorensen. “It’s sad that he couldn’t experience it with us. But I know he was watching us. He was a good friend of all of ours, a really funny guy. He really impacted the team a lot. I’d say he motivated us to fight, to push hard, as hard as we can.”
Rohrbach’s memory was all over Tuesday night. He was included on the stats sheet provided to media and is listed on Union’s roster in the official state tournament program.
He even was introduced with the rest of the Knights reserves pregame, with two of them holding up his jersey as the Union crowd gave him a rousing ovation.
“He is very proud of these guys, for sure,” said first-year Union Coach Eric Jesse. “A good friend of all of the kids. Always had a smile on his face, just the type of kid you wanted to be around. Definitely you felt him with us throughout the year.“
West Lyon (22-3), which actually lost to Kuemper in the regular season, was just too fast, too strong, too everything here. The Wildcats ran to a 45-19 halftime lead behind 60-percent shooting.
That came largely due to transition makes, exquisite ball movement and cutting in the half court that produced point-blank opportunity after point-blank opportunity. West Lyon (which got a game-high 25 points from guard Jorden Meyer) finished with a whopping 60 points in the paint.
“They were really quicker than we expected from what we saw on film,” said Union’s Cameron Mullen. “A really tough team, they really took it to us. It was hard to come back once they punched us.”
Union was led by Caleb Sorensen with 12 points. Mullen added eight.
These Knights had just one senior on the active roster (center Eric Neipert), so there is legit promise to be very good next season, with another state trip certainly not an outrageous possibility. Inspired some more by Gavin Rohrbach.
“Like I told them after the game, there have been a lot of really good players who have never been on this stage,” Jesse said. “We’ve got everybody back except Eric. So we’ll have to do some things differently. But hopefully this makes them hungry for the offseason.”
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AT DES MOINES
LAPORTE CITY UNION COMMUNITY (50): Tate Van Dyke 2-6 2-3 7, Eric Neipert 2-4 0-1 4, Cameron Mullen 3-11 0-0 8, Maddux DeWinter 2-5 0-0 4, Caden Sorensen 6-11 0-0 12, Bryson DeWinter 1-2 0-0, Sawyer Spence 3-6 1-1 7, Ethan Winnike 0-1 0-0 0, Henry Hegdahl 0-1 0-0 0, Cooper Spore 0-1 0-0 0, Jacob McCoy 0-1 0-0 0, Eli Grote 0-0 0-0 0, Zach Griswold 1-1 0-0 3, Grady Anderson 1-1 0-0 3, Wes Buckingham 0-0 0-0 0, Trevor Mullen 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 21-51 3-5 50.
WEST LYON (81): Jared Ciesielski 6-8 3-3 15, Bryson Childress 1-4 2-2 4, Easton Jacobson 2-6 2-3 6, Carson Hoogeveen 5-13 0-0 11, Jorden Meyer 11-14 0-0 25, Carson Meyer 0-1 0-0 0, Ben Meyer 7-9 0-0 14, Drendan Van Whye 1-1 0-0 2, Xander Rentschler 0-3 0-0 0, Easton De Jong 1-2 0-0 2, Sam Underberg 0-0 0-0 0, Daxtyn McCarty 1-1 0-0 2, Will Warner 0-0 0-0 0, River Knoblock 0-0 0-0 0, Jaxton DeJong 0-0 0-0 0, Lincoln Bruggeman 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 35-64 7-8 81.
Halftime – West Lyon 45, Union Community 19. 3-point goals – Union Communiy 5-20 (C. Mullen 2-8, M. DeWinter 0-1, Van Dyke 1-1, Sorensen 0-3, Spence 0-3, Hegdahl 0-1, Spore 0-1, Griswold 1-1, Anderson 1-1), West Lyon 4-16 (Hoogeveen 1-5, Childress 0-2, J. Meyer 3-5, Rentschler 0-3, Kramer 0-1). Rebounds – Union Community 24 (Neipert 9), West Lyon 38 (Ciesielski 11). Total fouls – Union Community 6, West Lyon 6. Fouled out – None. Assists – Union Community 9 (Sorensen, Neipert, Spore 2), West Lyon 18 (Hoogeveen 4). Turnovers – Union Community 15, West Lyon 8.
Comments: (319)-398-8258, jeff.johnson@thegazette.com
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