Part of the charm of postseason, single-elimination high school basketball is also part of the horror, where a middling team on fire can create all sorts of bracket-busting havoc, and one bad stretch can undo a season’s worth of success.
For a hot minute Friday night, the New London High School boys basketball team had the look of a spoiler, as the visiting Bulldogs trailed Shawano by just two points in the third period and seemed to have their game on track.
The Hawks had other ideas, though, and collected themselves in plenty of time to beat back the upset bid and advance to Saturday night’s WIAA Division 2 regional championship game with a comfortable 60-41 win.
Shawano (18-5) advances to Saturday night’s encounter with No. 2-seed Hortonville, a 50-49 winner over Antigo in the other regional semifinal.
“We’re a senior-led team, for the most part,” Shawano coach Chris Kellett said. “There was no sense of panic. It helped when we got a couple of buckets by Eric Carl and Jack Lacy.”
Carl hit a pair of 3-pointers in the third quarter, with 1:26 left and then at the :38 mark, to give Shawano some breathing room, turning a 33-31 game into a 39-31 affair, and Sajen Knueppel hit a pair of free throws with one second left to give the Hawks a 10-point cushion going into the final eight minutes.
From there, New London (6-18) would creep no closer than 12 points, as the Hawks pulled away behind Zach Sousek’s 17 points, 14 by Knueppel and 11 each from Zeke Gueths and Carl.
“We didn’t panic,” said Gueths, who was recently named to the first team All-Bay Conference. “In the playoffs, a lot of times it’s the team that’s tougher mentally that wins. Basketball is a game of runs — we always try to expand ours and limit theirs.”
Kellett can go deep into his bench for a lift, as was the case when he called Knueppel’s number. One of the more athletic players in the area, Knueppel is a jumping jack with good quickness and a nice knack for driving to the hoop.
“We’re psyched to be in the regional title game,” Knueppel said. “It’s a different feeling out there, knowing that any game you’re playing could be your last.”
Hortonville, which played in the Bay Conference until this year, has had success against Shawano in the past, a trend the Hawks will try to reverse after the impressive win over New London.
“It was a good high school playoff game,” Kellett said. “It’s the playoffs now — win, or go home. We’ve responded to challenges and adversity well all year. It’s a very, very talented Hortonville team we’ll be facing (Saturday), so we’ll need to make shots and play the way we’re capable of playing.”
New London (41)
Winkler 2 3-4 8, Porath 1 2-2 5, Buelow 1 0-0 3, Thomas 1 4-6 6, Wolf 2 0-0 6, Barrington 3 2-2 8, Kurth 1 0-0 2, Jagiello 1 0-0 2, Bierman 0 1-2 1.
Shawano (60)
Reuter 0 2-2 2, Knueppel 4 6-6 14, Sousek 5 7-8 17, Lacy 2 0-0 5, Carl 4 0-0 11, Gueths 5 0-1 11.
New London 12 7 12 10 — 41
Shawano 18 8 15 19 — 60
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