KM rolls by Middleton in regional finals
WALES — Kevin Bavery stood inside an empty locker room in what was now a completely vacant Kettle Moraine High School.
Bavery’s 19th season as the boys basketball coach at Middleton High School had just ended.
His Cardinals had fallen to No. 1 Kettle Moraine, 66-48, in a WIAA Division 1 regional final last Saturday.
Many years, when the finality of a season arrives, Bavery wonders what could have been. He questions whether his Cardinals should have advanced further in the postseason.
This was not one of those times.
“They were better than us,” Bavery said of the Lasers. “They were just better.”
Indeed they were.
Kettle Moraine showed why it’s the top-ranked team in the state, while improving to a perfect 26-0. Middleton finished its inconsistent season 15-11.
The Lasers’ defense was stifling throughout, holding the Cardinals to their fewest points of the year and 21 points below their season average. That defense keyed a 14-1 second half run that helped Kettle Moraine take a 47-27 lead with 9 minutes left in the game.
“I think they’re probably the best defensive team we’ve seen,” said Middleton 7-foot senior center Will Garlock, a University of Wisconsin recruit. “We just couldn't find a rhythm on offense and that really hurt us. They were the better team tonight.”
Kettle Moraine’s trio of scoring standouts also shined.
Lasers senior forward Roman Thompson, the Player of the Year in the Classic 8 Conference and a UW-Eau Claire recruit, was brilliant pouring in 25 points. The 6-foot-5 Thompson, who can punish foes from inside and out, shot 8-of-16 from the field, 8-of-10 from the free throw line and grabbed eight rebounds.
“Roman’s just an unbelievable kid, unbelievable basketball player,” Kettle Moraine coach Brian Richert said of Thompson. “Eau Claire is getting a steal, and shame on those other scholarship schools because that kid right there is the best player that I’ve seen in a long time.”
KM senior guard Ben Bestor drilled four 3-pointers and added 18 points, while senior guard Zach Froemming had 13 of his 15 points in the second half.
Garlock led the Cardinals with 11 points — nine coming in the second half. Senior forwards Marquise Walker and Riley Kann both added seven points, while senior forward Drew Cooney and junior guard Jackson Guerrero both had six points.
Middleton shot 41.3% overall (19-of-46), but the Cardinals were just 10-of-30 midway through the second half when the Lasers had built a 20-point cushion.
“They were really good on defense, but we also didn't make any shots on offense,” said Guerrero, who added five steals. “They’re obviously a good team, but I thought we could make more shots, and then it’s a different game. It could have been a closer game.”
Middleton knew it had to play its best game of the year — perhaps close to perfect — to topple the Lasers.
Top-seeded Kettle Moraine was allowing just 48.1 points per game and only three foes had cracked 60 points. Amazingly, the Lasers’ average margin of victory was 22.5 points per contest, and 23 of their first 25 wins were by double figures.
Despite those impressive numbers, eighth-seeded Middleton believed it could go toe-to-toe with the heavily favored Lasers — especially after playing extremely well the previous night during an 81-68 win over Beloit Memorial in the regional semifinals.
“I thought they were definitely a beatable team,” Garlock said. “We came in with a lot of confidence. Obviously they were the better team tonight, but everybody’s human. Everybody’s beatable. So yeah, we came in with a lot of confidence.”
Middleton played that way early, too.
The Cardinals had three leads in the first 6 minutes — the final one at 6-5 with 12 minutes left in the first half. Middleton’s 1-1-3 zone defense was giving the Lasers fits, as Kettle Moraine began just 2-of-9 from the field and had three turnovers in its first 10 possessions.
“We practiced against that defense, but you can’t practice against that length,” Richert said. “Their length is crazy and their hands are unbelievable.”
The Lasers began heating up, though, answering with a 12-2 run and surging to a 17-8 lead. Thompson was tremendous during that stretch with seven of his 15 first half points — highlighted by a four-point play in which he drilled a 3-pointer, drew a foul on Middleton reserve forward Owen Ostreng and made the free throw.
Garlock also picked up his second foul in that stretch and went to the bench for the final 6:52 of the first half.
Much like the previous night though, when the Cardinals outscored Beloit by 13 points with Garlock on the bench in first half foul trouble, Middleton played extremely well without Garlock.
Middleton outscored KM, 9-6, in the final 6:15 of the first half and was within 23-17 at halftime. Kann had five points in that mini-run, while Guerrero and Walker also scored.
Middleton could have crept even closer after turning the Lasers over on three of their final four possessions of the half. On one, junior guard Andrew Qastin missed a lay-up after a Kann steal. Walker corralled the rebound, but KM’s Thompson contested his follow shot, which also missed.
“When we turned them over, which was quite a few times out top, we just couldn't convert on those,” said Bavery, whose team forced seven first half turnovers. “They chase it down so hard and made things really tough for us at the rim.”
Despite the six-point halftime deficit, Middleton felt OK about where it sat.
“We were hanging around, down six,” Garlock said. “I didn't play much, so I felt good.”
Interestingly, so did Richert and the Lasers.
“I knew we’d be all right coming out of the locker room when my seniors said, ‘Coach don't worry about it. We’ve got this,’ ” Richert said. “When your seniors say that, you feel pretty good.”
Turns out, Richert’s group was prophetic.
Middleton was still within 33-26 after Walker threw a perfect lob pass to Garlock, and the gigantic center threw down a huge dunk with 12:10 left in the game.
But the Lasers answered with a 14-1 run that largely ended the game — and the Cardinals’ season.
Bestor had seven straight points during that run — including one of his four 3-pointers — while Froemming drilled a triple, and both Thompson and junior guard Nick Garvey added two points each. In all, Kettle Moraine scored on six consecutive possessions.
“I think out of our base zone, we hung around for a long time,” Bavery said. “Low scoring on both sides, but at some point when we had to extend, it was high risk, high reward. And eventually, they hurt us.”
Middleton’s offense also vanished in that stretch, as the Cardinals managed just one point in a 4-minute window. Middleton had five turnovers in six possessions during that time — including four straight in one stretch.
“Our coaches always emphasize how defense travels,” Bestor said. “So if our shots aren't falling one night, we can just rely on our defensive abilities and that just translates into our offense.”
The Cardinals did claw back within 52-40 with 4:10 left following a 13-5 burst of their own. Both Garlock and Cooney had four points each in that stretch, and reserve wing Brennan Mauer drilled Middleton’s first 3-pointer of the game.
The Lasers responded with an 8-2 run, though, and pushed their lead back to 18 at 60-42. Thompson had the key play in that spurt, attacking Garlock inside, scoring at the rim, drawing a fourth foul on Middleton’s big man and finishing the traditional three-point play that was a backbreaker for the Cardinals.
“We had some chances, but that’s every game,” Bavery said. “You can always say, ‘If that 3 had gone in or if we got that call it could have been different.’ But they were just better.”
The ending capped an up-and-down year for Middleton that was filled with great potential, but was sidetracked by injuries and suspensions.
Garlock, recovering from offseason ankle surgery, missed the first seven games of the year and the Cardinals started the season 2-5. Middleton ripped off seven- and five-game winning streaks and sat at 13-7 overall on Feb. 13.
Down the stretch, though, the Cardinals faltered and dropped four of their final six games. That led to a disappointing No. 8 seed in the postseason, and a second round trip to face the No. 1 team in the state.
“We’ve never had a team that’s had to go through all the different types of adversity that this team has had,” Bavery said. “It made it difficult to get the kind of rhythm and continuity that we wanted in practice and on game night. We had to really come together about five or six times during the season. It was hard to keep it consistent.”
Disappointing? Frustrating?
Perhaps.
Really, it depends on who you ask.
“I thought we had a lot of potential,” Guerrero said. “I wouldn't say it was disappointing. Maybe a disappointing way to lose, but not to the season.”
Added Garlock: “It was frustrating. Obviously with the injury, it was a tough year. But overall, I’m proud of the guys.”
March 8
WIAA Division 1 regional final
Kettle Moraine 66, Middleton 48
Middleton ………. 17 31 — 48
Kettle Moraine ……. 23 43 — 66
Middleton (fg ft-fta pts) — Marquise Walker 2 3-7 7, Guerrero 3 0-0 6, Kann 3 1-3 7, Cooney 2 2-2 6, Garlock 5 1-2 11, Grimes 2 0-0 5, Ostreng 1 0-0 3, Mauer 1 0-0 3, Tsipis 0 0-1 0.
Kettle Moraine: Ben Bestor 6 2-4 18, Zach Froemming 5 2-2 15, Teig Kowalski 0 2-2 2, Roman Thompson 8 8-10 25, Nick Garvey 1 2-2 4, Sebby Bodden 0 1-2 1, Caden Jurci 0 1-2 1.
3-pointers: Mid 3 (Mauer, Grimes, Ostreng); KM 8 (Ben Bestor 4, Froemming 3, Thompson 1). Free Throws: Mid 7-15, KM 18-27.
