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Defense holds down fort until offense catches up, leading Roncalli past Marathon in D4 title game

03/17/2018, 3:45pm CDT
By Mark Miller

Knock enough times and eventually the door will open.

In the span of 10 minutes Saturday, Roncalli hot's shooting Jets went from polite knocking to resounding thumping to eventually kicking in that door.

After coming down to the WIAA State Tournament in Madison six previous times and heading back to Manitowoc with an 0-1 record each time, Roncalli (23-5) broke through this time around, posting a resounding 53-37 victory over Marathon in the Division 4 title game played at the Kohl Center.

Roncalli took a quick 7-0 lead and then managed to score just 11 points over the next 18 minutes. Marathon's strong defense and Roncalli's ice-cold shooting were the biggest factors in the scoring drought.

Marathon (23-5), playing for the fourth boys' state basketball title in school history, took advantage of the Jets' offensive struggles to take a 27-23 lead with 12:18 left.

"Our defense kept us in the game until our offense could catch up," Roncalli coach Joe Garceau said.

The offensive floodgates opened for Roncalli thanks in large part to the ability of senior Mitchel Schneider (6-1) to cast aside a tough shooting first half with an awesome second 18 minutes of play.

The Jets outscored the Red Raiders 30-7 from the 12:07 mark of the second half to the 2:24 minute mark to take command at 53-34.

Schneider, who went 0-for-9 from the field in the first half, made 7-of-9 shots in the second half and scored all 18 of his points during the decisive run to trigger the Jets' onslaught.

"I probably played the worst half of basketball in my life on the biggest stage of my life during the first half," Schneider said. "At halftime, I kept telling myself that I wouldn't let my career end this way. I put in way too much time into basketball to let it end this way.

"I came out in the second half and got one or two shots to fall and then I felt like everything was going to go in."

Junior guard Chombi Lambert (5-9) did most of the heavy lifting offensively for Roncalli prior to Schneider's second-half revival. Lambert, who scored 32 points in the Jets' state semifinal win over Pardeeville, finished with 21 points to lead all scorers.

Marathon got 14 points and nine rebounds from South Dakota football recruit Nathan Stoffel (6-5). However, Stoffel was unable to get many looks at the basket during the final 12 minutes of the game as Roncalli's perimeter defense forced the Red Raiders away from the hoop. Roncalli forced 15 turnovers and scored 13 points off of turnovers compared to just two for Marathon.

"In the second half, we had a tough time getting into our offense," Marathon coach Adam Jacobson said. "My biggest concern coming into the game was not getting the ball below the free throw line in our offense, and that came to fruition in the second half."

Roncalli's state title kept alive a streak of 18 straight years of at least one private school winning a state championship in boys' basketball.

For the latest and most up to date boys' basketball news and recruiting information, follow Mark on Twitter @wisbbyearbook. Email story ideas, recruiting info, etc. to Mark by clicking here.

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