Don’t forget McHenry
Patience. That was the key for Cedarburg.
The Bulldogs defeated Whitefish Bay, 48-41, Friday at home to avenge one of its North Shore Conference losses and move into a first-place tie with Bay in the league standings.
It was quite a reversal of fortune for Cedarburg, which lost, 76-56, to Bay on Dec. 8. That was the third game of the season, and the Bulldogs were still figuring out their identity with transfer Logan Landers in the fold.
Part of the team's evolution is its ability to play a half-court game when necessary. That wasn't the case In the first meeting when the Bulldogs tried to push the tempo and quickly dug a hole for themselves.
What was perhaps Cedarburg's biggest win of the year came with its lowest point total. The Bulldogs shot 55.9% (19 for 34) as senior forward Drew Biber had 12 points, three rebounds and three assists and Landers, a 6-foot-10 forward headed to Kansas State, had 12 points and five rebounds.
Throughout Cedarburg's lineup were good stat lines.
Senior guard Matthew Pilch posted nine points, four rebounds and five assists. Trenton Reitbrock, a senior forward, finished with seven points, seven rebounds and four assists.
“One thing we pride ourselves on as a team is our versatility,” Cedarburg coach Nick Mueller said. “Certainly we can get up and down with a lot of teams and we still have that length and athleticism. But tonight we wanted to play at their style because we felt like we were bigger, stronger and more athletic, so we wanted to slow the game down as much as they did. I thought we did a nice job of staying composed and not getting rattled.”
Give and take in the Classic 8
Waukesha West scored a 78-76 come-from-behind victory over Arrowhead on Friday that briefly gave it a commanding lead over Arrowhead and Kettle Moraine in the Classic 8. By early Saturday afternoon a 62-56 loss by West to Muskego had tightened up the race again, leaving the Wolverines with a one-game lead heading into a showdown with Kettle Moraine on Tuesday.
The tough loss Saturday, however, didn't nullify two facts from Friday.
• Cam Palesse is clutch. The 6-5 senior, a Valparaiso recruit, finished with 36 points for his seventh 30-point performance of the season and hit the winner at the buzzer.
• Sam Ziebell was money when it mattered. The senior guard entered play averaging three points but hit 5 three-pointers in the second half for a season-high 15 points. The hot shooting, which led to his first double-digit scoring effort of the season, sparked West's comeback from a 10-point deficit in the second half.
Milwaukee Academy of Science senior Donald McHenry posted his second straight 50-point game in the Novas' 90-60 win Friday at Kingdom Prep. The 6-1 guard finished with a career-high 54 points plus seven rebounds, five assists and five steals. The performance came on the heels of a 52point showing in a 107-50 win over North Fond du Lac on Jan. 19.
McHenry has played just seven games this season due to the team's limited schedule, but don't forget about him. He is a proven player. Last year when the Novas featured Division I recruits Kaleim Taylor (UW-Milwaukee) and Darius Hannah (Bradley), it was McHenry who led the team in scoring with 21.1 points per game. Friday night's performance moved him past St. John's Northwestern Brandin Podziemski for the area's scoring lead with 35.6 points per game.
Lancer Legends
One of the great moments of the week came Friday at Brookfield Central when former Lancers star Riley LaChance returned to help the program honor senior David Joplin. Joplin, a Texas recruit, passed LaChance as the school's all-time leader scorer Tuesday.
Joplin, who has 1,699 points, is also the program's all-time leading rebounder with 884.
The two players show there are different ways to reach a record. LaChance hit about twice as many threepointers as Joplin, whose perimeter game has blossomed as he has gotten older.
Jackson makes history, too
Whitefish Bay senior Jayden Jackson also made history this week when he broke John Stone's 62-year-old school scoring record of 1,433 points. The Northern Arizona recruit is averaging 19.6 points with about five rebounds and three assists per game. He enters the week with 1,450 points.