LA CROSSE - Validation.
That was the word Pewaukee boys basketball coach David Burkemper used heading into the state tournament to describe the tenor of the messages he received from people in the community in recognition of his team's first trip to the state boys basketball tournament in 20 years. Qualifying for state was another sign that the work fostering the game in the community was paying off and that Pewaukee is indeed a basketball school.
Saturday was so all the outsiders got the message.
The Pirates seized the day, winning a state semifinal in the early afternoon against Lake Mills, and then dominating Onalaska in the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association Division 2 state championship game in the evening at the La Crosse Center.
The 54-37 victory in the final was something the old school, basketball purists would haveenjoyed. The Pirates (27-3) shared the ball, didn't make turnovers and played defense like it was personal.
“I don’t know if I have to words to describe what this feels like,” Burkemper said. “It’s definitely a dream come true to watch these kids play so well on the big stage. It’s very enjoyable, very satisfying to see the smiles on their faces and know they’re going to have this memory for the rest of their lives.”
Junior guard Ashton Janowski led the Pirates with 19 points and AJ Hintz, a senior guard, added 16. The two set the tone for the first half when Pewaukee took advantage of a mismatch with Onalaska big man Gavin McGrath, a spark the Piratesused to start fast and eventually run away with the game.
Janowski, who had a strong second half in the semifinals, built on that momentum by scoring 15 first-half points in the final on 5-for-9 shooting that included three of four from three-point range. Hintz, one of the team’s hottest players the past two weeks, had 13 points at the break, hitting five of six from the field and all three from three-point range.
The two turned the conventional wisdom that bigger is better.Matched up against the 6-foot-2 Janowski and 6-1 Hintz, the 6-11 McGrath, and to a lesser extentthe 6-7 Victor Desmond, couldn't keep up.
“We knew our matchups were just awkward,” Onalaska coach Craig Kowal said. “We went back and forth. If I’d do anything differently, I would have switched to some of those changes earlier on and maybe started Gavin on a different guy.
"But I’m not sure it would have mattered because when you have multiple guys who can shoot the ball like that and not only that but have the ability to take you off the dribble, it’s just tough matchups.”
SOCIAL MEDIA:The Watt brothers congratulate the Pewaukee boys basketball team on winning the state championship
Pewaukee never trailed, but really put distance between itself and the Hilltoppers with a 9-0 run over about 1 minute’s time that turned a four-point lead into a 27-14 advantage with 7:46 left in the first half.
The run started with sophom*ore wing Milan Momcilovic getting an easy two in the paint off a pass from Janowski. The next time down the floor Janowski drew a foul on Desmond on a three-pointer and hit the free throw to complete afour-point play thatgave Pewaukee a 24-14 edge with 8:22in the half. Janowski capped the run with a three-pointer that pushed the lead to 13 at the 7:46 mark.
Onalaska didn’t get within single digits the rest of the night.
BOX SCORE:Pewaukee 54, Onalaska 37
“The way they played the first half you have to tip your cap to them,” Kowal said. “We guarded extremely well all season long. We knew we had difficult matchups going in and they hit shot after shot and when that happens it kind of gets you on your heels.”
Efficiency was the key word for Pewaukee. In addition to shooting 56%, 13 for 23 in the first half, the Piratesturned the ball over just once, scored 11 points off turnovers and 10 points in the paint.
On the other end of floor, Onalaska (19-1) was held to 34.2% shooting (13 for 38) for the game. It struggledso much to put the ball in the hoop that Pewaukee went through a 7-minute scoreless stretch in the second half and lost just seven points off their lead.
“I thought we were phenomenal. We shot well in the first half and got ourselves out to a lead, but I think we won the game with our defense…,” Burkemper said. “Being a defensive-minded head coach it was very rewarding to see these kid buy into ‘I’m not going to let my teammate down.’”
The victory capped an impressive season in which the Pirates went undefeated in the Woodland West, scored wins over eight teams that received mention in the final Associated Press all-state poll and closed the season with a 15-game winning streak.
There are also the team’s tantalizing prospectsfor the future. Hintz was the only senior in the rotation. Next year the squad will be senior-laden with younger talents like Momcilovic, the Woodland West player of the year, and freshman guard Nick Janowski perhaps making significant strides in their games.
But there will be plenty of time to get about excited about the future over the offseason. Saturday was for celebrating.
“Everything is different this year but a state championship is a state championship,” Ashton Janowski said. “I’m beyond blessed to be here and win this with basically my family.
“I’ve grown up with these guys and we’ve been working on this and dreaming about this since we started playing in third grade. All the hours, all the time we spent together, it paid off and you saw it out there today.”
Semifinals
Pewaukee 65, Lake Mills 51: The victory set up a short recovery time for Pewaukee.Onalaska hadabout 8 hours compared to about 4½ for Pewaukee.
“Some of the coaches and a lot of our parents are taking care of the actual plans,” Pewaukee coach David Burkemper said about the break between games. “We just want to get something to eat, we want to stretch and we want to watch some film. Where we do that, they’ll tell me when I walk out of here.”
Junior guard Josh Terrian finished with 13 points and 11 rebounds for the Pirates. Freshman guard Nick Janowski came off the bench for 12 points on 4-for-5shooting. Junior Emmett Loew, another reserve, finished with 10 points. Meanwhile, junior guard Ashton Janowski, scored all 10 of his points in the second half when he recorded two of his four assists.
BOX SCORE: Pewaukee 65, Lake Mills 51
The Pirates' balance was fitting of their effort overall, which featured each of their regulars making a big play or two at various points in the game.
They weren’t in awe of the moment.
“When you first walk into the gym you look up at this big arena like you’ve never played in anything like this before, but once we settled in, we got used to it and just did our thing,” Terrian said. “We play unselfish, we share the ball, we hit shots. It’s fun for us.”
Senior guard Charlie Bender led Lake Mills (23-6) with 21 points on 8-for-15 shooting but missed his final four shots and had just six points in the second half.
Pewaukee (25-3) trailed at the half, but went ahead 97 seconds into the second half and didn’t trail the rest of the afternoon.
There were a number of keys for the Pirates in the second half, but it started with Ashton Janowski being aggressive off the dribble and hunting his shot. Eight of his second-half points during the first 2 minutes when the Pirates turned a 31-30 halftime deficit into a 38-33 lead.
“We had a game where he scored 21 points in the second half and he’s capable of that,” Burkemper said. “I thought he’s the one guy who can kind of get his own shot and so I wasn’t worried that we wouldn’t be able to get buckets and when he was hitting shots the rest of the guys picked up their energy on defense.”
Loew also had a big second half, hitting 3-of-4 shots and ranking second on the team in scoring for that stretch with seven points. His three-point play with 7 minutes 50 secondsleft that gave the Pirates a 53-46 lead.
Senior AJ Hintz, another of the team’s unheralded players, hit all three of his shots in the second half and stole three passes. The biggestone came off a drive to the rim with 5:34 remaining that gave Pewaukee a 55-48 lead.
Lake Mills’ Grant Horkan cut that lead to four with a three-pointer from the corner, but Nick Janowski’s jumper with about 3 minutes left pushed the lead back to six.
The next possession Hintz’s layup made it a 59-51 game with 2:25 to go. The Pirates were on their way.
They added 10 points to the lead in the final 4 minutes.
“I thought we were getting stops mostly,” Burkemper said of that stretch. “These kids make shots, so it makes it a lot easier to coach, but I thought at the end of the day we got stops and kept Lake Mills from getting easy buckets."
Onalaska 66, Appleton Xavier 57: North Dakota recruit GavinMcGrath had 18 points and six rebounds and senior Victor Desmond added 17 points and five assists for the Hilltoppers, who led for all but 2:43 of the game.
