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Division 5 semifinal notes
By Dick Knapinski
For Wissports.net

The biggest question after Green Bay NEW Lutheran’s huge fourth-quarter comeback just fell short again Randolph on Thursday afternoon was, “Where was that for the first three periods?”

The Blazers (22-5) fell behind 41-20 with 2:19 left in the third quarter against the eight-time state champion Rockets (24-3), but nearly brought it all the way back before falling 56-49 in Thursday’s second Division 5 semifinal that was a rematch of last season’s Division 4 championship game.

NEW Lutheran was its own worst enemy in the first half, shooting just 23 percent (6-of-26) and falling behind 27-13 at the break. The Blazers’ Kaylor Zimmerman hit only one of his six first-half shots and sat the bench for the final couple minutes before halftime.

“We just started slow,” Blazers coach Mark Meerstein said. “Everybody wanted to do maybe a little too much. For instance, we had the first possession for I think a minute and we settled for an 18-foot jumper.”

Meanwhile, Randolph cruise to its 10th state championship game on Saturday nearly came apart in the closing minutes, mostly through Zimmerman’s efforts. The Blazers senior scored 17 of his 22 points in the fourth quarter, including NEW Lutheran’s last 13 points.

“That was one of the finest performances I’ve ever seen,” Randolph coach Bob Haffele said. “Every shot he took was going to go in. He went right, he went left, we tried small (on defense), and we tried big. He just made plays.”

Never gets old

Even though Randolph is appearing in its eighth state title game in 10 years, this particular group is a little different than recent Rockets teams. There are no NCAA Division I recruits with names such as Tillema or Stiemsma on this year’s squad.

“It reminds me a little of our 1996 team, our first state title team, that didn’t have any D-1 players on there,” Haffele said.
“We just had a really good group of seniors and Tyler Selk as a sophomore that year who blended well.

“This year we have a good group and Aaron (Retzlaff, a sophomore) blends in well.”

Drawing a blank

Wauzeka-Stueben came into the state tournament with the second-lowest team shooting percentage (42.1 percent) among the 20 teams in Madison. That hurt the Hornets after Clayton went on an 11-0 run in the fourth quarter of their Division 5 semifinal as the Bears won 48-37.

Nearly seven minutes passed without Wauzeka-Stueben scoring a point as the Bears built a 35-34 lead to a 46-34 advantage with 32 seconds left. The Hornets (24-3), who were making their first state tourney appearance, shot just 20.8 percent in the second half, including just 1 of 9 on three-point tries.

“It was pretty frustrating,” Hornets senior forward Chris McCullick said. “We were down one but we couldn’t hit that shot to get on top.”

Nerves might have been a factor in the cavernous Kohl Center, as McCullick could tell even before the game.

“I was a little worried in warm-ups,” he said. “I saw more airballs in warm-ups here than I’ve seen all year.”

Finally getting one

Clayton’s win marked the first time in four trips to state that the Bears have moved into the championship game. They had gone one-and-done in 2000, 2002 and 2010.

The Bears (25-1) struggled against the Hornets’ 1-3-1 trap in the third quarter, though, as Clayton saw an eight-point lead nearly evaporate.

“We knew it was coming, but we didn’t know when,” Clayton coach Nick Schradle said. “We’d seen from them before. What really bothered us was their quickness. They covered a lot of ground and we told the guys that they really had to shorten up their passes.”

Forgiveness, not permission

Clayton guard Tyler Ketz set the tone for the Bears in the first half, hitting 4 of 6 three-pointers and scoring 14 of his game-high 20 points. He also had a first-half assist on a behind-the-back bounce pass to Nick Schaffer – the kind of pass that usually gets a player a chance to sit next to the coach during a game.

“I’ve done that in the sectional finals and a couple of other times, so I wasn’t too worried about what he’d think,” Ketz said of Schradle. “I was confident of making it.”

Note:  According to the WIAA, attedance for the Division 5 afternoon session was 7,371.