Lancers lose another heartbreaker
MEQUON – Brookfield Central had to settle for close again.
The Lancers boys basketball team was on the wrong end of a 9-0 run in the final minutes and lost to Oshkosh North, 59-55, in the marquee game of the day at the Rick Majerus Wisconsin Basketball Yearbook Shootout Friday at Concordia University.
Iowa State recruit Tyrese Haliburton finished with 18 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists for North, which is ranked No. 1 in the wissports.net Division 1 state coaches poll. The 6-foot-5 guard sealed the victory by going 4 for 4 from the line in the final 40 seconds.
Gage Malensek, a 5-foot-10 guard, led Central with 20 points, 15 in the first half. Andres PeraltaWerns, 6-3 senior guard, added 16.
The loss dropped Central to 4-3 with each of the loss to a stateranked team. It fell to Milwaukee Washington, ranked No. 3 in Division 2, 60-52, on Dec. 2 and fell, 51-47, to Brookfield East, the sixth-ranked team in Division 1. North is 10-0.
Here are five takeaways from the game.
Prime-time performer: The measure of a good player isn’t how many points he scores but when he gets those points and how he makes his teammates better. Haliburton delivered on both fronts Thursday.
No official tally was kept, but most of his assists appeared to come in the first half when he set up teammates for layups. He scored 16 points in the second half. He had seven in the final 4 minutes, draining a deep threepointer to tie the game, 47-47, with 3:59 to play. He went 10 for 10 from the line for the game.
“They have a senior who played like a senior in the end,” Central coach Dan Wandrey said.
Dry spell: The difference between a close loss and possibly an upset victory was two dry spells. After Peralta-Werns hit two free throws with 4 minutes 8 seconds to play, Central didn’t score another point until 38.6 seconds remained. The tide, however, turned during the first 51⁄2 minutes of the second half, a scoreless stretch for Central that turned a 30-25 lead into a 35-30 deficit.
“Brookfield Central is exactly what we needed,” North coach Brad Weber said. “We got a seasoned team that was in the state tournament last year, highly skilled guard, very athletic kid at 6-6 (freshman David Joplin). We needed adversity and they gave us that.”
Zone-busting: North creates havoc with its 1-3-1 zone, but Central had pretty good success against it. Good ball movement, some occasional penetration and 4 three-pointers were key in the first half and in the second half the Lancers had so much success that North pulled out of the zone.
“We talked all week about getting into those gaps and getting diagonal passes and quick ball reversals and get some middle touches and we did that,” Wandrey said. “We didn’t shoot it great, but we made some shots. I told the guys it’s not a badge of honor that we got them out of the 1-3-1, but it does show that our kids know how to take a game plan and put it into effect.”
Unsung hero: Rather than give Haliburton the player of the game award for the second straight day, the tournament bestowed that honor on North junior forward Matt Hickey, who scored 14 points. Twice in the second half he was left open at the free throw line and hit jumpers that gave his team two-point leads and with 46.2 seconds left he drained two free throws that pushed North’s lead to 53-47.
His play helped offset a big night by Central’s Jack Brady, who hit 3 three-pointers for a seasonhigh nine points. The senior guard’s back-to-back threes gave the Lancers a 45-44 lead with 5 minutes to play.
Coming up: Central returns to Greater Metro Conference play for the next three weeks before getting another chance to make a splash state-wide. It faces seventh-ranked Sun Prairie at the Luke Homan Showcase on Jan. 20.