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Senior Nick Simon averages about two made three-point baskets each game for the Prescott basketball team.

He picked a great time to hit a couple of three-pointers during the Cardinals' 74-67 victory over Lake Mills. 

With his team trailing 61-58 with 4:29 left, Simon buried a triple to tie the game.

A couple of minutes later, Simon hit another triple, giving Prescott a 66-61 lead en route to its 74-67 triumph.

Simon came into the game averaging 7.6 points, but his torrid shooting late and the 33 points and 11 rebounds provided by Northern Illinois recruit Owen Hamilton, a 7-foot-1 post player, proved to be the difference for the Cardinals.

Simon finished the contest with  nine points -- on the strength of three three-point baskets -- and five rebounds.

"Those two shots (by Simon) were sort of back-breakers for us," Lake Mills coach Steve Hicklin said. "We wanted guys other than (Petey) Brookshaw and Hamilton to take some shots. But credit Simon for stepping up after we tried to take away Hamilton."

Brookshaw, a quick and talented 6-foot-0 junior point guard, found Simon open for the first triple and was confident his teammate would know down the shot.

"I was confident (Simon's) shots would go in," said Brookshaw, who finished with 14 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists. "They were kind of shawdowing me and that left some of our other guys open. Nick made a couple of big shots for us. He's a great shooter. When he makes a few, we just try to get him the ball."

Lake Mills, making its first trip to the state tournament, stayed close throughout the contest with some fine three-point shooting of its own. The L-Cats made 14 of 35 shots from beyond the arc.

Lake Mills (24-3) built a 56-48 lead with just 8:10 remaining, but a triple by Prescott's Luke Murphy, who finished with 11 assists, and then a three-point play by Hamilton trimmed the margin to j56-54 a minute later, setting the stage for Simon's big shots.

Alex Ranney (6-1) finished with 20 points, 8 rebounds and 7 assists in his final game for Lake Mills. The UW-Platteville recruit played 35 of 36 minutes and did most of the ball-handling duties for the L-Cats.

"What a way to open up the state tournament," Prescott coach Nick Johnson said. "Lake Mills is one heck of a team. We are just very excited to get to Saturday and play for a state championship."

Xavier was out-scored in the paint and committed 23 turnovers.

Ripon got 26 points from Eddie Muench and 21 points, 9 rebounds and 6 steals from Ohio University recruit Bennett Vander Plas.

It didn't matter.

The Hawks used torrid perimeter shooting to register a convincing 81-74 victory over RIpon in a battle of unbeatens Thursday at the WIAA State Tournament in the Kohl Center in Madison.

Xavier (27-0) will play in the Division 3 state title game for the third year in a row, this time against Prescott after dropping state-title games to Brown Deer in 2015 and to Waupun by a single point in 2016.

Ripon, which ends its season at 26-1, simply could not overcome the 11 three-point baskets Xavier made nor the Hawks' 59.5 percent shooting from the field. 

"I thought our guys played their guts out, but Xavier shot the lights out," Ripon coach Dean Vander Plas said. "We knew they could shoot the three ... and that is exactly what they did."

Xavier built a 45-33 lead by halftime on the strength of 19 points from junior Hunter Plamann (6-1) and 16 points from junior Sam Ferris (5-11). 

Ripon managed to slowly chip away at the Hawks' lead during the second 18 minutes and pulled within four on a couple of occasions in the last couple of minutes.

But Xavier made 10 of 14 foul shots in the final 2:27 to lock up the victory.

Plamann finished with 22 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists while Ferris added 25 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals.

Xavier also got solid contributions from the other five players who competed as senior Will Schlicht (6-5) had 12 points and 5 rebounds, senior Cal Christensen (5-11) had 10 points and 5 rebounds, junior Nate DeYoung (6-4) had 6 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 blocked shots and 2 steals, and sophomore Henry Eagan (5-11) had six points and 2 rebounds.

"We were accounting for Hunter and Sam, but to see their other guys come into the game and hit big shots, that was pretty deflating," Muench said. 

Xavier made 11 of 21 shots from three-point range in a game that featured eight lead changes, all coming in the first half.

"I've been the head coach at Xavier for six years now and this is probably the biggest win we've had," Xavier coach Matt Klarner said. "Watching Ripon on film, we knew we had our work cut out for us. I thought defensively we were very good and we were outstanding on the glass today."

Xavier out-rebounded Ripon by a 39-24 count and every player who saw action grabbed at least two rebounds for the Hawks.

In addition to his scoring and passing, Plamann also spent a good deal of the game chasing Muench off the three-point line. Muench had 26 points, but went 0-for-4 from outside the three-point arc.

"Eddie's No. 1 weapon is the three so you have to get out on him," Plamann said. "I wanted him to become and ball handler and make tough shots. He did make some tough shots, but we did not give up a three to him." 

Preliminary attendance for the Thursday afternoon Division 3 session was 10,252, almost identical to last year.