McKenna Larsen tried to do it all.
The Oconto Falls High School senior never backed down, but she was not enough for the Panthers in Friday’s 64-41 loss to Kettle Moraine Lutheran in the WIAA Division 3 state semifinal at the Resch Center in Green Bay.
Larsen, a 5-foot-7 guard, was the Panthers’ only offense at times Friday on her way to a career-high 31 points.
Oconto Falls turned the ball over on its first possession and never led in the game, which was tied only until Kettle Moraine hit its first shot just over a minute into the game.
All of Oconto Falls’ first-quarter points came on 3-pointers by Larsen, which cut the Chargers’ lead to 11-6 with 4:31 remaining in the period. The Panthers, however, didn’t score again until the 5:59 mark of the second period; by that time, they had fallen behind, 23-6.
Kettle Moraine (26-1) maintained a double-digit lead the rest of the way.
Larsen scored seven points in the second quarter and nine points — again all of the Panthers’ points — in the third, as Oconto Falls twice cut the Chargers’ lead to 11.
Larsen scored nine more points in the fourth quarter, but Kettle Moraine kept pulling away.
Larsen finished with five 3s on the day. She attempted 21 field goals, just six short of the state tournament single-game record. She also had eight rebounds, five steals and two assists.
“I think everybody’s seen McKenna Larsen,” Oconto Falls coach Mike Kaczmarek Jr. said. “She’s a heck of a kid, heck of an athlete. You saw McKenna at her best today.”
Senior forward Carly Lemke added four points and four rebounds for the Panthers.
The Oconto Falls’ defense, which hasn’t allowed a team to score more than 36 points in the last four games, finally ran into a puzzle it couldn’t solve with quickness. Kettle Moraine’s 64 points were the most given up by the Panthers this season.
A couple of early 3s — a pair by Mikayla Voight, a 5-9 junior guard, and another by sophomore guard Sharla Boehlke — opened things up for the Chargers inside, where Andrea Meinert, Kettle Moraine’s 5-10 forward, was happy to cause fits for the Panthers the rest of the game.
“I had a mismatch down low and our girls did a great job of attacking the outside,” Meinert said. “(Oconto Falls) really couldn’t sink down as much as they wanted to because they couldn’t give up more 3s.”
“Typically, we’re a 1-3-1 team and we thought we had an answer for them,” Kaczmarek said. “Meinert, we could not match up with her.”
Meinart would finish with 19 points and had 12 rebounds. Voight added 19 points, while Lyndsey Soderbeck scored 11.
Oconto Falls (22-4) was outrebounded 34-24 and shot only 27.1 percent from the field. Kettle Moraine made 57.5 percent of its field goal attempts.
“I don’t know if the length of the court got to us,” Kaczmarek said. “Everything seemed to be a little short today. We just didn’t have that No. 2 person to step up for us today.”
After the game Larsen talked about being proud to end her basketball career at state.
“To say I finally got here is a dream come true,” Larsen said. “I wouldn’t want to end it any other way.”
Larsen, who has made it to state in volleyball twice and once in softball, will play softball and volleyball at Winona State University.
Kaczmarek said Larsen is irreplaceable.
“What she has done for the community, for my family — my girls absolutely love her, there’s just a lot of No. 20s going around Oconto Falls right now,” Kaczmarek said. “For a high school coach, we use this week as a recruiting tool. We went through all the elementary schools, all the feeder programs. Everyone wants to meet McKenna.”
Playing the last month with an injured ulnar collateral ligament in her right hand, which will require surgery, Larsen said she put the injury out of her mind during the Panthers’ run.
“I wanted to do it for the team and for coach and for everyone that has been a part of this team,” Larsen said.
Oconto Falls (41)
Lemke 2-10 0-0 4, E. Watzka 1-5 1-4 3, Manns 0-7 1-2 1, Larsen 10-21 5-9 31, Wolf 0-2 2-2 2
Kettle Moraine Lutheran (64)
Schneiss 3-5 3-4 9, Meinert 7-10 5-7 19, Boehlke 1-2 0-0 3, Voight 6-10 4-6 19, Schneider 0-1 1-2 1, Zimmel 1-3 0-0 2, Soderbeck 5-7 1-1 11
Oconto Falls 6 15 9 11 — 41
Kettle Moraine Lutheran 19 15 14 16 —64
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