Wauzeka-Steuben Boys Basketball
Two weeks ago, very few people figured the Wauzeka-Steuben boys basketball team would last past the regional final round.
Yet the Hornets have proved doubters wrong time and time again this post-season, securing the program's first ever trip to the state tournament over the weekend with a pair of sectional victories and also earning this week's splash of the week.
Entering the regional final two Saturdays ago, the Richland Center regional's second-seeded Hornets faced their Ridge & Valley champion rival Seneca in a pair of state-ranked Division 5 teams. Yet it was Wauzeka which came out fired up for the showdown and opened the game with a 10-point halftime lead. Seneca made a run in the second half, but the Hornets held off the one-loss Indians en route to a 37-31 victory to claim the regional title.
Having already beaten the No. 5-ranked team in the state, Wauzeka was pitted against a Benton squad that many prognosticators had in the inaugural Division 5 title game at the Kohl Center. But again, the Hornets raced out to a seven-point halftime advantage Thursday and held on to knock off the No. 2-ranked Zephyrs 41-38 in arguably the biggest upset of the sectional rounds. Wauzeka then used its momentum from those two huge playoff victories and knocked off fellow Cinderella Plum City 57-46 to earn the right to play on the Kohl Center floor for the first time in school history.
Senior Chris McCullick, who breached the 1,000-point mark earlier this season, also put on quite a sectional performance over the weekend. McCullick averaged 17 points in the sectional rounds, including torching Plum City for a game-high 24 points in the championship.
Wauzeka-Steuben's last team appearance in a state tournament across all sports came in 1993 when Wauzeka lost in a Division 3 state quarterfinal softball game.
The Hornets will take on Clayton in the very first game of the 2011 WIAA boys state basketball series Thursday at 1:35 p.m. at the Kohl Center on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.
Honorable Mention
Brillion Girls Basketball: The Lions used a big third-quarter run to put away top-seeded and No. 5-ranked Chilton 55-47 in Saturday's Division 3 Manitowoc regional final. Brillion, which earned the #2-seed in that regional, got 14 points apiece from Courtney Clavers and Kylie Moxley as it will move on to play Packerland Conference champion Kewaunee in the sectional semifinal Thursday at Kimberly.
Joe Schobert, Waukesha West: Schobert hit a game-winning, baseline 3-pointer as time expired to knock off defending state champion Arrowhead 58-57 in Friday's Division 1 sectional semifinal at the Al MGuire Center in Milwaukee. The shot also sent the #3-seeded Wolverines into the sectional final, where they were outdone by Germantown, 59-38 one night later.
La Crosse Central Girls Basketball: The Red Raiders used the momentum from a furious fourth-quarter comeback to surprise the No. 6-ranked and #3-seeded Chippewa Falls in Saturday's regional final, 60-58 in overtime. Kerstin Gruntzel and Tabby Roh each tallied 13 points apiece for Central, while Mackenzie Becker added 12 in the upset victory. Central will take on No. 7-ranked and #2-seed Eau Claire North at Marshfield Thursday in the sectional semifinals.
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