No. 2 Burlington hosts No. 6 Waterford Saturday night at 7
Check out Mutter’s game-winning bucket, as captured by Mike Ramczyk:
By Mike Ramczyk
BURLINGTON – Burlington basketball coach Steve Berezowitz’s power play paid off in a major way Friday night.
His team down, 69-68, with 3.2 seconds remaining in a WIAA Division 2 regional semifinal against conference foe Wilmot at Burlington High School, Berezowitz put his money on size and checked senior Aaron Mutter (6-4, 220) into the game for senior Cal Tully (6-2, 180).
Mutter’s entrance seemed insignificant at the time, as sophomore point guard Nick Klug was shooting a one-and-one for the lead and potentially the win.
The first foul shot was good, but Klug’s second attempt bounced around the entirety of the inside of the rim before falling out.
Mutter, who worked hard to gain position on the taller Bobby Brenner of Wilmot (6-foot-5), out-reached Brenner for the ball and in one motion turned and banked in the game-winning basket with his left hand with 0.7 seconds on the clock.
The Burlington players along with a sea of white from the student section erupted in screams and cheers. People could not contain their excitement.
Moments later, Brenner’s desperation heave from 75 feet missed its mark, and the Demons escaped with a thrilling 70-69 victory in front of a raucous, packed gymnasium.
After the game, the right-handed Mutter said he actually prefers to use his left hand around the basket.
“It felt good,” he said. “I used my size to my advantage and put it up.”
“We knew we didn’t have any timeouts,” Berezowitz said. “My coaching staff did a great job of going big and big, as we replaced Cal with Aaron. He is a little bit stronger with his left.”
“We knew it would be a battle. They have one of the best players in the Southern Lakes (Brenner) in quite some time. There are some great pieces around him, and they do a great job of using them.”
When asked if Burlington would beat rival Waterford Saturday night in a regional final, Mutter had a simply reply, “Yup.”
Thanks to the dramatic ending, the Demons improved to 14-9 and advanced in the WIAA postseason. Wilmot’s season ended with a 10-14 record.
Burlington, a No. 2 seed, will face No. 6 Waterford (11-13), who gained an upset victory Friday night at McFarland, 57-55. Burlington and their closest rivals split two games this season, with the Demons winning in Waterford by seven points and Waterford winning in Burlington by eight.
Friday night was a tale of two halves, with Burlington controlling the first but Wilmot storming back to take a few late leads in the final minutes.
Burlington senior Cal Tully was red hot in the first half, scoring 16 of his team-high 22 thanks to four triples. Wilmot led, 35-29, but Burlington closed out the half with a furious 17-3 run.
Both teams started the second half cold, but the Panthers managed to tie the game at 51-51 after a Jeremy Bruton 3-pointer.
Consecutive buckets by Ty Wiemer and Brock Halbach put Burlington back in front, 55-51, but Brenner, who led all scorers with 24, single-handedly willed his team to stay in the game by getting to the free throw line.
Brenner, who leads the area with 29 points per game, sank 13 of 15 from the charity stripe.
Wiemer answered Brenner’s dominance with a strong move to the hoop and layup, putting Burlington up 61-60 with 1:25 in the game. Wilmot regained the lead at 66-65 before two more foul shots gave Wilmot a seemingly insurmountable 68-65 advantage with 20 seconds left.
Brenner’s runner over a double team where he wasn’t even looking, along with Glass’ layup in traffic, put the Panthers in position to win with seconds left.
Tully muscled his way to a rebound and layup to cut it to 68-67 with 11.4 seconds remaining, and Brenner’s miss and make at the line set up the final sequence.
Berezowitz said Wilmot out-hustled Burlington, but his team found a way to pull out the victory. Only a week ago, Burlington defeated the Panthers by 20 points in Wilmot.
“They stopped some things we like to do, and it took a little while to adjust,” Berezowitz said. “We spend a lot of time working on the scoring area. We missed a lot of close shots tonight, we didn’t finish around the rim. We need to do that tomorrow night.”
“We had a fantastic crowd and fantastic energy tonight. If we would’ve walked away on the other end, I would still be just as proud. Our guys are academically fantastic, and they have great chemistry. They like each other. That goes a long way.”
The theme for Wilmot in 2015-16 has been inconsistency. Victories over Westosha Central and spirited efforts against superior competition like Racine Park (No. 2 team in Division 1 in the state) have been highlights, but instances like Friday night, with blown leads and defensive lapses, happened too often.
Wilmot coach Jake Erbentraut said his team improved tremendously since a lopsided loss against Burlington to end the regular season.
“This time around, our guys were completely together,” he said. “Burlington is well-coached, they’re disciplined, but credit goes to our guys, too. We were playing our best basketball.”
A season of inconsistency
Erbentraut said Brenner got his second foul with 9 minutes left in the first half and had to sit the bench most of the rest of the half. Not coincidentally, Burlington finished the half with a big run.
“We knew Burlington would make a run at the end,” Erbentraut said. “It’s been inconsistent this year. We’ve had to figure out who we are. At the end of the season, we played good basketball.”
“I’m proud of these guys. We had growing pains, but we got better as a team.”
Brenner, who finished his career with more than 1,300 points in only two seasons, is entertaining college basketball options at UW-Whitewater and Edgewood College.
After the game in the BHS hallway, he said it will be tough to never put on a Wilmot uniform again.
“I could’ve done something more to help in the end,” he said. “We’ve grown as a team.”
Brenner’s skills directly coincide with his passion for basketball.
“I’ve been playing since I was 3 years old,” said the Silver Lake native. “I love playing basketball, and this is what I want to do. If you love something, you might as well keep doing it until you can’t.”
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