Foul makes would-be game-winning shot no good
By Michael S. Hoey
Correspondent
The Lake Geneva Badger boys basketball team lost a heartbreaker to an athletic and physical Verona team in the opening round of Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association regional play Friday.
The Badgers trailed by as many as 15 in the third quarter but came back to have two chances to take the lead before falling on the road 72-69.
Badger struggled to box out and get rebounds the entire game but in particular in the first half. Compounding matters, Coach Forrest Larson said his team made some bad reaching-in fouls that led to Badger being charged with 10 first-half fouls compared to four for the Wildcats.
“We reached in and put them on the foul line in the first half,” Larson said. “I think more than anything else, it came down to rebounding the basketball.”
Larson said Verona was easily the most physical team the Badgers played this season.
“That was an issue tonight—getting these guys boxed out,” he said.
Verona had the upper hand in the first half, building up leads of nine on two occasions, but the Badgers kept battling back, each time cutting their deficit down to four. Verona led 16-8 near the end of the first quarter aided in part by two NBA-caliber three pointers from Will Kellerman and in part to six Badger turnovers. Mason DuMez hit a three of his own at the buzzer to make it 16-11 at the end of one.
Lincoln Wieseman cut the lead to three with a basket to open the second quarter but Verona’s Cole Schmitz answered with two three-pointers giving the Wildcats their first nine-point lead. The Badgers fought back behind three-pointers from Bryant Sontag and DuMez to come within 25-21. Verona pushed the lead back to nine at 30-21 but again Badger came back. Wieseman hit a three with two seconds on the clock to make it 33-29 at the half.
Another three from Schmitz and a drive by Kellerman put the lead back up to nine early in the third quarter. A rebound and put-back by Schmitz gave the Wildcats an 11-point lead. A three-pointer by Joe Freeman and a Badger timeout momentarily slowed Verona, but the Wildcats picked up where they left off and pushed the lead to 15 on another three-pointer by Schmitz. Once again, Badger battled back and cut the lead to nine at 59-50 on a layup by Sontag at the buzzer.
Freeman then stepped up and carried the Badgers early in the fourth quarter.
“Joe just got better and better as the year went on,” Larson said. “He’s a great kid, he’s got a motor and there is no quit in him. He was great tonight.”
Freeman won a hard-fought battle for a rebound and found Sontag for an open three-pointer. Sontag was fouled on the play and made the free throw for a four-point play that cut the lead to 59-54. After a Verona turnover, Freeman hustled for another rebound and was later fouled, making both free throws and bringing the Badgers within three.
Verona opened a little daylight with two baskets from Jake Toman, and Wieseman picked up his fourth foul going for a rebound. Verona led 63-56. Sontag hit a three, but Verona’s Casey McClure got a rebound and put-back to make it 65-59. Sontag missed a three-pointer and Wieseman fouled out going for another rebound with 3:47 to play.
Verona’s Keaton Knueppel missed the second end of the bonus, but McClure came away with the rebound. Verona failed to capitalize, and Jake Berhorst hit a three-pointer to make it 66-62. After two Verona free throws, Freeman scored to make it 68-64. Freeman later snared another rebound that led to another three-pointer from Berhorst that brought the Badgers within one with 1:33 to play.
Berhorst drew a foul going for steal but Schmitz missed the front end of the bonus, and Freeman got the rebound. Badger had a chance to take its first lead of the night but turned the ball over instead. Two free throws by Kellerman made it 70-67.
Berhorst was fouled driving to the basket. The shot did not fall, but Berhorst made both free throws cutting the lead to one again with 39 seconds to play. Freeman then came up with a big steal and called time out giving the Badgers the ball with 31.9 seconds to go.
Berhorst drove the lane, but his shot was blocked out of bounds by Toman. Berhorst later drove to the basket again and made what would have been potentially the game-winning shot with 6.3 seconds left but the basket was waved off as Berhorst was called for a charge, his fifth foul.
“That didn’t have anything to do with it,” Larson said about the result of the charging call on Berhorst. “We did not rebound the basketball and we did not get stops on the defensive end when we needed to. That’s on us.”
Larson said his team made some defensive mistakes where they missed some assignments.
After two Verona free throws, Badger was unable to get off a game-tying three-pointer before the buzzer sounded.
Verona (15-9) won the regional championship the next night defeating Janesville Craig (8-17) 59-58.
“We showed real good composure,” Larson said about the fight his team displayed.
“We didn’t panic, we kept running our stuff, and we made some big threes that got us back in the game,” he said. “We got right where we needed to be to win the game.”
Badger (16-7, 12-2 Southern Lakes Conference) was led by Freeman’s 18 points. Sontag added 17, Wieseman had 14, and Berhorst had 12. Kellerman led all scorers with 21. Schmitz added 15, and Toman had 12.
Larson said the season was an overall success in his first year back as coach.
“These guys did everything I asked them to do,” he said. “They were outstanding.”
Larson said through the 60 to 70 practices over the course of the season, there were only two in which he thought they did not get the job done and over the course of 23 games, he thought the effort was really good.
“I thought they were exciting and fun to watch,” Larson said.
