By Michael S. Hoey
Correspondent
In a re-match of last year’s Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association regional game that ended Badger High School’s season, Badger lost to Verona 102-88 on Saturday in the first game of the season for both teams.
The Badgers demonstrated offensive firepower including the ability to shoot by making 14 three-pointers. The problem came in stopping the Wildcats from scoring. Verona made nine three-pointers and had three players score 20 points including Cole Schmitz, Nathaniel Buss and Kwan Clements.
Jake Berhorst led all scorers with 33 points, 12 of them courtesy of the three-pointer. Mason DuMez added 15 on five three-pointers, and Ian Schirtzinger had 14 including four three-pointers.
The first half ended with Badger up 47-46, but Verona took charge in the second half, outscoring the Badgers 56-41.
“Tough opener for us at Verona,” Coach Forrest Larson said. “Verona has their best player (Schmitz) back from last year and their starting point guard (Buss).”
Larson said he tries to use a tough non-conference schedule to make the team better and prepare it for tournament play at the end of the year. He wants them battle-tested. In addition to Verona, the Badgers will host Division 2 powerhouse Seymour on Saturday and travel to Iowa to play a tough Dubuque Hempstead squad on Dec. 19.
Larson said the opener against Verona showed the Badgers what they need to work on for the rest of the year – playing full speed in transition for 36 minutes.
“Our transition defense was not good and they really took advantage,” Larson said. “We did not get back, we got outsprinted, and we really need to get better there.”
Larson said the Badgers gave up 26 transition points on defense and struggled to match that on offense.
“We have to get better in transition getting out and running,” he said. “We had no layups in transition by our wings or posts. We made some plays but not nearly enough.”
Larson said Verona did a great job spacing the floor on offense and making plays, and his Badgers failed to stop the ball with their press.
“Any time they were open, they made shots,” Larson said. “We looked disorganized in some respects.”
Larson said the key to last season’s success, when the Badgers went 16-7 overall and 12-2 in the Southern Lakes Conference in Larson’s first season back at the helm, was tremendous senior leadership from Lincoln Wieseman, Joe Freeman and Bryant Sontag. He said the team was also very physical behind Wieseman and Freeman.
While Larson believes he will have some good senior leadership this year from players like Jake Berhorst, the physicality is something he is concerned about.
“We are going to have to increase our toughness,” he said.
Larson said the team has been beset by a number of injuries that have caused many players to miss all or parts of practices, which has hampered the work needed for conditioning.
Larson said Berhorst is the team’s best player, both offensively and defensively. Berhorst led the Badgers in scoring last year as a junior averaging 18.2 points per game. Larson said DuMez, Austin Jackson, Chase Kruger and James Bowen will all play significant minutes and need to increase their ability to rebound, score and defend. Ryan Sproul, Aiden Kokodynski and Isaac Ziervogel will also contribute. Seniors Kokodynski and Ziervogel did not play as juniors, and Larson said they both need to have great senior seasons. Larson said the team has a good mix of seniors and younger players. Besides Berhorst, Larson said he is looking for who will shoot the ball well as his offense will look to get 25 to 30 open looks from behind the three-point arc each game. He said the offense will, as always, be about full-court play with sprinting in transition, and it will be augmented by tough man-to-man and full-court-press defense, all areas that need to improve. In the half court, the Badgers will try to spread the floor and look to make as many plays as possible off the dribble.
Jackson stands 6 foot 7 inches and Kruger is 6 foot 5, so Larson expects to be able to score inside. He said Jackson is greatly improved, and both of them need to be able to score in the paint and rebound hard. Jackson had 12 points and caused some issues in the post in the first half against Verona but did not play in the second half because of back issues.
Larson said effort and playing together are his team’s strengths.
“Everyone has to make a contribution every day in practice and in every game,” he said. “They have worked hard so far and have been very coachable.”
Larson says his team has some work to do in the Southern Lakes Conference as most coaches and writers seem to think the Badgers will finish toward the bottom of the conference standings. He said Mark Miller of Wisconsin Sports Network and Wisconsin Basketball Yearbook has picked Westosha Central to make it to the WIAA state tournament in Madison in March. Larson said Burlington is well coached and has returned a lot of players from a very good team last year, and Wilmot might have the best player in the SLC in Bobby Brenner.
Badger opens SLC play at Union Grove on Friday night and hosts Seymour on Saturday at 7 p.m.
Girls fall to Watertown
The Badger girls lost their second straight non-conference game on the road on Nov. 24 to Watertown 53-37.
Watertown built up a 28-17 lead at the half and outscored the Badgers 25-20 in the second half to pull away.
Badger was led by Courtney Oomens with eight points. Watertown (2-0) was led by Lauren Burd with 11.
The Badgers hosted Kenosha Tremper in their final non-conference tune-up Tuesday night and open SLC play Friday night at Union Grove as part of a doubleheader with the boys. The Badgers will then travel to Wilmot on Dec. 8.
