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There was going to come a time this season when players on the Dominican basketball team other than Duane Wilson and Diamond Stone would need to carry the Knights to a hard-earned victory.

That time came Thursday during the opening day of the WIAA State Tournament at the Kohl Center in Madison.

With Cuba City playing a gimmick 1-3 zone defense with a chaser on Wilson, Dominican struggled to score in the first half and trailed 20-17 entering intermission.

Wilson, a 6-foot-2 lighting rod point guard headed to Marquette University on a basketball scholarship, had just two points at halftime while Stone (6-9), one of the nation’s most coveted class of 2015 collegiate prospects, had just four before intermission.

Enter junior wing guard Chris Topp (6-0), junior forward Jack Jelacic (6-6) and sophomore reserves Austin Moutry (5-9) and Tywon Bressler (6-2).

Topp hit four three-point shots and scored 12 points, Jelacic had nine rebounds, five points, three blocked shots and two assists, Moutry contributed a three-point basket and Bressler had four points and a couple of rebounds as Dominican rallied for a 55-47 victory.

“Chris Topp really stepped up tonight,” said Wilson, who broke loose in the second half to finish with 19 points, nine rebounds, three assists and two steals. “He had some big-time threes for us. And we got contributions from all of our guys tonight. This was a total team effort.”

Topp came into the contest averaging just 4.3 ppg and had 22 three-pointers on the season, but he hit two crucial triples in the second half and went 4-of-6 from beyond the arc in matching his career-high of 12 points.

Topp’s ability to hit perimeter shots opened things up in the post in the second half for Stone, who finished with 10 points, nine rebounds, seven blocked shots and three assists.

Mutual Admiration Society – Wilson and Petitgoue

Wilson and his teammates have ended Cuba City’s dream of a state championship in each of the past two seasons.

Dominican beat Cuba City in the Division 4 title game a year ago and the Knights were at it again Thursday, ending Cuba City’s very successful season for the second year in a row.

Cuba City has won 53 of 55 games the past two seasons with both losses coming at the hands of Dominican.

“Cuba City has a great coaching staff,” Wilson said. “Cuba City and St. Catherine’s  are two of the best-coached teams I’ve gone up against over the last four years.”

Petitgoue, who has won 844 games in 44 years of coaching high school basketball, has equal respect for Wilson, who took over the game after Cuba City had narrowed the margin to 47-44 on a three-pointer by Einar Frimodt with 2:19 left.

Wilson scored seven points in just over a minute to help give Dominican a 55-44 lead with 1:00 remaining.

“I say Duane is going to be Marquette’s starting point guard the next four years,” Petitgoue said. “He went out competed tonight. I have a lot of respect for that young man … a lot of respect.”

Auburndale sets Division 4 shooting record in win over Amherst

Auburndale’s hot-shooting Apaches established a WIAA Division 4 State Tournament record Thursday by making 64.3 percent of their shots in a convincing 49-29 victory over Amherst.

Coach Chad Weinfurter’s squad made 18-of-28 shots from the field in registering their 26^th victory against just one loss this eason.

In addition to setting the team field-goal shooting mark, Auburndale senior wing Austin Hawkins (6-4) set a Division 4 individual shooting record, making 10 of 11 shots for 90.9 percent.

Hawkins finished with 20 points and six rebounds as Auburndale won its first state-tournament game since 2003.

As impressive as the shot selection and field-goal accuracy Auburndale displayed Thursday was the Apaches’ ability to make things difficult for Amherst on the other end of the court.

Amherst (22-4) shot just 28.6 percent from the field and simply couldn’t get many good looks at the basket against Auburndale’s suffocating defense.

“I thought our defense was just outstanding today,” Weinfurter said. “We were able to get the ball inside to Austin and he was hot in the first half. In the second half, Blake (Anderson) got hot and hit some big three-pointers for us.”

Anderson (6-1) had one back-breaking three after another in the second half and finished with 15 points and five rebounds for Auburndale.

Amherst got 14 points and four rebounds from senior Caleb Glennon (6-1), the Player of the Year in the Central Wisconsin 8 Conference.

“We were deathly afraid of Hawkins and he delivered,” Amherst coach Gregg Jensen said. “He can shoot the three, he can post-up well and they look for him well.

“This has been a fun team to coach. They have a great work ethic, compete with heart and desire and battle one another in practice. It’s been a very rewarding season.”

Quick Hitters ... Dominican's last two victories came against unbeaten teams as the Knights topped Laconia (25-1) in the sectional final and Cuba City (26-1) in the state semifinals ... Wilson broke down a bit on the interview stage following the game when asked about his mother, Lashonda Lever, who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer and had surgery on Wednesday. "I knew she was watching me on T.V.," he said. "This year, I want to win it all for my mother and for our assistant coach, Markell Thompson, who is also sick." ... Petitgoue had a patch on the top of his head/forehead after having a piece of skin cancer removed Wednesday. Petitgoue also had his luggage stolen from his Madison hotel ... Weinfurther had lost his three previous games to Amherst and Jensen.

Note:  Attendance for the Division 4 semi-final session was 9,345.