One game at a time.
It’s one of the oldest sports cliches in the book, but it’s the message that Tigerton boys basketball coach Dan Hoffa has for his team.
The Tigers came into their Central Wisconsin Conference crossover game with Wild Rose on Jan. 27 with a 14-0 overall record, a 5-0 mark in CWC-North games and a No. 8 ranking in Division 5 in the latest state rankings.
They had no problems with the Wildcats on Parents’ Night with a 77-23 win over a team with three players averaging more than 11 points a game.
Tigerton scored 17 of the game’s first 19 points and took a 51-13 lead into the locker room at halftime behind 18 points from James Brady. Brady, a 6-foot, 10-inch junior, is part of a starting lineup that also includes seniors Sam Anheuser, Brody Miller, Caleb Dahlstrom and Tanner Dent.
Hoffa said that upperclassmen experience has helped the Tigers so far this season.
“We have a lot of varsity experience,” he said. “Everybody keys on James being the big guy. I was telling the guys at halftime that we potentially have seven guys who could give us double digits at any time. I try to stay humble with all this stuff, but I did feel that I did have something special. I didn’t know how special. I do have a pretty good idea, but there’s a long way to go.”
Jaden Konrath scored the first points of the second half for Wild Rose to cut the lead to 36 points, but the Wildcats never got any closer.
Wild Rose held Brady to four points after the break but couldn’t stop Anheuser, who scored 12 of his game-high 23 points in the second half. Izaiah Lederhaus came off the bench to score 11 points for the Tigers to go along with Brady’s 22.
Konrath led the Wildcats with 10 points.
The Tigers have already defeated the other five teams in the CWC-North but are still looking for respect, according to Hoffa.
“This whole song-and-dance happened last year, too,” he said. “It came to the regional seeding, and I felt like we got slammed a little. They weren’t wrong, because we ended up getting beat.”
The Tigers received a No. 3 seed in Division 5 for last year’s WIAA state tournament despite heading to the postseason with one loss and a second straight CWC-North championship. Tigerton ended up dropping a 69-36 decision to second-seeded Pacelli in a regional final.
“I think they had six losses and we only had one, and that’s where we felt we were a little underappreciated,” Hoffa said. “(Almond-Bancroft) was the No. 1 (seed). We had a better record than both of them, but their conference was a lot stronger than ours.
“Trying to earn that respect — that’s kind of our motto right now. We play who we play on our schedule. We can’t control that. We just take one opponent at a time and play whoever’s on our schedule. We go one game at a time and try to not look ahead, but it’s hard to do sometimes. Honestly, we need a game that’s going to give us a full 36 minutes.”
Whether the Tigers get an opportunity to advance to state for the first time in program history remains to be seen, as there are still several regular-season games on the schedule before the tournament gets underway in early March.
Hoffa has already noticed a big difference from last year’s team.
“Our guards have really stepped up play this year, and that was something that I was concerned about coming in because of what had happened last year,” he said. “We just did not have enough firepower from the outside. This year, our guards are answering that bell. It helps to have (Brady), because he’s going to draw those double and triple teams. Our guards are going to be wide open. They’re shooting with confidence, because there’s not a whole lot of pressure on them.”
Brady also helps the team with his passing, Hoffa said.
“He sees the court very well,” he said. “He told me there are times when he’d rather just pass the ball. We’re still working on that, because we’re so used to seeing what he’s going to do.”
Hoffa realizes his team’s success over the past three seasons means a lot to the community.
“It’s the hottest ticket in town,” he said. “It was good to kind of put on a show for the fans.”
