MADISON — The West Salem High School boys basketball team made the mistakes it knew would cause trouble Friday afternoon at the Kohl Center in Madison.
The second-seeded Panthers didn’t take good enough care of the ball, they didn’t perform well at the foul line and they didn’t take advantage of a couple of key chances to shift momentum.
But they were also right on the verge of making none of that matter against third-seeded Whitefish Bay.
West Salem made two big 3-pointers over the final 1 minute, 13 seconds, but the Blue Dukes made all four free throws they attempted in the final minute and converted a breakaway at the end for a 64-58 victory in the second WIAA Division 2 state semifinal.
Senior Tyson Labus had 23 points with four 3-pointers, junior Elliott Corcoran had 17 with a pair of 3s, and junior Drew McConkey grabbed 10 rebounds as the Panthers watched their season come to an end with a 24-5 record.
“We believed, and we thought we had it,” said West Salem senior Nate Dillaber, whose 3-pointer with 43.1 seconds remaining cut Whitefish Bay’s lead to 60-58. “But they stepped up and made some free throws, and our last 3 didn’t go down.
“That’s the way basketball works. We’ve been on the right side of all these close games during this playoff run, and it’s understandable when one of these close ones doesn’t go our way.”
The Blue Dukes pressured West Salem into too many bad decisions. The Panthers turned the ball over eight times in the first half and 13 times in the second half. Whitefish Bay followed those turnovers with 23 points as it whittled away on a six-point halftime deficit and led by as many as seven points in the second half.
Three possessions in particular hurt the Panthers as they battled to regain the lead they surrendered in the second half.
The first came when Labus forced a turnover as West Salem trailed 53-50. Two shots from point-blank range didn’t fall before Whitefish Bay cleared the defensive rebound to end the threat.
The Blue Dukes had a 57-52 lead when McConkey recorded a steal that quickly went the other way. But a pass to teammate Spencer Kammel under the basket sailed high, and the Panthers came out of it empty-handed.
Kammel then recorded a steal on the next possession and advanced the ball to the other end of the court but lost it off of Dillaber near the baseline — again without getting a shot.
“We worked so hard to get steals on those plays, get an advantage, but we couldn’t capitalize,” Dillaber said. “That’s four points. Not only did we not get a shot, we turned it over, and those kinds of plays can carry weight.”
Whitefish Bay put West Salem in chase mode for good when Jack Broderson made two free throws for a 41-40 lead with 10:26 left. The Panthers, making their fourth state appearance in five years, were within one once — Corcoran buried a 3-pointer to make it 48-47 with 7:28 to go — and failed to score on two more chances with the ball while facing a one-possession deficit.
“We were a little worried about their pressure,” West Salem coach Shane Schmeling said. “They ramped up the pressure in the second half, and we didn’t handle it real well, but we got through a rough spell and answered with a couple of 3s late.
“I kept reminding them in the huddle that we were down seven or six against New London (in a regional semifinal) with 2-and-a-half (minutes) to go, we were against Central late, we were down seven or nine against Menomonie. I just kept saying, ‘We gotta believe, we gotta believe, but we couldn’t get a couple of shots to fall that were right there.”
Check the site throughout the weekend for more copy from this game.
