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Brown Deer coach Kelly Appleby used it as a motto for his team: Nobody knows us, nobody respects us since the state’s top three ranked Division 3 teams made up the rest of the field at the WIAA state tournament this weekend in Madison.

Consider that problem solved.

The Falcons (23-5) used a swarming defense and huge rebounding margins to earn its first state boys basketball championship by beating Lodi 59-37 Saturday afternoon at the Kohl Center in Madison.

“In the pregame and throughout the last few games, our mantra has been ‘We need to get some respect,’” Appleby said. “As a coach you’re always leery of the rankings and what’s in the paper and you try to stay out of it, but obviously kids are kids. They know who’s ranked and who isn’t.”

Anyone who doubted Brown Deer’s abilities simply had to watch its 18-0 run in the second half, when the Falcons hustled, defensed and rebounded its way to a 44-27 lead. Brown Deer outrebounded Lodi 50-26 and held the Blue Devils (26-2) to 24 percent shooting on Saturday.

“Brown Deer is very good and very deserving of a championship,” Lodi coach Mitch Hauser said. “Even the first half, I thought we were fortunate to only be down by two at halftime. I thought our passing wasn’t crisp, and they had a lot to do with that because of their length and their strength and their quickness.”

The Falcons began with a 1-3-1 defense in both half and full court, which led to seven steals. They then went to a trapping man-to-man in the second half, followed by a straight man-to-man.

“As coaches, we talk about (our defense) as whether they stare at it,” Appleby said of the 1-3-1 defense. “They were staring at it in the first half. We stuck with it until they stopped staring at it, and then we when man-to-man with a trap.”

Senior forward Jerry Luckett was one of Brown Deer’s standouts, as he finished with 12 points and 11 rebounds. He became more effective has Lodi’s inside players became burdened with fouls in the second half.

“We started feeling really great but we knew we had to get back on defense,” Luckett said. “We had to lock it in and not get overly excited, and take it home.”

Watching it get away

Lodi senior Jordan Shea led the Blue Devils with 16 points on Saturday, but he also had to watch another team take the state championship trophy for the second straight year at the Kohl Center.

Shea was held to 4-of-13 shooting, including 1-of-4 on three-pointers, and never found a groove against the Brown Deer defense.

“They’re hell of a team,” Shea said. “The length and the pressure changes how teams play. We’re didn’t make the adjustments mentally and we played a little rushed, which forced us into shots we didn’t want.”

Shea also had to take on more of an inside role in the second half, particularly when John Hatch picked up his third and fourth fouls in an 11-second stretch of the third quarter. At the same time, Brown Deer assigned athletic 6-3 forward Zack Baun to shadow Shea in the man-to-man.

“It just got away from us,” Hauser said.

Tiny lead? No problem

Appleby wasn’t concerned that the Falcons had only a two-point lead at the half, despite outrebounding Lodi 30-13 – including 15 offensive rebounds – and holding the Blue Devils to 23.8 percent shooting. Brown Deer shot only 22.6 percent in the first half, which led to many of those offensive boards.

“We felt coming into the game that (Lodi) would really hurt us on the boards,” he said. “Early on I thought we were rebounding well and that would factor in the game. The amount of shots we were rebounding, I was comfortable with that.”

Savvy veteran advice

Appleby talked with former Brown Deer coach Mike Novak, who brought the last Brown Deer team to state in 2002 and is a member of the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame. Novak is now the athletic director at the school.

“We talked a little about it,” Appleby said. “His advice to me was, ‘Don’t just go there to be there. Go there to win it.’ That was something he felt that he was just excited to be there, but he said to try and win the thing. That became our goal from day one.”