HOLMEN — West Salem High School senior Will Schmidt wasn’t about to let Holmen junior Brody Wilber get the basketball in his hands with any kind of look at the basket.
The Panthers were clinging to a one-point lead as the Vikings took possession with 30.9 seconds remaining at the Bernie L. Ferry Fieldhouse on Monday.
Holmen tried to work the ball around the floor before Schmidt got his hand in a passing lane near the top of the key, gained control of the ball and went the other way for a layup and three-point lead with 5.4 seconds on the clock.
The steal and hoop was West Salem’s second over the final 1 minute, 37 seconds and gave the Panthers an 83-81 victory in a game that included 12 lead changes and five ties in the second half.
“He couldn’t miss tonight,” Schmidt said of Wilber, who made 7 of 11 3-point attempts and scored 23 points. “We lost him on some screens, and those were my fault, but we wanted to pressure him if he did get the ball, and I was able to tip it away and get the layup.”
Holmen (3-3), which trailed by as many as 15 points in the first half, did get one more chance with the ball after Schmidt’s layup, which gave him his only two points of the game. Junior Jayden Bartels was fouled and made the first free throw before intentionally missing the second.
But the second attempts didn’t hit the rim, and the Panthers (2-0) took over possession with 2 seconds left and escaped with the win.
Junior Drew McConkey scored a team-high 21 points and pulled down nine rebounds for West Salem, which withstood Holmen’s push through timely baskets and dominant rebounding. The Panthers finished with 18 offensive rebounds and took the lead for good at 77-76 when senior Spencer Kammel converted a putback with 2:44 left.
Kammel finished with 15 points and seven rebounds, senior Nate Dillaber 15 points and four steals, junior Elliot Corcoran 14 points and senior Tyson Labus nine points and seven rebounds. Schmidt also had six assists and six rebounds.
“They have a lot of length, and they were able to utilize their length to their advantage, really in rebounding,” said Holmen coach Ryan Meyer, whose team beat Caledonia on Saturday. “We needed to rebound a little better, and they did a nice job of it.”
Dillaber had the other late steal and bucket for the Panthers. That play followed the final Kammel putback and pushed the West Salem advantage to 79-76 with 1:37 left. Dillaber also scored with his left hand on a drive through the lane to give the Panthers an 81-78 lead with 1:21 left.
“Nate Dillaber and Will Schmidt made some great plays down the stretch, and those are guys we count on and where leadership comes from,” West Salem first-year coach Shane Schmeling said. “They’ve been through it, Nate especially.”
Wilber made three 3 3-pointers in the first half and four in the second. He hit one when the Vikings closed out the first half with a 12-2 run that got it within 45-43 after the Panthers scored 13 of the first 16 points.
“That’s something I have to credit our kids for,” Meyer, who took his first timeout 1:17 into the game and his second just 2:48 into it, said of the comeback. “West Salem has probably done that to us the last four times we played them, but instead of folding it up, they found a way to get back in it.”
Bartels finished with a game-high 26 points on 7-for-14 shooting. He made 3 of 8 3-pointers and 9 of 10 free throws. Senior Alex Berget, who scored 30 points in Saturday’s win over Caledonia, added 10, and junior Jax Meyer scored nine points and recorded six steals.
