Girls end season in regional semifinal
By Dan Truttschel
Correspondent
In most circles, it’s polite to share.
But not when it comes to winning conference basketball championships.
East Troy was in less than a sharing mood last week – and bounced back from its only Rock Valley Conference loss in dominating fashion to bring home the North Division title.
The Trojans outscored Whitewater 41-27 in the first half Feb. 25 and cruised to a 97-60 victory. East Troy closed the regular season at 17-5 overall and 15-1 in the RVC, one game ahead of Evansville’s 14-2.
“Winning championships is never easy, especially when you’re not picked to finish in the top half of the league,” East Troy coach Darryl Rayfield said. “This group just put in a lot of work and time.
“They’re very talented offensively for sure. We are a multi-skilled basketball program. That’s the recipe for championships and constant success. Our guys are basketball junkies.”
A loss to the Whippets would have forced a tie at the top – but Rayfield said his team was having none of that discussion.
“Before the Whitewater game, it was like the kids didn’t want to share or hear anything about the sharing of anything that they knew was theirs,” he said. “I think they wanted to silence some doubters.”
East Troy again put a balanced scoring attack on the floor, led by Jake Nixon with 27, Joe Ciriacks with 23, Johnathon Brehm with 12 and Jon Ciriacks and Jake Remsza each with 11.
“Nixon an Joe Ciriacks are scoring at a high level,” Rayfield said. “Remsza is rebounding like crazy, (Brehm) is a defensive-minded leader and Jon (Ciriacks) is getting it done on both ends.
“Our guys coming off the bench have been just terrific, especially (Logan) Parsons, who is playing with more confidence with each passing day. (Logan) Mitchell and Jered Brehm are starting to contribute (as well).”
East Troy drew the No. 2 seed in the regional and will play the winner of seventh-seeded Beloit Turner and 10th-seeded Big Foot in a Division 3 regional semifinal Friday.
The winner advances to a regional final Saturday.
Rayfield expected to face Turner Friday and knows that game will not be easy.
“They were a preseason top-10 team,” he said. “They won the (South Division) and feature a high-powered, offensive group and are coming in healthy.
“We beat them early, but I was a war in Beloit, and they were missing their best player. We know each other well. It’s just going to be a great WIAA tournament game, just how it should be.”
Girls fall in opener
The East Troy girls saw their season come to an end in a 41-38 overtime loss to Turner last Tuesday night.
East Troy finished the year at 9-14 overall. Turner fell to Whitewater in the regional semifinal three nights later.
The Trojans’ lone senior, Katrina Santos, led the way with 12 points and four rebounds, followed by Maddie Rosin with 10 points and seven rebounds, Kayla Casper with seven rebounds and Mackenzie Lindow with five rebounds and four steals.
Results of All-RVC voting and a statistical wrap up of the season with run in a future edition.
