Cavaliers get rolling in time to reach title game
MADISON – The St. Thomas More boys basketball program advanced to the WIAA boys state championship game for the first time with a 68-45 win over Prescott in the Division 3 state semifinal on Thursday.
Prescott hung with the Cavaliers for the first half and well into the second, as STM’s star senior duo Sekou Konneh and Amari McCottry combined for 12 points on 5-of-18 shooting in the first half. STM shot 10-of-33 in the first half (30.3%).
“You’re in a different arena, the backdrop is different on the eyes, and I think we settled in the first half, which isn’t going to help your field goal percentage,” Cavaliers head coach Tony Mane Jr. said.
McCottry overcame a first half in which he had just four points on 2-of-9 shooting with three turnovers and finished with 18 points and 10 rebounds.
“I never got too down on myself. I knew at the end of the day my team was going to need me, so I did whatever it took to impact the game, whether it was scoring, rebounding and facilitating to the team,” McCottry said. “Shots weren’t falling in the beginning, so I knew I had to come out and impacting in a different way.”
Bench scoring also played a factor in the Cavaliers taking a 26-23 lead into halftime, including a pair of threes from Brayden Alivo. Omar Fofana contributed six off the bench for the game, which helped steady the tide along with eight from Kenari Parr and six from Evan Oleson.
“They’ve played a big part and we wouldn’t be here without them,” McCottry said.
Prescott hung within two possessions well into the second half, but a pair of transition baskets ignited a Cavaliers run. First McCottry hauled in a defensive rebound and finished with a dunk on the other end. Then Konneh got a steal off a deflection and finished the ensuing possession with a dunk. The slams brought STM to a 50-41 advantage, starting a 16-0 run.
“When you’re going up against 6foot-9, 6-foot-6 guys who can hurt you in so many different ways ... we did a good job, we made it tough on them,” Prescott head coach Nick Johnson said. “We limited second-chance points in the first half and then when they came at us in the second half, we just didn’t answer that bell.”
The Cavaliers outscored Prescott 52-22 in the paint and 25-0 on fast breaks, and Mane credited his team’s defensive effort in the second half.
“I thought our guys did a great job with second-half adjustments and coming out in that second half and getting on a roll a little bit,” Mane said. “Thankfully we got some stops. I think that was the biggest thing was just the defensive end.”
The Cavaliers advanced them to the program’s first WIAA state title game, set for Saturday afternoon. They will play Lakeside Lutheran, which defeated Kiel 57-55.
Before the merger of the state public and private high school athletic organizations, the Cavaliers won a WISAA Class A championship in 1988 and finished runner-up in 1980 and 1994.