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Saturday night’s Division 2 championship game was a war of attrition, a battle of nerves, and a test wills. Not to mention a frenzy at the finish.
While Jake Hansen’s two free throws with five seconds left following a Racine Park turnover on an inbounds play proved to be the winning margin for Wauwatosa West, the individual moments leading to that point were just as notable.
“MJ (Matthew Kloskey) was phenomenal down the stretch,” Trojans coach Christopher Newbauer said in the media room afterward. “We were in foul trouble early in the first half and later in the second half. He kind of took over the game. I think there was a stretch where we had made 13 or 14 field goals in a row, which is unbelievable.”
Kloskey, who finished with 29 points on 14-of-18 shooting on Saturday to go with his 22 points in Friday’s semifinal win, played 14 minutes in the second half and overtime with four fouls, with his presence made more important when 6-foot-4 sophomore Jalen Brown fouled out with two minutes left in regulation.
“I was guarding (Jaxson) Moss and I knew he tries to get to the rim a little bit, so I had to stay off of him a little and drop my hands,” Kloskey said of playing against Park’s leading scorer. “By me not playing him as aggressively on defense, it did cause him to score a little bit more.”
Moss finished with a team-high 19 points for the Panthers (27-3).
The Trojans also won while hitting just one of their eight three-point tries and while Racine Park guard Isaiah Robinson made eight steals, giving him a Division 2 state single game and overall tournament record (15).
Racine Case, ranked second in the state among Division 2 teams at the end of the season, charged to as much as a seven-point lead early, but Tosa West clawed back. The Trojans led for only 36 seconds in the first half, but Kloskey’s rebound basket at the halftime horn gave them a 30-29 lead.
Neither team led by more than five points in the second half, with DJ Hennings’ 16-footer with 20 seconds left in regulation for Tosa West tying the score at 54. The Panthers could not get a good look with its final possession.
“We got the shots we wanted tonight, but they just weren’t falling,” Park coach Casey Robbins said. “They really didn’t do anything out of ordinary, but we just couldn’t make shots.”
The game got even more improbably frenzied in overtime, especially in the last 35 seconds. Each team missed the front end of a bonus after Kloskey’s hook shot put the Trojans up 58-57. Moss’ shot was blocked by Kloskey but went out of bounds, remaining with Park. Tosa West’s Jake Hansen stole the inbounds pass and was fouled by Moss – his fifth personal. The 85-percent free throw shooter dropped in both free throws and when Robinson’s last three-point try fell away, the Trojans had a championship in its first appearance at the state tournament.
Brown added 14 points for Tosa West, while Kason Magnum – who had appeared in only eight games this season previously, added six clutch points in seven minutes off the bench.
Racine Park also got 13 points from Robinson and 12 from Zare Gwinn.
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