Two-point loss costs boys conference championship
By Dan Truttschel
Correspondent
With a 14-point lead after the first quarter Friday night, it looked like the East Troy High School boys basketball team would cruise to its 13th Rock Valley Conference victory.
Unfortunately for the Trojans, host Evansville and sudden cold shooting kept that from happening.
Evansville cut the deficit to just five points by halftime, took the lead in the third quarter and hung on for a 47-45 victory.
The loss dropped East Troy to 13-7 overall and 12-3 in the RVC. McFarland stayed perfect in conference play last week to clinch the North Division crown.
East Troy made just four of 29 3-point attempts and missed key free throws down the stretch, coach Darryl Rayfield said.
“We settled for threes when we talked about having good balance,” he said. “They were so easy to come by that we needed to have more discipline than just winging it.
“(The loss was) absolutely a setback, but it will be a lesson that we will learn from. Championships are not won from out there (by the 3-point line) very often.”
Will Iloncaie led the Trojans with 17 points, followed by Connor Mitchell with 11 and Joseph Ciriacks with eight.
East Troy closed its regular season Thursday night against visiting Whitewater. The Trojans beat the Whippets 67-50 back in January.
From there, East Troy will get ready for the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association Division 3 playoffs. The Trojans received the top seed in the regional and will play the winner of fourth-seeded Lakeside Lutheran and fifth-seeded Whitewater Friday, March 6.
The other half of the regional features second-seeded Marshall against either third-seeded Lake Mills or sixth-seeded St. Johns Northwestern Military Academy.
The regional final is set for Saturday, March 7, at a site yet to be determined.
“Tournament starts soon, and we are looking forward to getting started with that,” Rayfield said.
