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D1 semifinal notes
By Dick Knapinski
For Wishoops.net

It took nearly all season for Madison Memorial to get everyone back into the lineup. That was probably some of the worst news for the state’s other Division 1 basketball teams.

“If you had asked me in the middle of December whether we would be here, I don’t think I could have told you we’d be sitting here playing for a gold ball,” Spartans coach Steve Collins said after Memorial beat Milwaukee Hamilton 55-45 on Friday night to reach the Division 1 championship for the fourth straight year and the seventh time in the past eight years.

Among those who had missed time earlier this season was senior Miles Chamberlain, who led the Spartans with 22 points and nine rebounds Friday.

“This whole end of the season to have guys who have been here before meant we didn’t panic when we found ourselves down,” Chamberlain said.

The Spartans played only seven players for more than one minute, but that was two more than the Wildcats, who stuck with their starting five for all but the closing seconds of Friday’s game. The Hamilton lineup included three freshmen.

“We played real hard, regardless of everything we kept on playing,” said Hamilton’s Haki Stampley, the lone senior starter in the lineup and only one of two on the roster.

A better brand of ball

Finding themselves down by a point at the half and by seven early in the third period, Memorial adjusted a few things to slow Hamilton.

“We threw a little bit of a triangle-and-two (defense) at them,” Collins said. “We wanted to take (Kevon) Looney and (Stampley) out of their game and make other people hit shots.”

Looney and Stampley, who combined for 17 of Hamilton’s 25 first-half points, managed just nine points total in the second half.

Short-handed run

With only nine players dressed Friday, Hamilton continued making the most out of what it had, something that Wildcats coach Tom Diener said made this run memorable.

“I tell these kids I love them every day,” he said. “We’ve been through a lot this year, and they’ve been resilient. These freshmen came in and couldn’t even finish a practice at first. But now they play so hard and they’ve done everything I’ve asked of them.”

By the numbers

Collins is a self-admitted numbers geek, so the state title opportunity this year means something special to him.

“I’m a math teacher so I’m a number guy,” he said. “We’ve won our state titles in odd-numbered years, so we’ve got a shot. Even (the players) knew that, since they see that banner every day.”

De Pere gets the rematch

In March 2010, Appleton East edged De Pere on a last-second shot to advance to the state tournament. The Redbirds took the rematch for higher stakes Friday, however, beating the top-ranked Patriots 62-57 to advance to the Division 1 title game.

“Our kids just made more plays tonight,” said De Pere coach Brian Winchester, who saw his team’s state hopes dashed in 2010 when East’s Johnny Coenen hit a jumper at the buzzer in the sectional finals.

“It felt like a shootout,” De Pere guard Reece Zoelle said. “We were hitting shots, they were hitting shots.”

The Redbirds, at the state tourney for the first time since 1977, hit eight of nine three-point tries in the first half but had to withstand East’s second-half rally.

“De Pere was outstanding,” said Patriots coach John Mielke, whose team fell in the Division 1 semifinals for the second straight season. “In that first half, what can you say? They played top level basketball and shot so well. … They just jumped on us.”

Playing D on Z

Two Appleton East players drew specific attention from De Pere on Friday.

“The focus of our game plan was Johnny Coenen and Caleb Zeegers,” Winchester said. “We had to keep Coenen out of the lane and we had to find Zeegers and not let him get his shot off. Zeegers has hit a huge amount of big shots for them this year.”

While Coenen had 13 points Friday, De Pere held Zeegers to 1-of-3 shooting and just five points with a rotating group of defenders.

“We were moving a lot of kids around defensively,” Winchester said. “We had to keep moving those matchups around and stay a little bit fresh.”

That included 26 minutes from junior guard Jordan Poydras, as sophomore starter Kaden Coleman played only the opening minute Friday.

“There was a mistake on a set we ran so coach’s decision there,” Winchester said. “I like to be consistent in our starting lineup, but as we watched more we thought it might be tough for (Kaden) to consistently close out East’s guys like (Eric) Schultz and (Trent) Schmidt on the perimeter.”

The Schmidt run

The Patriots went on a 10-0 run in the third period to close to within 51-50, sparked by an eight-point run by Schmidt, who had two three-pointers in the 2½-minute streak.

“We’re a balanced team and we scored a lot of points tonight,” said Mielke, who declined to come to the media conference after the loss but met with reporters some 40 minutes later outside East’s locker room. “They were shutting Caleb (Zeegers) out on the kicks, but that opened up penetration opportunities for other guys.”

Note:  The attendance for the Friday night Division 1 state semi-finals was 8,346