Lancers’ title hopes fall just short again
MADISON - For the second consecutive season Kenosha St. Joseph saw its season come up just short of a WIAA gold ball, losing 65-64 to Mineral Point in the final seconds of the Division 4 boys basketball championship game Saturday.
Senior Eric Kenesie hit a running layup with 12 seconds left to put the Lancers up 64-63, their first lead. Rather than call a timeout to reset, Mineral Point pushed the inbound and got a Drew Aschilman tip-in off a Jaxson Wendhausen miss with 1.4 seconds remaining. Kenesie’s half-court prayer off the ensuing inbound sailed wide left, ending an inspired comeback bid by the Lancers.
“We rallied back, we fought back, and we teach them to honor God with their attitude and effort, and their effort was there at the end to climb back in there and have an opportunity to win that game,” KSJ head coach Jose Garcia said. “That’s all I can ask for as a coach, is for my players to fight back, and they did that, so I’m proud of them.”
KSJ trailed 30-15 late in the first half before ending the half on a 7-0 run. That run extended into the second half to 15-0, tying the score at 30-30. Increasing defensive intensity and rebounding were halftime adjustments of emphasis for Garcia, as the Lancers stepped up the back court pressure and tracking down misses.
“It was our guys rallying back, and being able to bring that intensity that we truly have on the defensive end, and I think we showed that towards the end of the game,” Garcia said.
Any hopes of the Lancers taking a lead seemed to drown in a sea of converted threes by the Pointers however. After KSJ tied things back up at 31, threes from Eli Lindsey and Landon Thousand pushed the lead back to six. The Pointers built and sustained their lead for much of the game on a D4 state tournament record 15 three-point baskets on 29 attempts. The makes eclipsed Roncalli’s 13 in a single game on 22 attempts in 2018, and the attempts tied Plum City’s 1994 total. The scouting report showed Mineral Point to be a shooting team, Garcia said, but not at the clip he saw Saturday.
“We adjusted at half. We wanted to, ‘Hey we’re going to stick to our man, we’re not going to help really, stay attached,’” Garcia said. “They hit tough shot after tough shot, but it surprised me that they were able to continue to do that for almost the totality of the game, hit those tough threes even when some of our guys were right in their face.”
KSJ reached the title game with a 4637 win over Marathon to upset the top seed entering the tournament for the second consecutive season.
The Lancers were making the program’s fourth appearance at the WIAA state tournament (2001, 2003, 2023). As members of the WISAA before public and private schools came together under one banner, St. Joseph was runner-up in Class A in 1988 and 1989 and runner-up in Division 2 in 2000.
Garcia told seniors including Kenesie, Tommy Santarelli and Lowell Werlinger to impart whatever wisdom they could on the underclassmen before they departed, but that he was grateful for what they have already shared in their examples.
“These are the guys that have been with me since the beginning,” the fourthyear coach said. “Just seeing them grow into young men that work hard and set the example every day, there’s not too many kids I can look at and say, this group is special. I’ll tell them I’ll never forget them, because I truly won’t.”
Kenesie called the team a family as he reflected on what the experiences he has had at state over the past two years have meant to him.
“Not many people get to experience that on their teams. Just spending time with everyone here on our team is just something not many people get, and I’m very grateful for that,” Kenesie said.