Resch elevates game to help keep Sussex Hamilton on track
Tanner Resch is like most athletes. He's is not surprised
The Sussex Hamilton senior has been a star of the high school basketball season. A 6-foot-1 guard, Resch is the area's fifth-leading scorer, averaging a 30.7 points per game while playing in the area's deepest conference, the Greater Metro.
The only person expected to put up 30-point games on a regular basis for Sussex Hamilton this season was Patrick Baldwin Jr., but the situation changed after the star senior suffered a high ankle sprain that has sidelined him indefinitely.
It's a tough loss that has created opportunity in its wake. One of sport's lessons is that show goes on. A beauty of the games is they can put people no matter if they're ready of not in a spots where they're forced to sink or swim.
Resch clearly was ready for the moment.
“I do whatever it takes to win,” he said. “For the past three years me being the main scorer hasn't been what we needed to win. Me being a role player and helping get other guys open was what we needed to win.”
Now the team needs Resch to put the ball in the hoop and he has delivered.
A career 9.5-point scorer entering the season, Resch averaged 14.1 a game for a team that won 22 games last year
and reached the sectional final before the season was halted due to the pandemic. His single-game scoring high was 23 points.
In the five games Baldwin has missed, Resch has beat that previous career high in every game. He is averaging 35 points in at stretch as Hamilton has gone 4-1.
His signature moment came last Tuesday with a school-record 49 points in a 90-71 win over Brookfield East, which had just assumed the No. 1 ranking in the wissports.net Division 1 state coaches poll.
He got the feeling he'd have a good game early on.
“In the first half I hit a pull-up jumper that felt really good off my hands,” he said.
“When you're hitting shots and your teammates are hitting shots and your teammates are getting stops on D, it just piles up and you get so much confidence.”
Making the most of his chances
So what has made Resch into such a scoring machine?
Opportunity is a big thing. Whereas last year's Hamilton team was balanced and extremely experienced – four players averaged at least 9.6 points – the team this year is younger. It was going to need Baldwin and Resch to carry more of a scoring load this year. When Baldwin went down, more of that responsibility naturally shifted to Resch.
The other thing is that Resch has always had it in him. While Baldwin was drawing headlines as a freshman on varsity three year ago, Resch was quietly have a strong freshman year as well. He averaged 6.3 points that season and in the team's one-point loss to Oshkosh North in the state semifinals came off the bench to hit five of six shots and score 13 points.
"I know his highest points up until that time was 23, but that game with Carson (Smith) was scoring 20-something and Patrick was scoring 20 and JT (Hoytink) was scoring a ton, too," Hamilton coach Andy Cerroni said. "Yeah, I knew he had the capability. There is no doubt about it."
A team effort to replace Baldwin
The big story of Resch's 49-point night was that it came in a win. Four days earlier, Hamilton went to West Allis Hale and lost, 91-83, a result that cost the Chargers their spot in the state rankings.
Bouncing back in such impressive fashion earned Hamilton a spot back in the top 10 this week and said a lot of about the players it still has.
“I think everyone thought this year it was just Patrick and other guys,” Resch said. “We just want to prove to everyone that we can play. We're good basketball players.
“For the past three years we've been ranked as the top team and we always had a target on our back and now the target is even bigger because we're the underdogs now. I think it's fun having a challenge like this.”
Resch isn't the only Charger filling
the void of Baldwin's absence.
Sophomore guard Luther Smith has boosted his average 12 points to 15 per game from last season. Senior forward Noah Rieder (10.4 ppg, 9 rpg) has more than doubled his scoring and tripled his rebounding from his junior season. Senior Jimmy Baisden and freshman Aidan Konop weren't contributors last year but are key pieces of the rotation now.
Resch, however, has set the tone and the people who count are paying attention. Coaches from Division III and some Division II programs have been attending games regularly. Clarke, a NAIA school in Iowa, had offered a scholarship earlier His rise is an example of what can happen when an opportunity presents itself and you're ready to make the most of it.
"If it helps him to play beyond high school at an institution that's great," Cerroni said. "That is what he wants to do and he certainly has the ability to do it. This is just going to open more doors for him."