Lancers handle tall task against Raiders
MADISON – In a game where scoring came at a premium, Kenosha St. Joseph advanced to the WIAA Division 4 state title game with a 46-37 semifinal win over Marathon on Friday at the Kohl Center.
The first of two D4 semifinals Thursday night saw the second Metro Classic Conference team advance to a state title game. St. Joe’s led 19-10 at the break after the first half began with nearly seven scoreless minutes. WIAA records for the lowest combined score of any D4 state tournament game (72 points in a 44-28 Assumption win over Clayton in 2002) and lowest winning score in a D4 state tournament game (43 points by Lourdes Academy in a 43-41 win over The Prairie School in 2021) were threatened by a rough-andtumble effort from both teams defensively.
“We executed our scouting report defensively. Held (Grant Warren) to two points at half, which I thought was crucial in the success of that game, but just being able to continue to fight and overcome adversity when they made big shots, big threes to try and climb back into the game,” KSJ head coach Jose Garcia said. “We continued to take care of the ball, be disciplined, continue to do what they were taught to do in practice all week.”
Warren struck an imposing presence lining up for the opening tip at six-foot-10 against six-foot-three Dominic Santarelli, but Warren’s win there would be as dominant as he would look all game.
The Lancers collapsed defensively around Warren, disrupting passing lanes and rotating help to push him out of productive scoring opportunities.
“In my conference, I’m the only guy with my type of height. In their conference they’ve got guys like me all over, so they have experience with it more than some other teams we play,” Warren said. “They defended well and as a team. It wasn’t just one guy trying to take me away, they took everybody away. They played really good team defense overall.”
KSJ forward Tommy Santarelli, who drew one of the lion’s shares of the assignment of Warren, agreed that the experience against players like The Prairie School’s LaTrevion Fenderson and Sekou Konneh of St. Thomas More in their conference prepared them well for Thursday.
“That really, really helped us throughout conference play and just throughout the season we got better and better as we played those big teams,” Santarelli said.
Garcia also called Tommy his most improved player this season, and a critical component of their success this postseason.
“He has stepped up big time not only on the defensive end, rebounding, everything we asked him to do, he did this year. He bought into it. I’m so proud of him, because we have asked him to really play a critical position defensively in the playoffs and coming into the state game, and he has responded,” Garcia said.
Lancers guard Eric Kenesie managed 19 points in the win, which fell well shy of his WIAA record 51-point outing a season ago in the state semifinal. Instead of riding Kenesie’s hot hand, KSJ relied on him to manage the clock down the stretch as the Lancers held a multipossession lead for much of the second half.
“This year it was all about defense, so we didn’t need to score as many points, because of how good we were defensively,” Kenesie said. “It all just starts on the defensive end, and since we were able to hold them to 37 points, then we don’t need to score 50 points as a team.”
KSJ’s starters, including Eric Kenesie, Christopher Kenesie (8 points), Tommy Santarelli (7 points), Dominic Santarelli (7 points) and Lowell Werlinger (5 points), went nearly the complete 36 minutes each Thursday night, subbing only with seven seconds remaining and the game well at hand.
The adage ‘defense wins championships’ will certainly be put to the test as the Lancers compete for the program’s first WIAA state title in just its second appearance in the championship game on Saturday.
St. Joe’s will play Mineral Point in the D4 state championship after the Pointers beat Aquinas, 62-61, in the latter D4 semifinal Thursday night.