ARCADIA — The pass came out of the post from Drew McConkey, and West Salem High School junior Elliott Corcoran did what he does for the Panthers.
Without hesitation, Corcoran put up the shot with the left arm of 6-foot-8 Menomonie defender Trevor Robert closing in.
The quick delivery nullified Robert’s advance, and his school’s student section exploded as the basketball fell through the hoop with 2 minutes, 2 seconds on the clock.
The Panthers trailed by as many as 10 points in the second half, but Corcoran’s third 3-pointer of the half put them in front for good in what became a 61-54 victory over Menomonie in a WIAA Division 2 sectional championship game at the Wanek Arena on Saturday.
West Salem (24-4) became a state qualifier for the fourth time in five years by withstanding a huge game from Robert and winning another close postseason game.
“I felt it today,” said Corcoran, who scored a team-high 21 points. “I wanted to shoot the ball, and it felt good to make it.”
After making just 7 of their first 16 free throws, the Panthers made 6 of 8 in the final 47 seconds to hold off the Mustangs (19-9) and get a spot in a state semifinal at the Kohl Center on Friday afternoon.
Robert finished with 21 points, 16 rebounds and seven blocked shots, and he gave the Mustangs a 47-39 lead on a putback with 6:28 left. West Salem then scored 22 of the final 29 points and held Robert to one points and one rebound after his basket that produced the eight-point lead.
“He thought he would be less physical, and we didn’t think he had a left hand,” McConkey said of Robert, who scored three times on a spin move that he finished with his left hand in the first half. “He showed that he’s a good player.”
The Panthers used senior Tyson Labus on Robert for the first half, and the energy spent defending against the player Menomonie was going to pound the ball in to with consistency limited what Labus — West Salem’s leading scorer — could do offensively.
Robert disrupted West Salem’s offensive post game with five of his blocked shots in the first half. The Panthers were able to get into the lane but quickly had to pick up their dribble and look for a pass to get out of trouble.
“He was a really good player to be honest,” West Salem senior Spencer Kammel said. “He had some good buckets on Tyson and Drew, who are great defenders.
“We had to try and get him out of the lane for Drew and Elliott to get to the basket. It was hard. We’ve had a lot of success at the rim this year, but they made that really tough for us.”
Menomonie took a 20-18 lead when Robert scored with his left hand on a spin move with 3:44 left in the first half. The Mustangs held the lead a five-point burst was finished by a Will Schmidt drive to the basket to give West Salem a 50-49 advantage with 3:28 left in the game.
Corcoran scored 12 of his points in the second half and capped his scoring on two free throws with 25.7 seconds on the clock after the Mustangs had pulled to within 56-53.
“He started to have a little bit more success starting about midseason,” West Salem coach Shane Schmeling said of Corcoran. “Each game, you could just see it building and building, and he’s been huge these last six, eight games.
“There’s no way we’re in this position without the way he’s played.”
The Panthers also benefitted significantly from the defense of McConkey, Kammel and Schmidt.
McConkey switched to Robert for a chunk of the second half and was responsible to limiting his production that last 6:28. Kammel and Schmidt held senior Jake Rue, who made 106 3-pointers in the first 27 games to two on Saturday. Rue scored just six points after entering with a per-game average of 12.5 points.
“We did a great job on him,” Schmeling said of Rue, who was limited to seven shots. “We probably let (Robert) get a little too much, so we started to try and dig on him in the second half.”
McConkey scored 19 points was able to slow down Robert with some help after asking Schmeling for the assignment at halftime.
“At halftime, Drew told me he wanted to guard him,” Schmeling said. “We talked about it as a staff a couple times in the first half, but I thought we couldn’t get Drew in foul trouble and decided not to.
“… If you have a kid who wants to do something like that, it made me say, ‘OK, he’s ready, we can do this.’ Thankfully, he had a lot of fouls to give and did a nice job on him.”
McConkey, who hit the winning shot in a 50-48 win over Onalaska in the regional finals and made a key free throw late in a 73-70 win over Central on Thursday, scored once and hit two free throws over the final 2:37 against Menomonie. He also coaxed a travel out of Robert with 2:19 to go.
Labus was held nine points below his scoring average and finished with just six, but he hit a 3-pointer with 6:50 remaining and two free throws with 8 seconds left to provide the final margin of victory.
Slinger (24-4), Whitefish Bay (22-6) and McFarland (23-5) also won Division 2 sectionals on Saturday and will join the Panthers at the Kohl Center. The teams will be seeded on Sunday, and the championship game is scheduled for Saturday.
