By Mike Ramczyk
Sports Editor
KENOSHA – If you ask most high school basketball coaches if they would simply give an opponent an easy bucket in the closing seconds, 99 out of 100 may look at you funny.
But not Catholic Central boys hoops coach Eric Henderson. At least not on Thursday night in a huge conference showdown.
In a somewhat bizarre move, the visiting Hilltoppers, Division 5’s fourth-ranked squad, allowed Kenosha St. Joseph, D4’s ninth-ranked team, an uncontested layup with 8 seconds left to cut the Central lead to 50-49.
Why would a coach let his opponent do this, you ask?
Well, that’s where the genius comes in.
Moments after the layup swished through the net, Catholic Central senior Spencer Wilker nonchalantly picked up the ball, walked slowly out of bounds and just waited. Seven seconds, six, five, time was running out. Suddenly, with only 2.5 seconds left in the game and the Toppers holding that one-point lead, Wilker called timeout.
A team is allowed five seconds to inbound the basketball, and the Toppers took full advantage of that rule. An inbound pass and two Wilker free throws gave St. Joe’s a mere 1.5 seconds to go the length of the floor.
However, a desperation half-court attempt was way off, and the Toppers escaped with their fifth straight win, a 52-49 nail-biter that moved Catholic Central past St. Joe’s and into third place in the loaded Metro Classic Conference.
The Toppers are now 8-2 overall and 4-1 in the MCC. They’ll have a chance to knock off second-place Racine St. Cat’s, Division 3’s third-ranked team, on Tuesday in Burlington.
Catholic Central trailed, 39-37, after three quarters, and it remained close throughout the fourth quarter.
Senior center Tegan Miles, who stands 6-foot-7, took over down the stretch for the Toppers. With just under two minutes to play, his turnaround 7-foot bank shot gave Catholic Central the lead for good at 46-45. Miles followed that up with two clutch free throws to extend the lead to 48-45.
Miles played most of the fourth quarter with four fouls and said he was forced to play it safe.
“It was a great team win,” he said after the game. “We played solid defense. We feel very confident as a team, and we’re playing together. We want to win conference and get to state.”
Wilker led the Toppers with 13 points and always seemed to come up with a big shot or a key pass. Bailey Wright and Ben Heiligenthal each added 12 points. Heiligenthal notched a pivotal three-point play midway through the fourth quarter, and Wright’s two foul shots less than a minute later proved to be key.
In the first quarter, it was Wright’s sharpshooting (three 3-pointers) that helped the Toppers gain an early advantage.
Miles finished with nine points, seven rebounds, six assists and four blocks. The lanky, yet physical post player has been dominating foes in the paint, blocking or altering anything in his vicinity and often jumping over shorter or even less athletic bigs for rebounds.
Catholic Central has put together this nice run of five straight victories largely because of its defense and mental toughness late in games. The Toppers are allowing only 44 points per game on their win streak, and in grind-em-out wins over strong opponents like Sheboygan Lutheran, Racine Prairie and Kenosha St. Joe’s, they’ve pulled away in the fourth quarter.
It’s still only mid-January, and there are almost two months left before state, but Catholic Central deserves serious consideration when it comes to Division 5 contenders. Miles rivals any center in the state, and the outside shooting of Wilker and Wright is the perfect complement in the high-low game.
Throw in dynamic scoring from anywhere on the floor from Heiligenthal and relentless hustle from Gavin Foote, Shan Gill and Karan Singh, and Central’s rotation stacks up with just about anybody.
A showdown with St. Cat’s Tuesday at Catholic Central will be another litmus test.
Oh, and there’s no rest for the weary. The Toppers still play St. Cat’s and two-time defending Division 3 state champion Whitefish Bay Dominican in the month after Tuesday’s game. Sprinkle in St. Joe’s one more time and a road game at Faith Christian, and it’s a guarantee that a conference title will have to be earned the hard way.
But these tests against larger schools and possibly more talented opponents week in and week out aren’t meant for short-term gratification. They’re designed for big-picture success. That means making a legitimate state push in the WIAA D5 playoffs.
Sure, it would be nice to win every game by 40 points against tiny schools.
But Henderson and the boys are built for a deep playoff run, and if that means an occasional rough loss to an opponent the caliber of Dominican, who beat Central, 47-31, a month ago, then so be it.
These Toppers wouldn’t have it any other way.
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