CHIPPEWA VALLEY HOLDS OFF LCN IN REGIONAL SEMIFINAL
L’Anse Creuse North head basketball coach Kurt Wilson knew that they couldn’t “play a game in the 40s.”
No, he’s not talking about taking the game back eight decades — he meant points, and he knew that the Chippewa Valley Big Reds wanted to play a low-scoring, grind-it-out game. And if the Crusaders were going to win, they needed to push the pace and score in bunches. If they were going to win, they’d need at least 50.
But like Citizen Kane, the final score came out in the 40s — and with a 49-43 final, the Big Reds advanced to this Thursday’s regional championship game.
“We knew they wanted to slow up the game and we didn’t want that,” Wilson said. “What we took from the previous two games (against Chippewa Valley) is that we had to get out. We got to get out, we got to push the tempo and we got to make sure we take care of the ball.”
L’Anse Creuse North started strong, taking a 12-4 lead a few minutes into the first quarter. But Chippewa Valley scored the next eight points, officially taking the game off of blowout watch and setting up what would go on to be a back-and-forth affair the rest of the way.
The Big Reds led 21-20 at halftime, but L’Anse Creuse North put up another run —
this time, they went up 35-28 after a 17-8 run to open the second half to get their second largest lead of the game. But again, Chippewa Valley responded, and this time, their patented defense came out in a big way.
L’Anse Creuse North was held to just six points in the fourth quarter. Despite that, it was close in the final minute — Chippewa Valley had possession with a twopoint lead and 38.5 left. And instead of letting LCN foul and risk the possibility of missed free throws, senior Jordan Wright — who had just seven points — went coastto-coast on an inbound for a layup to go up four. Then, right after, he rejected a 3-point attempt that would have brought the game within one.
And with that, the Big Reds survived and advanced.
“Jordan (Wright) didn’t have his best offensive game tonight obviously,” said CVHS head coach Corey Smith. “But he held Drew Kozel to three points, single-handedly, no help. And then down the stretch in the fourth quarter he had that block, layup, free throw, then when they had a chance to tie the game, he blocked Drew on another shot. He made the plays down the stretch.”
Chippewa Valley is no stranger to close games. In fact, of their nine losses, seven have come by single-digits.
Smith knows that those tough defeats
in January and February have turned into toughness in March.
“We’ve lost a lot of them, and some of them (in) heartbreaking style,” Smith said. “That’s what I’ve been telling them for a while is all of those losses prepared you for this moment to win.”
The low-scoring nature of the game meant only three players reached or surpassed 10 points — Chippewa Valley’s Don Harris led all scorers with 12 points and Josh Johnson finished with 11 while LCN’s Brandon Thomas had 10.
Kozel, a career 1,000-point scorer, had just three points on one made shot.
Wilson thinks that his team did enough, especially defensively but even offensively, to win. There was just one major flaw: they missed their good looks.
“I think, the thing is, on our defensive end, every offensive possession, they passed the ball at least seven times,” Wilson said. “So we did a very good job of slowing the tempo down for them. We can’t miss layups. We can’t miss open shots in a game like tonight. That’s what it came down to. Got to make shots.”
L’Anse Creuse North’s season ends with a 16-9 record.
Chippewa Valley’s season, on the other hand, continues. They’ll face Brother Rice on Thursday, March 7 at Troy High School for a spot in the state quarterfinals at Calihan Hall