Eagles can't handle lead, lose late
Photo by Dan Larson / Sauk Prairie Eagle
Drew Carden (right) picks off Wisconsin Heights' Dustin Helmenstine before picking up a fast-break lay-up to give Sauk Prairie a 10-4 lead early in the first quarter of their 63-61 loss Dec. 1.
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By Dan Larson, Sauk Prairie Eagle
For the first 31 minutes and 47 seconds, the Sauk Prairie boys basketball team played the role of teacher.
In the final 13 seconds Dec. 1, though, it took a seat in the front row of the classroom and learned a valuable lesson.
"We were in the position the whole game to win it," senior guard Garrett Schwarz said after watching his team lead Wisconsin Heights the entire game — by as many as 13 midway through the third quarter — before a Zack Genthe lay-up tied it at 61 with 13 seconds left and the Vanguards were able to prevail with a 63-61 win at Sauk Prairie High School. "We've got to learn how to win. ... We've got to finish games like that.
Added Eagles coach Tim Marshall: "The game was there for the taking, and we just didn't do enough to get there. ... It's not easy and you just have to fight through it and hope it goes better the next time."
Even after Rory Cotter drove the lane and got a left-handed lay-up to fall for the last of his team-leading 18 points with just under 10 seconds left to give Wisconsin Heights the lead, Sauk Prairie still had a chance to win. The Eagles set up an out-of-bounds play for Sam Koenig to shoot a three with 4.8 seconds left after a Garrett Schwarz missed free throw that would have pulled the Eagles within one — Schwarz missed the first free throw — caromed off a Vanguards player.
"We knew that they were going to be (going) hard after Garrett, so we had two options. One was running Sam to the corner for the three — he's our best shooter — and if he had it, he was going to take it," said Marshall, who watched as Koenig did, in fact, get open but missed off the back of the rim from the left corner.
Early on, it didn't look as though the game would come down to the final possession. The Eagles opened a 15-4 lead in the first 5 minutes of the contest and seemed poised to stay hot.
But Wisconsin Heights (1-0 overall) was able to close the quarter on a 13-2 run to make it 17-13.
Sauk Prairie (0-1) extended the lead to 30-21 with a little under 2 minutes left in the half on seven points by Schwarz, but the Vanguards once again answered. They closed on a 7-2 run to pull within 32-28 at halftime.
Schwarz, who scored a game-high 26 points, caught fire to open the second half. He scored Sauk Prairie's first nine points of the half to give the Eagles their biggest lead of the game at 41-28.
"If the shots are falling, I'll keep shooting," Schwarz said of his run, which he sparked with a driving lay-up and a bank-shot three-pointer on the Eagles first two possessions of the half. "I like to have the ball in my hands and make the players around me better."
Wisconsin Heights scored the next nine to pull within four, but the Eagles closed on a 10-3 run to take a 51-40 lead into the fourth.
And they used that momentum to build a 58-47 lead, the final two coming when Zach Lenerz hit a baseline jumper with 4:10 remaining.
And then the wheels fell off. Sauk Prairie managed only three points the rest of the way as Wisconsin Heights closed on a 16-3 run.
Still, Schwarz was pleased with his team's effort.
"We saw some good things tonight. We saw what we were capable of," he said. "Now we've got to improve on our mistakes. ... We've got a lot to look forward to."
And it's a losing experience that Marshall hopes will lead to wins down the road.
"It's the first game of the year. We'd rather have this happen now and say, 'Okay, we threw one way, but (let's) learn from it and move on,'" he said. "And next time we get in this situation ... hopefully we learned from it and we can do a better job with it."
Dec. 1
WISCONSIN HEIGHTS 63, SAUK PRAIRIE 61
Wisconsin Heights 13 15 12 23 — 63
Sauk Prairie 17 15 19 10 — 61
WISCONSIN HEIGHTS (Points): Genthe 9, Brunner 7, Fancsali 3, M. Barsness 2, Cotter 18, Helmenstine 13, B. Barsness 11. Total field goals: 21.
SAUK PRAIRIE: Sam Koenig 8, Chad Pings 7, Drew Carden 6, Zach Lenerz 4, Matt Rudig 4, Garrett Schwarz 26, Travis Breunig 2, Tyler Fuchs 2, Zach Fiene 2. Total field goals: 23.
3-point goals: Wisconsin Heights 3 (Cotter 1, B. Barsness 1, Helmenstine 1). Sauk Prairie 4 (Koenig 1, Pings 1, Carden 1, Schwarz 1). Free throws (Made-attempted): Wisconsin Heights 17-22. Sauk Prairie 11-25. Total fouls: Wisconsin Heights 14, Sauk Prairie 19. Fouled out: Fiene.