Lady Demons knock off Waterford for first time in five years
By Mike Ramczyk
Sports Editor
The Burlington boys and girls basketball teams have already notched signature victories this season, which is only a few weeks in.
The Demon boys knocked off Mount Horeb, the defending Division 2 state champion, on the road to start the season, 65-62.
Then, on Friday night, rival Waterford got the best of Burlington, 74-66.
Cal Tully knocked down six triples to lead Burlington against Mt. Horeb, and Luke Geiger’s 15 points led the Demons Friday.
Tully finished with 20 points against Horeb, and Mitch Klug and Bryan Sturdevant each added 13.
Nick Klug is averaging 11 points in two games.
The Burlington girls beat rival Waterford for the first time since 2010 with a 44-36 victory Friday night in Burlington.
Jessa Burling had a big game with 16 points, nine rebounds and six steals.
Megan Wallace added 12 points and six rebounds.
Burlington is 1-4 overall after Tuesday’s 56-52 overtime loss at home against Delavan-Darien.
The Catholic Central boys picked up their first win of the season with a 65-40 thrashing of host Faith Christian Dec. 4.
Senior Ben Heiligenthal is carrying his success on the football field over to the basketball court. He leads the teams with 25.5 points per game.
Austin Neuhaus adds 11 points per contest.
The Burlington Standard Press compiled season previews by asking the three head coaches specific questions about the teams.
Here are the results:
Burlington boys basketball
Head coach: Steve Berezowitz, 21st season
Assistant coaches: Brad Ferstenou, Tom Dummer, Jack Schmidt, Gordon Nikolic
Last year’s record: 17-6 overall, 13-3 SLC
Returning letterwinners: Seniors: Mitch Klug, Aaron Mutter, Andrew Ohm, Bryan Sturdevant, Cal Tully, Jacob Weidert, Ty Wiemer. Sophomore: Nick Klug.
Key newcomers: Juniors: Dale Damon, Daniel Rummler, Luke Geiger, Liam Safar. Sophomores: Brock Halbach, Grant Tully.
Graduated seniors: Frankie Hozeska, James Tully, Brad Burling, Eric Johnson, Nathaniel Sibley.
Season goals?
We always have a goal of being in the upper half of our league. We also want to make sure we are getting better each week.
How does the conference stack up?
I think the conference has a lot of parity this season.
We are one of only a few teams that does not return at least one major scorer on their team. There are also some really good individual players in the league next year.
With that and now playing 18-minute halves, it should make for an exciting year.
Biggest strength, weakness?
We may be inexperienced in the front court a bit at the beginning of our season, but we will get there.
We have players who saw minutes last year, but it will take some time to see what roles our guys will take on.
Next game: Friday at home vs. Delavan-Darien, 7 p.m.
Burlington girls basketball
Head coach: Mary Parker, third season.
Career record: 19-27
Assistant coaches: Paula Evert, Bob O’Neill
Last year: 11-12 overall, 7-7 SLC
Returning letterwinners: Seniors: Mackenzie Cole. Juniors: Megan Wallace, Mackenzie Zwiebel, Adeline Jachim, Ashlyn Barry. Sophomores: Jessa Burling, Jaclyn Garwood.
Newcomers: Hannah Anderson, jr., Holly Johnson, soph., Cassidy Askin, fr., May Jagodzinski, fr.
Graduated seniors: Ellen Stang, First Team All-County, All-Conference and All-Area. Robyn Robers, Emily Winker.
Parker’s comments after Friday’s win over Waterford: “The girls played the full 36 minutes. We were able to set the tempo that we wanted to play at, and with the intensity that we wanted to play with from the start. We played with a lot of tenacity all game. This was a complete team effort win. Waterford made a run in the second half, so I challenged the girls that someone needed to step up and take the game back, and we had many girls step up to that challenge.”
Next game: Friday at Racine Prairie, 5:45 p.m.
Catholic Central boys basketball
Head coach: Kyle Scott, second season.
Last year: 9-15 overall, 7-9 MCC, lost in regional semifinal
Assistant coaches: Steve Smith, Dan Meddaugh, Joe Spierenburg.
Returning letterwinners: Ben Heiligenthal, sr., Andy Kempken, sr., Brandon Vandehei, sr., Jack Horner, sr., Aaron Rueber, jr., Cole Pankau, jr., Will Murray, sr.
Newcomers: Bryce Hocking, jr., Austin Neuhaus, jr., Frank Koehnke, soph., Matt Cash, jr., Kyle Goethal, jr., Hayden Kempken, jr., Sam McKinney, jr.
Graduated seniors: Spencer Wilker (HM All-MCC), Gavin Foote, Shan Gill, Karan Singh.
Season goals? To compete every night and be clicking on all cylinders come March.
How does the conference stack up?
Tough, no gimmies anywhere top to bottom.
Biggest strength, weakness: Strength: Team chemistry, experience, depth. Weakness: We have to improve every day to compete in our league. We can’t take any days off.
Next game? Friday at Kenosha St. Joe’s, 7:30 p.m.
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