Chargers end 31-year state drought
OCONOMOWOC - Freshman. Sophomore. Sophomore. Freshman. Sophomore.
A quick scan up and down the scoring leaders for the Sussex Hamilton boys basketball team Saturday tells you just how far ahead of schedule the Chargers are. But their time is already here in the form of an appointment at the state tournament in Madison.
For the first time since 1987, Hamilton is headed to state after a rousing secondhalf performance that led to a 63-46 victory over Kettle Moraine in a Division 1 sectional final. The Chargers didn’t lead in the second half until a basket by sophomore Lucas Finnessy basket with 6:45 to play, and the lead was just three points with 4:30 on the clock. But Hamilton turned the game into a rout thereafter.
“I think defense and 50 / 50 balls (were the key),” said Finnessy, who finished with 17 points and nine rebounds. “We couldn’t really get anything on offense in the first half and weren’t rebounding that well. So we tried to do that in the second half, and that was our focus. That’s what allowed us to win.”
Before a packed house, freshman Tanner Resch (team-high 18 points) delivered perhaps the two biggest baskets of the game, a pair of three-pointers in the final 6 minutes that helped Hamilton gain separation.
“I just want to step up big in clutch moments, but we did it as a team, and I’m proud of us as a whole,” Resch said. “It was tough, but we got through it, and now we’re playing as good as we’ve ever been.”
Considering where the Chargers have been, that’s an understatement. Hamilton lost seven of eight games in January and looked like a team still in the early stages of building for the future, but a win over first-place and eventual state qualifier Brookfield East in the regularseason finale demonstrated the Chargers’ capability.
A win over top-seeded Bay Port in a sectional semifinal was an announcement that the squad had evolved from “scary matchup” to special team.
“I feel like Bay Port was definitely the one where we felt like we turned a corner,” said freshman Pat Baldwin Jr. (8 points, 10 rebounds), the high-profile 6foot-8 standout whose father is in his first year as coach of the UW-Milwaukee men’s team. “We just rode the momentum through the tournament.”
Baldwin already has the attention of Division I programs and fans of prep basketball around the state, but the contributions of so many additional young players have put this team over the top.
Sophomore J.T. Hoytink was huge early when Baldwin struggled, scoring his team’s first seven points and finishing with 11. Sophomore Carson Smith scored all seven of his points after halftime.
Hamilton (17-9) snapped a 30-year stretch without a conference title in 2013 and now snaps a 31-year drought in qualifying for state.
“You look at our kids from December and early January to what they are now, they’re playing with a new level of confidence,” Hamilton coach Andy Cerroni said. “I’m proud of how they just come together and trust in each other, trust in the system, trust in the coaching. All that’s done is given each of them confidence. They all know what each is capable of doing.