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Everyone knew who was taking the last shot, until they didn't.

Oshkosh North senior Xzavion Mitchell was presented the Mr. Basketball award by the WBCA earlier this afternoon. The senior wing had just been denied at the rim by Wisconsin Lutheran's Kager Knueppel, but an offensive rebound gave Mitchell and the Spartans the ball sideline out of bounds with eight seconds on the clock.

On the ensuing possession, Wisconsin Lutheran did an incredible job of denying Mitchell the ball in the closing seconds as Tylan Lister had a good look come up just short of sending the Spartans to Saturday.

The first half story was similar to the final possession's. Wisconsin Lutheran built a ten point lead at the break limiting Mitchell's scoring opportunities with its length on the ball defense and help defenders sitting on the mid line in wait.

Oshkosh North battled back in the second half thanks in large part to the switch of defenses. The Spartans sat in a 2-3 that caused problems for the Vikings, especially with the size and length on the back end.

It stymied the Wisconsin Lutheran's offense long enough for North to battle back from down seven with 10:51 left in the game to deadlocked at 50 with 7:32 on the clock.

The Spartans took their first lead of the game since the 16:01 mark in the first half after junior Bryce Ott drew a foul from Zens, his fourth, and knocked down both free throws.

From that point, Wisco's Alex Greene stepped up in a big way. The steady junior forward doesn't get the media attention of Zens and Knueppel but after Friday night, there's no doubt his importance. Greene scored six straight for the Vikings who took a 56-54 lead into the final two minutes of play.

Another role player stepped up huge, this time for the Spartans down the stretch. Lister, who came up short at the end, first buried a big-time corner three to pull North within one point with 1:20 left on the clock.

Wisconsin Lutheran had chances to put the game away twice late but both Knueppel and Zens missed the front end of bonus free throws allotting the game-winning chance for the Spartans.

Though the final moment never transpired, nothing can be taken away from these two teams that battled until the very last second. 

Xzavion Mitchell finished with 27 points and 13 rebounds in the game. He finishes his prep career with 2,824 points and is the third high scorer all-time in Wisconsin.

For Wisconsin Lutheran, Zens led the way with 22 points and 6 rebounds while Kager Knueppel had 13 points and Greene added 11.

The Vikings have a chance to make history on Saturday as the first team to win back-to-back titles where the second title was a Division higher than the first.

It may not have had the fireworks people were hoping for in a night cap, but Marshfield and Waunakee played a knock-em-out, drag-em-out semifinal game.

Four and a half minutes into the game, the Tigers took an 8-7 lead and never gave it back sans a 10-10 tie for a two minute stretch halfway through the first half.

The slow paced, deliberate possession brand of basketball has been the identity of this Marshfield team all season, as the Tigers came in averaging 61.3 points per game, the lowest by eight points in Division 1.

Halftime came and Marshfield held a 27-21 lead with sights set on its first state championship game since 1940.

The second half saw Waunakee chip away time and again, cutting it to two points twice and three to four a handful of others, but each time, the Warriors could not string scoring possessions together.

With 2:06 left in the game, Waunakee cut it to 48-45 but couldn't get it any closer.

Marshfield ended the game going 9 of 11 from the free low line. One of those misses resulted in an offensive rebound and two more made free throws and a twelfth free throw was vacated due to a lane violation.

Brooks Hinson, a Northern Michigan recruit, was stellar throughout for Marshfield. The 6-3 shooting guard finished with 18 points and 8 rebounds and spent most of his night hounding Kaden MacKenzie defensively, limiting the Warrior's leading scorer to just eight points; nine below his average.

Junior big man Chris Pohl had 17 points and was a perfect 8 of 8 from the free throw line where Marshfield as a team shot 18 off 22.

Jack Ellickson led the way for Waunakee with 13 points.

The Tigers defense did a great job of containing MacKenzie and Eli Selk, the Warriors top two scorers, holding the duo to just 15 combined points.

Waunakee finished the season 23-6 with a fourth state appearance for the program.

Marshfield will meet Wisconsin Lutheran in the final game of the 2024-25 boys basketball season in search of the program's fist ever gold ball.