Coming back after a disappointing 55-59 loss against the Wisconsin Dells Chiefs, the Tigers had an early Thanksgiving and feasted upon the Melrose-Mindoro Mustangs on Nov. 21. The Tigers trampled the Mustangs in a 61-35 win and proved that they have what it takes to go further this season than last season.

Though both Joel Kinder and Kenny Greengrass seemed a little off, sub Eli Parker, junior, came in to pick up the slack and scored once, getting a couple of offensive and defensive rebounds. He complimented that with a nice block that had to leave the Mustangs limping back to the ranch.

Senior Brian “Junior” Gulbronson is proving to be a gift to Gaier by showing off his impressive skills once again at Melrose-Mindoro. Gulbronson can’t be stopped. He sprinted past the Mustangs to make a majority of his shots under the basket in some easy layups. After getting warme d up in the first half, the real entertainment started. Gulbronson jumped up to tapped in a ball on a nice offensive rebound after Junior Jeremy Ekern shot a little short of the basket in the last minute of the game. Gulbronson also scored a quick three pointer to end the third quarter and the crowd erupted with cheers easily overpowering the Mustangs’ fans.

For some reason we didn’t see much activity in the first and second quarter from senior starter Ryan Hansen. But oh wait, here he comes. 6-foot-9-inch Ryan Hansen came up with two huge blocks back-to-back at the end of the third quarter. Hansen’s last block saved his team after a steal, away from shooting guard Matt LaFaunge, putting Hansen on defense and single handedly blocking an easy layup attempt from the Mustangs. With the arm span of Clippers forward Blake Griffin, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see even greater things come from Hansen this season.

Junior Mitchel Gjerseth finally got play time and showed up out of nowhere to shoot the last basket of the game and score two points for the Tigers. If Gaier were to give him a little more varsity experience big things will come from Gjerseth.

Sophomore Jack Roou seemed a lot more comfortable on the court after finally shaking whatever he had at Wisconsin Dells. Roou landed five 3-pointers, four 2-pointers and sunk one out of his two free throws in the game. Roou only went out of the game to catch a quick breath before he was back in action. Once again, another smart choice by Coach Gaier as Roou scored 24 out of the 61 points.

LaFaunge came behind Gulbronson with nine points in the game, but had some great defensive rebounds passing the ball all the way down court to Gulbronson. He also had some hugely impactful assists on the game proving that the other team can’t cover him well enough.

I think at this point it’s safe to say that point guard Roou, shooting guard LaFaunge, and the small forward Gulbronson can be called the Three Musketeers of Black River Falls. Working like a machine, these three players pushed out the best play of the game. Jack Roou is down court, he passes it to LaFaunge half court who then passes it to Gulbronson for a layup. The Mustangs didn’t stand a chance. I don’t know what Gaier has been feeding these three, but they can’t be stopped.