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Roncalli boys' basketball team traveled back to Manitowoc from the Kohl Center in Madison on Saturday afternoon as WIAA Division 4 state champions.

One of the state's top programs over the past 20 years with nine state-tournament berths since 2005, Roncalli got a culture win in every sense of the word by playing sticky help defense and sharing the ball on offense to beat a super talented but young Milwaukee Academy of Science squad, 55-45.

Top-seeded Milwaukee Academy of Science was favored to win the game as sophomores Tayshawn Bridges (6-2) and Nacir Beamon (6-2), along with freshman Davion Hannah (6-6), figure to play college basketball at the NCAA Division I level in the future. 

But Roncalli frustrated the Novas with a zone defense that featured plenty of help, toughness and rebounding savvy.

"Credit to Roncalli, they put together a good game plan and fought very hard today," MAS coach Agape Keys said. "Roncalli did a good job of packing the zone and we made some decisions on our end that weren't very good."

Roncalli, the Eastern Wisconsin Conference champions and owners of a 26-3 record, held Bridges and Beamon to a combined 3-of-24 from the field. Bridges scored 11 points, but was just 3-of-17 from the floor and had four turnovers.

"My shot wasn't falling today, but I can't use that as an excuse," said Bridges, who averaged 17.5 ppg during the regular season.

Beamon, who came into the contest averaging 15.0 ppg, went scorelss and had seven turnovers. 

"A team that is close-knit can withstand a lot of things," said Roncalli coach Joe Garceau, who also guided the Jets to the Division 4 state title in 2018. "Our kids put it on the line for each other. They don't care who gets the credit ... they just want to win."

Senior Luke Pautz (6-5) was the ringleader for Roncalli. The ultra competitive and highly productive forward scored 17 points, grabbed 12 defensive rebounds, had four assists and came up with two steals in his final high school game. 

"The refs let us play today," Pautz said. "We weren't going to back down to a team because they are Milwaukee Academy of Science or ranked No. 1 in the state."

Pautz, who completed his four-year varsity career with 1,517 points, got plenty of help from Roncalli's four other starters. 

Senior Reece Stangel finished with 11 points, four rebounds and three assists. Senior Ryan Fischer finished with 10 points, three rebounds and a steal. Junior Brayden Yanda added 10 points, three rebounds and a steal. And senior Joseph Witczak had seven points, seven rebounds, three assists and three steals.

In addition, all five Roncalli starters helped in breaking intense pressure defense by MAS. The Jets finished with 12 turnovers compared to 18 for the Novas. 

Roncalli's patient offense was very effective as the Jets outscored the taller MAS squad 30-14 in the paint thanks to several back-door cuts that led to layups. 

Impressive freshmen Davion Hannah (6-6) and Agape Keys Jr. (6-0) led the Novas with 12 points each. 

MAS, which finished the season with a 23-7 record, started two sophomores and three freshmen compared to Roncalli's four seniors and one junior.

"Experience always plays a role with upperclassmen, especially when you have up-state experience like they do," coach Keys said. 

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