By Bud Milroy
Sports Correspondent
A 17-3 first quarter advantage helped give top-seeded Catholic Central (21-4) a 57-46 victory over second-seeded Black Hawk (19-6) in a WIAA Division 5 regional championship Saturday night.
Now, the Toppers move to sectionals, where they will face Central Wisconsin Christian on Thursday night in Oconomowoc.
Coach Eric Henderson’s squad executed a solid game plan from the start and grew with confidence as Spencer Wilker scored the first eight points of the game, including a pair from three-point land.
“We got off to a great start in a great environment for high school basketball and really played with a lot of confidence,” Henderson said. “I’m certainly very happy with how we played offensively at the start, but I think it was our defense that set the tone for the game.”
The Toppers’ defensive game plan was right on as Henderson and his staff had their guys in shut-down mode. Opening in a man-to-man defense, Gavin Foote matched up with Black Hawk’s top scorer Heath Butler (17.9 ppg), while the others matched up pretty much as expected, except for one pairing.
The Toppers 6-foot-7 center Tegan Miles was paired with Black Hawk’s 5-foot-9 point guard Shawn Woodruff, or was he?
Woodruff, who came in averaging just 4.1 points per game, was not considered a scoring threat so Miles played off him and stayed in the lane and protected the basket.
“We did our homework and came up with a plan that we thought would work,” Henderson said. “They like to
drive to the basket and we made them a jump shooting team tonight. The guys really bought into the plan and did a great job executing it.”
Miles made his presence felt early and often as the big guy swatted away in the neighborhood of five to six shots in the first quarter, which frustrated Black Hawk.
“I’m really proud of Tegan’s toughness,” Henderson said. “He has been battling through a shoulder injury and was at maybe 75 percent, and he records a double-double, that’s pretty impressive.”
Offensively the Toppers were patient, took good shots and made the extra pass.
“We can be a tough match-up for teams,” Henderson pointed out. “We’re very balanced, and when we hit a few from the outside it opens things up inside or the driving lanes. Tonight, Spencer (Wilker) and Bailey (Wright) hit a couple of threes early, Tegan gets a couple inside and Ben (Heiligenthal) was awesome knifing his way through the defense.”
The Toppers’ balanced scoring attack was led by Heiligenthal with 26 points.
Heiligenthal, a sophomore, has been hot this postseason, averaging 19 points in three games.
Wilker added 13 while Miles dropped in 10 points. The Toppers had six three-point baskets, two each for Heiligenthal, Wilker and Wright.
Miles controlled the boards for the Toppers with 14 rebounds to go with all his blocked shots.
Wright was credited with five assists, while Wilker added four.
Central Wisconsin Christian advanced to the sectionals with a 57-45 win over Fall River on Saturday.
“They have good overall size with three players at 6-5 to 6-6,” Henderson said. “They’re very balanced and
athletic. They kind of remind me of ourselves. It will be a tough matchup, but they also have to guard us. There are no cupcakes at this point in the tournament.”
Catholic Central 57, Williams Bay 41
On Friday night in Burlington in a regional semifinal, the Toppers utilized a 15-6 second quarter to pull away from the fourth-seeded Bulldogs.
Catholic Central kept up the momentum in the second half, outscoring the Bay 32-25.
Once again, Heiligenthal led the way with 20 points, hitting nine of 14 shots.
Wilker added 14 points and 10 rebounds.
Foote had five assists.
Wilker hit four triples, and the Toppers had six total.
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