Hilltoppers come up short in pair of conference games

By Bud Milroy
SPORTS CORRESPONDENT
The Catholic Central High School boys basketball team continued to come up short in the Metro Classic Conference, falling 54-50 to Racine Lutheran Tuesday and 60-39 to Whitefish Bay Dominican Saturday.
Ben Heiligenthal’s 20 points were not enough as CCHS fell to Lutheran. The talented freshman hit five 3-pointers in the closely-contested battle in Racine.
For the night, the Hilltoppers recorded a season-high 10 3-pointers.
Lutheran took a 10-9 lead after the first period and extended it to four points at halftime. The deficit stayed between four and five points throughout the final two periods.
Nick Naegeli led Lutheran with 19 points, while Clay Stevens dropped in 16 points.
The second-ranked Dominican Knights (14-4, 12-0) visited Catholic Central (4-15, 1-13 Metro Classic Conference) visited CCHS Saturday afternoon and left with the victory. Led by a pair of Division 1 prospects, the Knights raced out of the gate with the first eight points of the game, the last two on a thunderous slam by Diamond Stone, a 6-10 sophomore.
The Hilltoppers responded with a long three from Spencer Wilker and pair of free throws from Tegan Miles when he drew a foul driving on Stone to the basket.
Duane Wilson, a 6-3 senior, scored the final six points of the quarter for Dominican, interrupted only by Mark Bittmann’s basket late in the quarter.
CCHS battled to within 18-15 in the second, but could manage just one more point in the quarter, and Dominican took a 24-16 lead into intermission.
A sluggish third period deepened the hole, and Dominican led 39-23 going into the final period.
“All year long, we’ve been looking for consistency throughout the whole game,” said CCHS head coach Eric Henderson. “Today we played well for two and a half quarters, but that wouldn’t get it done against a real good team like Dominican.”
Wilker finished as the lone Hilltopper in double figures with 11 points.
The Hilltoppers hit the road with a non-conference game in Milwaukee against Youngs Coggs Prep at 2 p.m.