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McDonell Central senior Hayden Baughman (6-5), playing in his third consecutive WIAA State Tournament, was held mostly in check by the Deerfield defense Friday during the Division 5 state semifinal between the two teams at the Kohl Center in Madison.

Baughman, a NCAA Division II recruit for Concordia-St. Paul, came into the contest averaging 21.7 points per game.

Three different defenders held Baughman to just nine points on 3-of-12 shooting, but Baughman nonetheless made his presence felt in other ways.

Baughman finished with six rebounds, six assists, five steals and four blocked shots to help the Macks register a 56-46 triumph over Deerfield.

McDonell Central (18-10) will play for its second state title in three years Saturday when it takes on Bangor (26-1). 

The beneficiary of many of Baughman's assists was 6-foot-5 sophomore Eion Kressin, who finished with 16 points and 12 rebounds despite playing with a broken hand.

"We shared the ball well and Eion was on the other end of that a lot," McDonell Central coach Archie Sherbinow said. "Eion and Charlie (Bleskachek) ... I really liked their approach today, both inside and on the perimeter."

Bleskachek, a 6-foot-4 junior, tallied 11 points and 12 rebounds as the Macks had two players record a double-double in the contest. 

The size and length of Baughman, Kressin and Bleskachek made things difficult for Deerfield senior forward Nate Siewert (6-4), a 1,000-point scorer who came into the game averaging 17.6 ppg. 

Siewert did score 20 points and haul down 12 rebounds, but he missed 10 shots from the floor as Deerfield (23-5) managed to make just 31 percent of its shots.

"We were getting good shots, but we just couldn't put the ball in," Deerfield coach Dave Borgrud said. "Our defense was pretty strong today, but we couldn't make shots. Scoring 44 points isn't going to win many games." 

Bangor is on a mission.

And the Cardinals' razor-sharp focus in making that mission come true is beyond impressive.

Bangor took another step toward its goal of winning the WIAA Division 5 state title Friday morning with a record-setting 73-31 triumph in a semifinal contest over a Green Bay NEW Lutheran team that entered the contest with a 15-12 record but had posted some impressive upsets in the regionals and sectionals.

Bangor (26-1) will play for the Division 5 state championship on Saturday against McDonell Central (18-10).

In six playoff games, Bangor has outscored its opponents by an average of 40.7 points per game. Simply put, the Cardinals have totally dominated the Division 5 field, which includes the 128 smallest high schools with boys' basketball teams in the state.

"I was really happy with our defensive effort," said Bangor coach Jordan Laufenberg, whose team held NEW Lutheran to 23.7 percent shooting for the game and forced 19 turnovers. "We contested every single shot and did a good job of rotating when we needed to. We pride ourselves on the physicalness of our defense without fouling."

The 42-point spread established a Division 5 record for largest victory margin as the Cardinals got 18 points and 12 rebounds from sophomore Grant Manke (6-4) along with 17 points, four rebounds and four steals from senior guard Drew Johnson (6-0).

Eau Claire recruit Luke Reader (6-1) had an off shooting night for Bangor, but still managed to score nine points, grab six rebounds, hand out five assists, block three shots and come up with three steals.

"We didn't play well, but you have to credit Bangor for that," said NEW Lutheran coach Mark Meerstein, whose has coached teams from the school in seven of the last nine state tournaments and owns a 3-7 record in the event during that time period. "We went 0-for-15 from three-point range and that's not normally something we do. They were flat-out better than us."

Junior Samuel Meerstein (6-4) finished with 19 points and nine rebounds to lead the Blazers.

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