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With nine minutes remaining in Thursday’s Division 3 semifinal, Xavier standout Sam Burkart was on the bench with his fourth foul. Sophomore guard Hunter Plamann as operating at 70 percent at best because of a two-week-old knee injury. The Hawks just needed to find enough to hold off the state’s top-ranked Division 3 team.

“They score a lot of points and won a lot of games by making shots,” Xavier coach Matt Klarner said of Gale-Ettrick-Tremplealeau after his team’s 82-75 win over the Red Hawks (25-1) at the Kohl Center. “I thought we held them in check although they had a big number at the end. They took a lot of shots to get those points.”

G-E-T senior standout Nick Wagner got his points, finishing with 35, just one point short of the Division 3 single-game record set by Marshall’s Jon Krull in 2002. It took Wagner a Division 3-record 33 attempts to get his points, though, which was exactly what Xavier wanted.

Much of that was due to the defense by Xavier senior Zach Simons, who drew the defensive assignment to slow down Wagner.

“I knew I had to keep him off the 3-point line,” said Simons, who played 35 of the game’s 36 minutes. “It had to be a long way off, because he can hit from a long way back.”

Xavier (24-3) lost Burkart to his fourth foul with 9:01 left and the Hawks up 55-44. At about the same time, G-E-T went to full-court pressure hoping to use its length to force turnovers. It was effective as Xavier failed to score a field goal for the last 4:48 of the second half.

“That was something perhaps we should have done sooner,” Red Hawks coach Mark Wagner said. “I also wish we had stayed more patient on offense.”

G-E-T managed to close to within six at 63-57 with 4:16 left, but Plamann began a Hawks free throw parade by making three of four to push the margin back to nine. Plamann, who strained his post posterior cruciate ligament in the regional final against Little Chute on March 5, was uncertain to play an hour before game time but eventually played 26 minutes and had 14 points and five rebounds.

“We wanted to find him some spot minutes, but we needed his ball handling in there,” said Klarner, whose team hit 18 of 22 free throw tries in the last five minutes. “I’m surprised it ended up being that many.”

For the Red Hawks, it brought an abrupt end to a wondrous season where a state berth and a possible championship was an expectation by many. On a team that had balance throughout the season, Thursday’s finale lacked it for the Red Hawks. Nick Wagner and sophomore Lucas Scherr combined for 46 of G-E-T’s 71 field goal attempts and all but nine of the Red Hawks’ 28 baskets.

“I thought we came out tight today and we were a nervous basketball team,” Mark Wagner said. “When we got behind early, we just could never get into a comfort zone with our offense.”

Ferris wheels into starting lineup

With Plamann’s knee injury keeping him out of the starting lineup, sophomore Sam Ferris moved into the rotation. It wasn’t a new situation – Ferris had started 11 games this season – but the result was. After averaging nine points per game throughout season, the younger brother of Wisconsin walk-on Matt Ferris exploded for a team-high 24 points.

That included Xavier’s first six points on a pair of 3-pointers.

“I was just looking for my shot,” he said. “The guys were driving real well into the lane and then kicking out.”

After a double-clutch driving hoop in the second half, older brother Matt tweeted, “taught him everything he knows.”

“He taught me quite a few things, but I wouldn’t say everything,” Sam Ferris responded.

Waupun moves into title game by defeating Prairie du Chien

In Thursday’s opening Division 3 semifinal, the Warriors (26-1) held Prairie du Chien to 26 percent shooting and led by at least five points through the entire second half in a 55-43 win.

When the Blackhawks missed, 6-foot-8 senior center Colton Homan was there to sweep up the rebound, as he finished with 15 rebounds to go with 11 points and four blocks.

“Coach (Dan) Domask told me to control the paint and stay high,” Homan said. “I just went after rebounds and got on the glass.”

“We put it on our whiteboard – ‘We’re going inside out’ – so that was probably emphasized more,” Domask said.

A few other points of emphasis: Keep Prairie du Chien’s point guard Connor George out of the paint and make 6-6 junior Nathan Banasik put the ball on the floor.

“We had to limit his touches and prevent him the opportunities to create,” Domask said. “That’s why we put Marcus (Domask, the coach’s freshman son) on him, to give him a little more length to work around.”

For the Blackhawks (24-3), the overall field goal percentage was tough enough, but they also managed to hit just four of 24 3-point tries.

“The ball just rolled around the rim … we must not be Irish,” Prairie du Chien coach Andy Banasik said of his team’s lack of shooting luck in the St. Patrick’s Day game.

Freshman takes charge for Waupun

Waupun freshman Marcus Domask, the Warriors’ leading scorer, had a slow start Thursday but sparked his team with a nine-point run late in the first half. Held to two points over the first 12 minutes, Domask used a 90-second period to hit a 3-pointer, a driving hoop and a putback to give Waupun a seven-point lead that grew to 10 at the half.