Posted: Feb. 16, 2010 |(0) Comments

Shorewood boys basketball

The Milwaukee-area coaching fraternity is stepping up again for Wauwatosa West's Mike Landisch, who is battling cancer.

The Greyhounds, who have as an assistant coach Wauwatosa East teacher Brian Karas, are going to hold a benefit night for Landisch when Shorewood hosts St. Francis in the Feb. 24 regular season closer.

Karas said that both teams will wear orange (a symbol of Landsich's illness), sell ribbons, donate concession money and will do a 50/50 raffle where at least 50 percent of the proceeds will go to the Landisch fund.

"He's such a young kid (age 30) and such a good leader," said Shorewood head coach John Hoch. "It was so sad to hear about this. It really puts everything in perspective. We're a tight-knit fraternity (of coaches) in the area, and we always try to help someone when they're down."

The Greyhounds (4-11, 5-14), meanwhile, closed out their week on a positive note with a 58-14 nonconference win over St. Lawrence on Saturday. A 17-2 start put the game out of reach for Shorewood.

Hoch tried to maximize playing time for everyone on the fun afternoon (he thought everyone got at least 10-12 minutes on the court) as Deion Jackson-Body had 13 points, Cameron Hood 10, Chase Miller nine and Erik Berg eight.

"It was one of the few games where we were considered the favorite, and we really took care of business," said Hoch. "The more wins you have in February, the more confidence you have going into (WIAA) regionals."

Hoch said that guards Berg and Hood both had excellent defensive games.

The Greyhounds will be at Cudahy on Friday. They routed the Packers in a match-up earlier this season.

Whitefish Bay boys basketball

Scuffling, turning the ball over a lot and now finding out that one of their better players (junior forward Ron Patten) may be gone for the season with a knee injury, the Blue Dukes needed something good to happen last week.

They got it with an inspired 60-53 win over village rival Dominican on Feb. 10 and then by following that up with an easy 67-29 rout of winless Grafton on Friday.

"I wouldn't have called the Dominican game a 'must-win' but it was about as close to one as we've had for awhile," said Blue Dukes coach Kevin Lazovik. "It was just very big as far as getting confidence back and playing as a team. It was just good for the guys."

The twin wins broke a 2-4 skid for Bay as the Blue Dukes improved to 6-5 in the North Shore and 13-6 overall. They will be at Cedarburg (5-6, 9-8) on Friday. The Bulldogs just knocked Germantown out of a share for the league lead on Friday, 52-50.

Against Dominican, the Blue Dukes nursed a two-point lead going into the final quarter but outscored the Green Knights, 22-17, to pull out the win.

"The final couple of minutes were crazy," said Lazovik. "John (Johnston) came down and hit a three. Then they came back and hit a three and then John hit another three again. Jevontae (Merriwether) then closed it out with a strong rebound and coast-to-coast run to the basket.

"The big thing for us was that they made a run and we responded, which is something we haven't been doing the last couple of weeks."

Johnston had 19 points for Bay while Jamie Schneck took advantage of Bay's height advantage with 18, while Merriwether had 11.

Bay took a 36-10 lead at the half against Grafton and never looked back. Johnston and Schneck had 12 apiece while Cal Ehrke had 11. Ehrke and Paul Davis have been seeing more playing time since Patten aggravated a knee injury suffered earlier this season.

Nicolet girls basketball

The second-ranked in state Knights will get a chance at clinching their second consecutive North Shore Conference title when they host second place Germantown (10-2, 15-3) in a pivotal league contest at 7:30 p.m. Thursday.

Nicolet (11-0, 16-1) who burst out to a 27-5 first quarter lead on Homestead on Friday and cruised to a 60-39 victory, beat the Warhawks in an entertaining tilt last month.

The Warhawks lost starting point guard Melissa Klemm to a knee injury about six games ago (she played limited minutes in a victory over Cedarburg on Friday) but have not skipped a beat, winning five of those six games.

"They like to press and run like we do," Knights coach Corey Wolf said. "We hit them pretty hard in the first quarter last time, but after that, it was very even. And they are a team with a little momentum on their side.

"But we want to put ourselves in position (to win conference)."

The Knights started out with momentum against Homestead. After that furious first quarter, the Knights coasted to the finish line.

Three players scored in double figures including Gaby Bronson with 14 points and Alex Cohen and Courtney Smith with 10 each, while Sam Lautmann added nine.

"We really came out ready to play," Wolf said. "Teams don't have time to adjust against us. Our defense gets up there and creates pressure and then we're able to get such good looks (at the basket)."

Nicolet wrestling

For the third time this year, the resurgent Knights found themselves taking a respectable third in a tournament.

And this time, it wasn't just any tourney, as Nicolet earned a spot and advanced seven qualifiers from the WIAA regional at West Allis Hale on Saturday.

"We moved more than half the team to sectionals and had a pretty good meet," said Knights coach Gus Kaufmann, "and I can't remember the last time we got six finalists (in a regional)."

The Knights will send Chris Morrell at 103 pounds (23-6), Ethan Klein at 112 (34-7), Dakota Mitchell at 130 (31-7), Matt Dineen at 135 (25-14), Bobby Herrick at 140 (26-14), Jon McKay at 215 (15-12) and Trevor Cole at 285 (12-6) to the sectional tournament at Hartford at 10:15 a.m. Saturday.

The top two finishers in each weight class will advance to the WIAA State Individual Tournament in Madison, Feb. 25-27.

And though the Knights are advancing fewer competitors than they did last season (nine), Kaufmann is much more confident of this group. Nicolet did not advance anyone out of the first round of sectionals last season.

"We could have zero to five qualifiers," Kaufmann said. "It's just so hard to predict. We're really focusing on that first match and then going from there."

Nicolet scored 154.5 points in earning their spot at regional as Greater Metro champ West Allis Central won with 298.

Mitchell pinned Pius (3:15) and Central (3:40) opponents before beating a Wisconsin Lutheran opponent, 3-2, in the finals. The finals victory was an excellent resumé builder, said Kaufmann.

Taking seconds were Morrell (2-1 on the day), Klein (3-1), Herrick (2-1) and Cole (2-1) while Dineen was third (2-1) as was McKay (2-2).

The Knights had a hard time against Central grapplers, falling seven times out of eight times they met.

Three Nicolet grapplers just missed out on sectional berths, as Tamir Klein at 119 (31-12), Austin Bay at 125 (9-25) and Wilhelm Fehlhaber at 152 (9-17) all took fifth. Both Bay and Fehlhaber won two matches on the day in their final competition of the season.

Homestead wrestling

The Highlanders advanced six competitors to the Hartford sectional as Homestead took sixth in the Hamilton regional on Saturday.

Competing for state berths this coming Saturday will be Jason Findling at 112 (26-9), Spencer Bold at 125 (29-10), Nick Weyker at 130 (30-7), Conley Brown at 152 (14-17), Taylor Ruffin at 160 (29-11) and Ryan Greve at 215 (31-8).

"It was a typical fun regional Saturday," said Highlanders coach Barry Bernstein. "In the end, you still have to win three matches (at sectional) to advance (to state). Whether you face the tougher kid earlier or later, you still have to beat him.

"It's all a matter of who keeps looking forward and who wrestles not to lose."

The Highlanders scored 110 points for their spot at the regional won by Arrowhead (232).

No Homestead wrestler finished higher than third. Findling (1-2 on the day), Bold (2-2), and Weyker (2-1), all earned those spots, while Brown (1-2), Ruffin (2-2) and Greve (2-2) all took fourth.

Just missing out on state berths in fifth for Homestead were Will Bomchill at 135 (7-7), Nolan Cohen at 140 (7-16) and Pat Farrell at 189 (19-14).

Whitefish Bay wrestling

The Blue Dukes finished sixth in the WIAA regional meet at Hale on Saturday and advanced six grappler's to the Hartford.

Earning slots for Bay were Joey Davey at 103 (21-16), Lukas Short at 112 (3-8), Luke Davey at 135 (20-11), Rashadeem Gray at 140 (13-12), Jake Beckert at 189 (29-9) and Henry Dixon at 215 (6-10).

"Overall I was OK with how we wrestled," said Blue Dukes coach Dale Loebel. "I thought we had a legitimate chance to qualify eight wrestlers (to sectional)."

The Blue Dukes scored 104 points in the regional that was won by West Allis Central.

The best finish for Bay came with a second from Luke Davey (2-1 on the day), as he lost a tough semifinal (3-2 decision) to a Central opponent, but then pinned Hale and Nicolet wrestlers to earn second.

"He looked great, I knew he had that kind of wrestling in him all along," said Loebel.

Earning thirds were Joey Davey at 103 (2-1), Gray (2-1), and Beckert (2-1) while Short (1-2) and Dixon (1-2) each took fourth.

Loebel was proud of the efforts of Joey Davey, Short and Gray and noted that Beckert moved up a class to better his chances at state.

"I have a good feeling about next week (this coming Saturday)," Loebel said.

Brown Deer wrestling

The glass was half-full or half-empty depending on the perspective for the Falcons in the WIAA Division 2 regional at Kewaskum on Saturday.

On the full side, the Falcons advanced Alex Russell at 160 (12-5), Brad Dziadosz at 189 (24-16) and Tory Dibb at 215 (23-9) to the sectional at Milwaukee Lutheran (10:30 a.m.) on Saturday.

The top three wrestlers in each weight class from sectionals advance to the WIAA State Individual Tournament in Madison, Feb. 25-27.

Dziadosz earned his sectional berth with the help of a stunning upset of Grafton's state-ranked powerhouse Brandon Schweitzer in the semifinals (5-0 decision).

On the empty side, however, the Falcons state-ranked 152-pound Woodland Conference champion Justin Naber (32-8) was upset in the semifinal himself on a pin by a Grafton opponent and so fell one slot short of making it to sectional with a third-place finish.

Tony Rhienschmidt also fell just short of sectionals with a third-place regional finish.

Both Dziadosz and Dibb went 3-1 on the day in advancing. Dibb was most impressive, recording two pins and losing only to Kewaskum's state ranked Cody Seibel (27-1). Russell went 2-1 for his sectional berth.

 

- Steven L. Tietz