WIAA DIVISION 5 STATE CHAMPIONSHIP
McDonell Central 63, Catholic Central 41
By Jason Arndt
and Mike Ramczyk
Burlington Catholic Central just couldn’t topple the larger Macks in the WIAA Division 5 state boys basketball championship Saturday at the Kohl Center.
The Hilltoppers, who won 37-35 in the semifinal match against Barneveld Friday, faced three McDonell Central players 6-foot-5 or taller, which helped lead to a 63-41 loss.
McDonell Central snagged 16 of their 31 rebounds in the first half, where they carried a 28-18 edge into halftime, and accrued seven total blocked shots, compared to the Hilltoppers’ two.
“They are tough, they are long, they are athletic and they play hard,” Catholic Central coach Kyle Scott said.
“They took us out of what we wanted to do, so our hats are off to them.”
Catholic Central stayed within striking distance the first eight minutes, tying it twice, before the Macks used their perimeter game, led by 6-1 senior Ben Retzlaff, who produced 12 of his game-high 20 points from the arc.
Scott acknowledged the Hilltoppers had difficulty maintaining intensity the rest of the title game, but the inside-out approach proved ineffective.
“We played very good man-to-man defense, but you can only play against 6-6, 6-7 for so long,” he said. “And I felt like they were getting inside us a little bit, so (Retzlaff) buried us from the outside.”
Catholic Central tried countering Retzlaff’s perimeter buckets with 3-pointers from 6-0 senior Brandon VandeHei, who scored seven points, 5-9 junior Aaron Rueber (six points) and 6-2 sophomore Frank Koehnke (three points).
Hilltoppers’ 6-4 senior Ben Heiligenthal, who led the team with 14 points and eight boards, produced the first of two game-tying baskets, knocking in a jumper in traffic to knot it at 4-4.
Senior Andrew Kempken, one of the Toppers’ tallest players at 6-3 along with Heiligenthal, added the other bucket with a layup, which tied things at 6-6.
But the rest of the game mostly belonged to the Macks. Though Catholic Central cut a double-digit deficit to 10, 28-18, at the half, the Macks quickly opened the flood gates to open the final 18 minutes.
Two straigth Topper turnovers followed by an Alex Ohde (6-7) blocked shot put Central in a 34-18 hole with 15 minutes remaining, and the closest the Toppers came the rest of the game was 14 points.
The Macks poured it on with a 13-6 run midway through the second half, and suddenly it was 47-26 game.
Heiligenthal said McDonell Central’s height, which included Ohde, 6-6 Grayson Knowlton and 6-5 Hayden Baughman, was too much for Hilltoppers to overcome.
“They got a lot of height, so that took away our inside game, but in the beginning we were just trying to play how we always play.” Heiligenthal said.
Ohde notched 15 points, collected eight rebounds and contributed five of the Macks’ six blocked shots.
Knowlton had six boards and 10 points.
“I am very happy with our defensive effort and we challenged a lot of their shots,” said Archie Sherbinow, McDonell Central coach.
With 1:40 left in the game, Scott pulled all seniors from the title match, in the midst of a standing ovation from Catholic Central fans. The second-year coach was able to empty the bench late in the game, and Hayden Kempken, Chad Zirbel and John Pum all factored into the box score. Hayden Kempken had four points.
The moment was special despite the loss, Scott said, noting all seniors played an integral role in the state title run this year, its third state bid in 15 years.
“The biggest thing I’ll remember is our three seniors,” Scott said. “They are just tremendous kids.”
Heiligenthal said Catholic Central’s state title appearance surprised everyone, noting observers did not expect much from the Hilltoppers at the start of the season.
“We had a great season, overall, no one outside of us thought we could do it,” he said.
Scott agreed, citing the Hilltoppers’ competitive Metro Classic Conference, and difficult schedule that included Division 4 state title qualifier Whitefish Bay Dominican.
“I am very proud of our boys, we finished 19-10, played in a tough league and I am pretty sure no one picked us to get this far,” “And we made it, and I couldn’t be more prouder of our guys.”
McDonnel Central finished the season 22-2.
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