Central stunned by rival

 

By Dan Truttschel/Sports Correspondent

In two meetings this year, the Westosha Central boys basketball team has given rival Wilmot everything it wanted.

And Friday night certainly wasn’t any different, as the Falcons pushed the Panthers right to the brink.

Central’s Marshall Gilbert hit a jump shot from the right wing with just 15.5 seconds left, but Wilmot answered with just five-tenths remaining on a layup by Nate Hensel to hand the Falcons a tough 54-53 setback.

The loss dropped the Fal-cons to 6-11 overall and 3-8 in the Southern Lakes Conference.

Even in defeat, Central coach Dave Sjong couldn’t have been more proud of his team’s effort.

“This team has played hard all season long,” he said. “Even with all of our ‘youthful’ mistakes, we were able to overcome them by playing hard, and that’s what keeps us in games.

“We just can’t catch a break late in games. Hopefully, the basketball Gods pay us back in these last five games.”

Central had a chance to add to its lead with 6.2 seconds left, but missed the front end of a bonus free throw that was rebounded by the Panthers and quickly advanced up the court.

Sjong credited Wilmot coach Jake Erbentraut for catching his team a bit off guard after the missed free throw.

“I thought they were going to call timeout after getting over half court,” he said. “It was a great decision by coach Erbentraut. It put us on our heels, which caused us to lose Nate (Hensel) sprinting up the sideline.”

“I understand our players’ defensive reaction, as Brandon (Schattner) can beat almost anyone off the dribble, so the second defender couldn’t completely believe the lane. He made a nice pass to Nate.”

Staying composed in the face of Wilmot’s defensive pressure was the key early, Sjong said.

“I thought we were calm, controlled the pace and didn’t turn the ball over,” he said. “We were able to look up the court and find the open man.”

Once Wilmot was able to get the game going at its pace, however, that’s when the Panthers got back on track, Sjong said. Wilmot cut the deficit to just two points by halftime.

“We played Wilmot’s pace, and they are better at it than we are, and it showed,” Sjong said. “We started to push the ball and made bad decisions playing at that pace.”

Ben Graveley led the way with 22 points, followed by Ron Hall with 13, Glenn Karsten with 10 and Jordan Easthon with six.

Following Monday’s non-conference game, the Falcons will return to action Friday night when they travel to Delavan-Darien to race the Comets.

Delavan beat Central by 17 earlier this month in a game that saw the Comets knock down 13 3-pointers.

“We need to play defense this time and not turn the game into an open-gym type of pace,” Sjong said.

 

Falcons cruise past Elks

Central outscored visiting Elkhorn 24-15 in the second half Feb. 4 to break open a close game en route to a 50-34 SLC win.

The Falcons led by seven at halftime before they increased their advantage to double digits after three quarters.

“We handled every situation Elkhorn threw at us,” Sjong said. “We were able to stymie (Arik) Anderson offensively, which hurt them.

“We rebounded extremely well, controlled the tempo and handled their pressure in the full and half court.”

Sjong credited the play of his post players inside, Karsten and Graveley, along with clutch shooting by Easthon and Hall. Gilbert also had nine assists to help the cause.

“Karsten and Graveley played awesome inside,” Sjong said. “Easthon and Hall hit some big shots from the perimeter, so they couldn’t sag in the lane.”

For the game, Graveley led the way with 16 points, followed by Hall with 15, Karsten with nine and Easthon with seven.

 


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