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Henry Ellenson's left hand got caught in the jersey of an opponent as he lunged for an in-bounds pass during the first half of Friday's WIAA Division 2 state semifinal contest between Rice Lake and Greendale at the Kohl Center.

When Ellenson, a 6-foot-10 senior forward from Rice Lake, pulled his hand out of the jersey and caught the in-bounds pass, he heard something pop.

Ellenson went to the bench in pain and had two fingers taped, and then came out in the second half with his left hand/wrist and fingers taped.

Though the injury affected Ellenson early in the second half, he seemed to adjust as the game wore on and led the Warriors to a very hard-earned 72-64 victory over Greendale by scoring 26 points and grabbing 12 rebounds.

"My hand got stuck in a player's jersey," said Ellenson, who was named co-Mr. Basketball on Friday with Dominican's Diamond Stone and will play college basketball at Marquette. "I heard a pop and it hurt. I played through it. It was kind of tough, but I was able to use both hands as the game wore on." 

Normally a 70 percent foul shooter, Ellenson went just 7 of 15 from the line as the injury seemed to affect his shooting touch.

But he went inside and scored and rebounded at a high level down the stretch as the Warriors advanced to the title game for the second year in a row.

While Ellenson was solid, Rice Lake also received solid contributions from senior point guard Ben Widdes, who had 16 points and four assists, senior wing Andrew Shearrow, who had 11 points and three three-point baskets, and senior wing Andrew Mattes, who had 10 points and three rebounds.

"Offensively, we were very, very solid," Rice Lake coach Kevin Orr said.. "Everybody knows Henry wherever we go. Tonight, I thought Henry did a phenomenal job of playing through pain and passing out of the double teams. He had some unbelievable assists tonight.

"When our other guys step up like they did today, that's what makes us successful. Shearrow hit a couple of big threes, Mattes had some big baskets, Ben played very well and Hunter Ashlin came off the bench to play very well."

Greendale shot 56 percent from the floor, committed just eight turnovers and finished with one more rebound than Rice Lake on Friday.

But the Panthers gave up 14 second-chance points and nine offensive rebounds.

Coach Ryan Johnsen's club also attempted just one more free throw (16) than Rice Lake's Henry Ellenson did as an individual.

The result was a 72-64 loss to the Warriors in a hard-fought game that Greendale led 33-32 at intermission.

"It's tough to keep them off the offensive glass," Johnsen said. "Our emphasis was to keep them off the offensive glass, but it was difficult."

The second-chance opportunities led to some field goals and many free-throw attempts for Rice Lake. At one point in the third period, the Panthers had eight fouls to just one for Rice Lake.

"The fouls in the third quarter really hurt us," Johnsen said. "At one point it was eight to one ... however that is."

Greendale, which finished 16-11 and ended its season on the Kohl Center floor in the D2 state semifinals for the second year in a row, got solid contributions from senior Josh Michaels, who had 20 points; junior forward David Pulizos, who had 20 points, seven rebounds and four three-pointers; and senior Nate Thomson, who had 18 points.

Just four players scored for Greendale, which trailed the final 10:45 of the game after a three-point basket by Ben Widdes gave Rice Lake a 46-44 lead late in the third period.

West De Pere senior and San Jose State recruit Cody Schwartz was on fire during the first half of the Phantoms' WIAA Division 2 state semifinal against Mount Horeb Friday at the Kohl Center in Madison.

The 6-foot-8 forward made 7 of 12 shots from the floor and 4 of 7 from three-point range en route to scoring 18 points as West De Pere took a 29-26 lead over Mount Horeb into intermission.

Instead of changing his defense in an effort to slow Schwartz in the second half, Mount Horeb coach Todd Nesheim decided to stay the course, figuring the Viking defenders would eventually wear down Schwartz.

Staying with the man-to-man defense that is the calling card of the Mount Horeb program, Nesheim watched his son, junior forward Terek Nesheim, chase around screens and slow Schwartz in the second 16 minutes.

Schwartz finished with just six second-half points and Mount Horeb went on a 23-10 run in the fourth period to register a 65-53 victory to advance to the D2 title game against Rice Lake on Saturday.

"In the second half, I thought we buckled down defensively," coach Nesheim said. "I thought Cody made some tough shots in the first half. I thought if we just stuck with it, we'd be OK.

"We played a packed defense. Terek guarded Cody most of the game and did a solid job of running through screens to make it difficult for him."

On the offensive end of the court, Mount Horeb got double figures from four of its five starters to improve to 22-5 on the season.

Junior forward Max Meylor finished with 18 points and made 11 of 13 free throws for Mount Horeb, which limited West De Pere to just 1 of 12 shooting from three-point range in the second half after the Phantoms connected on 6 of 13 tries from beyond the arc in the first half.

Senior Drew Fredrickson added 11 points and six rebounds while junior Trey Recknor had 11 and Nesheim contributed 12.

Mount Horeb, which is enjoying its first trip to the state tournament since 1941, will play in its first state-title game when it meets last year's runner-up, Rice Lake, at 6:35 p.m. Saturday.

West De Pere overcame a lot of injuries this year to win 20 games and beat the likes of Ashwaubenon, Kaukauna, Seymour and Slinger on its way to the WIAA Division 2 State Tournament.

But the Phantoms appeared to run a bit out of gas down the stretch against Mount Horeb as they were outscored 23-10 and dropped a 65-53 decision to the Vikings.

Four players scored for West De Pere in the contest with San Jose State recruit Cody Schwartz leading the way with 24 points.

The loss of guards Luke Pannier and Jesse Owens to season-ending injuries late in the regular season cost the Phantoms big time against the Vikings as they simply could not find enough scoring.

Pannier had averaged 10.5 points per game and was an incredible 60 percent from three-point range while Owens had averaged 4.6 ppg while leading the team in assists.

The loss of those two keys hurt the depth of Phantoms and cost them on the big floor at the Kohl Center.

"You can always think about the what ifs," Schwartz said. "We could have said that at any time in the playoffs. But we just didn't use that as an excuse."

The Phantoms' rotation was hurt a bit against Mount Horeb when Gehret Evans experienced early foul trouble.

"Gehret got into foul trouble and that hurt us," West De Pere coach Andy Werner said. "But it's been next man up all season for our guys. We haven't made excuses for our injuries."

Zack Sanders and Connor Konshak each finished with 13 points to go along with the 24 scored by Schwartz.

Preliminary attendance for the Friday afternoon Division 2 session was 14,353. That is 1,401 more than last year's D2 session.