Kettle Moraine Lutheran, Prairie fall
ASHWAUBENON — Kettle Moraine Lutheran’s first trip to state in nine years ended abruptly after a 56-52 defeat to No. 3 seed Xavier on Thursday afternoon at the Resch Center in the WIAA Division 3 girls state basketball semifinals.
The Chargers held a 24-23 lead at intermission following a half they shot just 9 for 29 from the field, including 1 of 9 from three-point range with six turnovers. Despite the poor shooting, they held the Hawks to similar numbers on the other end, including an 8-for-29 shooting performance with seven turnovers.
Less than two minutes into the second half, the floodgates opened.
The Chargers raced out on a 12-0 run to take a 36-23 advantage on the back of seven points from Makenzie Luehring points, who scored a game-high 32 points with nine rebounds and five steals for the Chargers.
“You feel good,” Kettle Moraine Lutheran coach Jason Walz said on the explosion out of halftime. “My father who coached for a lot of years used to say that the three-point shot is sometimes fool’s gold. We came out and hit some shots, but then it felt like there might have been four possessions in a row where we just settled for three-point shots.”
Like they’ve done all season long, the Hawks picked themselves off the canvas and swung back. From Luehring’s bucket with 16:04 to play in the contest until the media timeout with 6:38 left, the Hawks outscored the Chargers 15-5 to trim a 13-point deficit to just three (4138).
Xavier freshman guard Elle Krull scored 13 of her team-high 20 points in the second half, including a wild sequence inside of the final 92 seconds. She attacked, missed a shot at the rim, got her own rebound, dribbled back to the 3-point line, made a 3 and then hit three free throws with 1:02 left to give the Hawks a 54-52 advantage they wouldn’t relinquish.
Xavier's Molly Martine is fouled as she puts up a shot against Kettle Moraine Lutheran's Madeline Leffel (25) during their WIAA Division 3 girls semifinal game Thursday at the Resch Center in Ashwaubenon. Xavier rallied for a 56-52 win to reach the D3 final.
With the victory, Xavier moved on to Saturday’s Division 3 state title game against top-seeded Edgewood (26-3), which trounced No. 4 seed BaldwinWoodville (22-7) in the first semifinal, 62-29, Thursday.
Kettle Moraine Lutheran’s season concluded at 24-5.
Laconia knocks out Prairie
Behind a 20-point, 16-rebound performance from junior Tierney Madigan, as well as Laconia accomplishing its goal of holding The Prairie School star guard Jasonya “JJ” Glass-Barnes to more shot attempts than points, the Spartans eliminated the Hawks from the Division 4 state tournament on Thursday night, 6749.
Glass-Barnes had 20 points on a tough 8-of-21 shooting performance, while the rest of the Hawks’ rotation shot 10-for-35 from the field.
The No. 4 seed hung with the defending champions in the opening 18 minutes. They trailed by as many as 10 points (2818) in the first half. but an 11-5 push capped by a silky-smooth stepback left wing jumper from Glass-Barnes pulled the Hawks to within four at 33-29 heading into the locker room.