Serving Algoma, Casco, Kewaunee, Luxemburg and all of Kewaunee County
Algoma and Kewaunee have a shot at playing for separate Div. 4 regional boys basketball titles Saturday, but they’ll have to win highly-competitive semifinal games on the road Friday first.
The Wolves improved to 18-5 after a 67-59 win over visiting Weyauwega-Fremont in a regional opener Tuesday night, while the Storm is 17-8 after drilling Sevastopol 78-50.
Algoma, a six-seed, travels to three-seed Iola-Scandinavia Friday while five-seed Kewaunee heads to face four-seed Oconto.
If the Wolves win, they’d play the winner of Saint Mary Catholic vs. Southern Door for the title. The host and second-seeded Eagles are favored, but if Saint Mary could pull off an upset — the 10-seed beat Crivitz 102-64 Tuesday — Algoma could host.
Iola-Scandinavia (11-3 in conference, 18-5 overall) finished tied for second behind Bonduel (14-0, 23-1) in the Central Wisconsin-East Conference. The Thunderbirds beat Weyauwega-Fremont twice this season, 59-45 at home Dec. 12 and 71-61 away Jan. 30.
Kewaunee and Oconto split their regular season meetings. The Storm won 79-61 at Oconto Dec. 21, while the Blue Devils hit a buzzer-beater to win at Kewaunee Feb. 11, 57-54. If Kewaunee can win on the road again, it would almost certainly face Bonduel, the state’s second-ranked D-4 team.
On Tuesday, Parker Lischka scored 20 of his game-high 25 points in the second half of Algoma’s win over the Warhawks. He had two three-pointers and went 7-of-8 from the line, and his sixth and final two-point field goal was a two-handed slam with just over a minute to play. Charlie Prokash added 11 points, Cody Kirchman and Chase Romdenne each 9, Carson Leist 7 and Braeden Leist 6.
The Warhawks, which ended Algoma’s season at Weyauwega last year, finished 8-17. Six-foot-seven junior Ethan Koplein scored 14 of his team-high 16 points in the second half. Jackson Hutchinson added 14, including four threes.
Meanwhile, Kewaunee got 24 points from Avery Jerabek, 15 from Dane Harrell and 10 from Cooper Kolmorgen in its win over the visiting Pioneers. Connor Kilgore added 9, Diesel Bosdeck 8, Evan Maccoux 5, Mason Kovacs 4 and foreign exchange student Roemer Thijssen knocked down a three-pointer.
Eagles get three-peat
Southern Door senior Drew Daoust and Kewaunee freshman Diesel Bosdeck combined for 15 three-pointers in the Eagles’ Packerland Conference-clinching, 85-71 win Feb. 21.
Daoust scored 45 points, with eight triples — seven of them in the first half.
“When he’s hitting shots from two (or) three feet behind the NBA line, it’s pretty tough to guard him that tight all over the floor, especially with how well he can drive,” said Kewaunee Coach Matt Bosdeck.
Daoust showed a rare burst of emotion in the first half toward the Kewaunee student section after burying one of his seven first-half triples. He said it was the result of some of the “talk” he had been hearing.
“It fires you up,” said Daoust, who had 26 points in the first half surpassed 3,000 career points in the season finale against Oconto last Thursday. “It’s a big game; emotions are high. You hear stuff, it gets the blood pumping.”
““My teammates were creating open looks, and I just happened to be the one that got ‘em,” he said.
The two warriors embraced at the conclusion of the game.
“Props to him, he’s a really good player,” Bosdeck said of Daoust. “We really didn’t execute as well as we needed to on defense, but I still think we played well overall.”
Looking ahead to the tournament, he said, “We just need to play together, trust everybody around us and play as a family.”
Jerabek added 20 points, 15 in the second half. Harrell scored 10.
Said Daoust, “We feel we can beat anybody and can compete with anybody, so we’re really excited for what the post-season brings.”
A standing-room-only Senior Night crowd saw Algoma play its best game of the season in an impressive 69-47 win over Kewaunee Feb. 27, the Wolves’ first win over their lakeshore rivals in eight years. It was a regular-season-ending battle for the second-best record in the Packerland. It was also a “Chuck-a-Duck,” 50/50 raffle and bake sale fundraiser organized by the Algoma girls team for the family of Owen Vaughn of Kewaunee, a KHS junior who passed away unexpectedly Feb. 3.
“What our kids did at the game, organizing that fundraiser, they’re great basketball players and hard workers, but they’re awesome human beings,” said Algoma girls coach Mark Zastrow. “To recognize and realize that a community that we’re supposed to be in some sort of rivalry with, for them to take the bull by the horns and do something for that family was special. Our kids were affected by that situation as well. They felt it in their hearts. That’s because they’re good people, their parents have brought them up the right way and they’ve represented our community extremely well the last several years.”
Senior Chase Romdenne had a night to remember with 22 points, slashing for many of them in the land of the giants. Lischka added 19, Prokash 11 and Kirchman 8. Lischka had four three-pointers and Romdenne and Prokash each two. The Storm was led by Connor Kilgore with 21.
“It started on the defensive end of the floor,” said Algoma coach Eric Schneider. “The boys came ready tonight. Our seniors really stepped up. Chase played his best game ever; Cody had a nice game; Carson had a great game offensive rebounding and defensively.”
Three nights earlier, Algoma got a career-high 40 points from Lischka in an 85-43 win at Gibraltar. Romdenne and Kirchman added 12 each. Meanwhile, the Storm got nine three-pointers — three each from Jerabek and Evan Maccoux, and two from Bosdeck — in a convincing 70-49 win at Sturgeon Bay. Jerabek finished with 17, the freshman duo of Bosdeck and Harrell each 13, and Maccoux 11.
Luxemburg-Casco beat Green Bay Southwest in a D-2 opener, 57-53, the team’s fifth win of the season. Things get a lot tougher for L-C when it meets top-seed and 10th-ranked in the state (in D-2) Green Bay Notre Dame (18-6) Friday.
L-C finished 3-15 in the North Eastern Conference after a 64-58 loss to Waupaca. J.D. Glampe, Josh Parins and Eli Derenne combined for 35 points to lead the Spartans. A week earlier, Freedom beat the Spartans 81-52.
Sophomore Jacob Coisman led L-C with 11 points, including a dunk. Tatem Klaubauf and Parins each added 9.
Freedom’s 6-8 sophomore Donovan Davis surpassed 1,000 career points on a dunk late in the half. Davis finished with 22 points. He has NCAA Div. 1 scholarship offers from Wisconsin and Iowa State.
Southern Door 16-0
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