State tournament:
Arrowhead beats Brookfield Central in overtime in Division 1 and Cedarburg nips Milwaukee Washington in double overtime in Division 2 to advance to championship games in the WIAA boys basketball tournament.
MADISON - Tommy Durand picked the perfect time to score his only basket of the night.
The Arrowhead senior drove the lane and put up an off-balance shot that just rolled over the lip of the rim and into the basket with 6.3 seconds left in overtime to lift the Warhawks to a 63-62 victory over Brookfield Central in a WIAA Division 1 state semifinal Friday night at the Kohl Center.
Arrowhead, which trailed by 12 points with 51⁄2 minutes left, improved to 22-5 and will face two-time defending state champion Stevens Point in the title game at 8:15 p.m. Saturday.
Senior guard Trevell Cunningham flirted with a triple-double for Arrowhead, tallying 17 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists. Senior Ben Seefeld added 16 points and six rebounds. The team also got 13 points and eight rebounds from Alec Hamilton. Durand had four points. “We knew it was going to be a really, really tough game,” Arrowhead coach Craig Haase said. “I’m so proud of our seniors. They’ve just willed a way to win all year long.”
Central finished 24-2. Sophomore guard Gage Malensek had a team-high 18 points. He made just 6 of 21 shots, but his threepointer with 2 minutes 51 seconds left in overtime gave the Lancers a 59-58 advantage in overtime. A free throw by Chris Post made it a two-point game.
That set the stage for a dramatic finish.
A three-pointer by Arrowhead’s Marko Matejic gave his team a 61-60 lead with 1 minute 13 seconds left, but senior Sam Rohde’s putback of a Cole Nau miss gave Central the lead with 24 seconds to play.
That set the stage for Durand’s go-ahead bucket.
But even after that basket, Arrowhead’s work wasn’t done.
After a timeout, Nau drove the length of the floor and put up a shot that was blocked by Hamilton with 0.8 seconds left.
Still, the Lancers almost pulled out the victory. Junior Andreas Peralta-Werns, who had 17 points, took the inbounds pass underneath the basket, but he had to get the shot up quickly and he couldn’t finish it.
Central, which did a good job of finishing close games throughout the season, couldn’t finish the job this time.
Arrowhead trailed, 5644, with 5:45 to play, but got consecutive threes from Matejic, Seefield and Matejic again to cut the lead to 56-53 with 3:21 to play in regulation.
Durand sank one of two from the line with 2:37 left to make it a two-point game. Then after a Cunningham steal, Hamilton drew a foul on Post and went to the line with 1:49 to play and hit both attempts to tie the game.
Seefeld drew a charge on Malensek the next possession to negate a basket and Arrowhead had a chance to take the lead with 1:24 to play. Cunningham, however, couldn’t hit a last-second fall away jumper from the elbow and the game went into OT.
Stevens Point 48, Madison Memorial 41: The two-time defending champions Panthers got 17 points on 5-for-11 shooting from junior guard Drew Blair. Senior guard Beau Rosenthal added 12 points and junior forward Joey Hauser had 11 points and a game-high 10 rebounds.
Point (23-4) is trying to become the eighth team in state history to win at least three straight boys basketball state titles.