By: Joe Blystone
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
publisher@thevillagereporter.com
METAMORA (December 11, 2025) – Almost a year ago to the day, Evergreen’s Quinn Eisel suffered a stroke and had to be hospitalized.
Miraculously, Eisel returned to the floor, some three weeks later, and finished playing his junior year.
In front of a large home crowd, Eisel wrote the next chapter in his inspiring story Thursday night, scoring 20 points, spearing double-digits in rebounds along with three blocked shots, to pace Evergreen to a 75-66 win over Ottawa Hills.
The Vikings, who did not practice most of the week due to a number of unfortunate events, are now 2-1 on the year.
“I’ve seen a lot of reasons to not have practice in the past; no electricity in a building has not been one of them,” Viking coach Kyle Bostater explained of his team’s inability to get on the floor.
“We just talked about it post-game; our guys had not really practiced since last Thursday. Monday, we were very light, Tuesday, we had weather issues, and Wednesday, we were without power, so we had to get creative and do some things I haven’t had to do as a coach yet, and our guys were very mature about it, being able to stay locked-in.”
The fleet Vikings jumped out early and were never headed. Will Ruetz found Chris Shrader for a layup five seconds after the opening tip, and Eisel scored at the end of a Green Bear turnover 20 seconds later.
Eisel then put in a power move inside and stuck back a Viking miss to make it 9-1, and Troy Manz radar-locked a three-ball to bolt Evergreen up 12-1 with 4:25 still left in the first.
Avi Hanusz nailed nine first-quarter points, and Preston Thom hit a pair from outside, as Ottawa Hills shot 61 percent in the first quarter to stay in contact.
However, Shrader, Ruetz, and Bryce Bolger each hit from long range to maintain a 27-21 Viking margin after one.
“I’m not surprised by Chris at all, he’s my best kept secret that won’t be a secret long,” Bostater explained of his junior forward.
“He has been our most consistent player. We get the same thing every single day out of him defensively; he always asks questions, he always communicates, and offensively, he does everything. He rebounds, he can hit the three, he can handle it for us, he is our glue guy that holds us together.”
The Vikings put some distance in the gap in the first 90 ticks of the second, turning the Bears over three times that led to a George Allendorf bomb from 27-feet, and back-to-back ‘pick 2’ hoops from Manz and Ruetz to make it 36-21.
Ruetz canned two more from outside the arc to keep Evergreen on top, 46-30 at the break. In the third, Eisel took over again, scoring the first nine Viking points, capped by a drop-through dunk with 4:39 left on the clock that pushed the bulge to 55-34.
“Quinn really responded to the film we watched,” said Bostater. “He needs to dive and find spots, and now our guys are looking for him. I thought he did a very good job of that, and he finished.”
Then 30 seconds into the fourth, Manz fleeced a Bear ball-handler, flipped up court to Ruetz, who tossed an underhand scoop off the board that Eisel finished with an earth-shattering slam that began a final scoring spurt that was capped by a Manz triple that opened a 70-44 crevice with 5:21 left.
“We were very happy with our effort in the second half defensively after we challenged them at the half,” Bostater said.
“We talked about being more disciplined, our guys up top in the press, they can’t leave our guys in the back on an island.
“That’s really what we talked about, yes, it feels good to have 46 at half, but I don’t feel good about it when our defensive effort was not where it should have been.”
Bostater called off the hounds at the point, and Ottawa Hills closed the margin in the final minutes, using starters the whole way against the Viking third line players.
Manz added 17 to Eisel’s above-mentioned total. Ruetz tacked on 15 and Shrader 10.
Hanusz had 20 for Ottawa Hills, eight of those in the last three minutes, and Thom added 14.
Evergreen had 16 turnovers on the night, only eight of those in the first 28 minutes. Ottawa Hills coughed the rock up 21 times. Evergreen held a 37-27 edge on the glass.