HOLMEN — The Central High School boys basketball team is on a roll, and there was nothing Holmen could do to stop that on Tuesday.
The Vikings did withstand one second-half knockout punch, but when the second one landed, the RiverHawks were on their way to a 65-56 MVC victory at the Bernie L. Ferry Fieldhouse.
Central (11-2 overall, 5-1 MVC) pushed a lead that was once at four points to 13 when senior Joey Pretasky scored on a drive to the basket with about three minutes remaining before Holmen (10-6, 3-4) quickly scored the next seven points to get within 55-49 with 2:11 left.
But the RiverHawks made six free throws in the final minute to hold off the Vikings and win their seventh game in a row and complete a sweep of the season series.
Pretasky scored a team-high 13 points, and juniors Gabe Servais and Anthony Jones added 12 apiece for Central, which hasn’t lost since a 64-53 home setback at the hands of first-place and top-ranked Onalaska on Jan. 6.
“We are really playing together right now,” Servais said. “We are playing as a unit instead of as five individuals, and that’s helping us.
“We’re getting closer now as the year goes on compared to the start of the season.”
The RiverHawks are eighth among Division 2 teams in this week’s Bound Wisconsin/Zaleski Sports media poll, and they beat the Vikings for a second time with timely scoring and solid rebounding and defense throughout the night.
Central coach Todd Fergot cited a couple of examples of where that defense struggled, but what the team did was enough to slow down junior guard Jayden Bartels — a dangerous shooter who ended up with five points and was only able to get five shots at the basket.
Jones and Servais helped put the clamps on Bartels, but the same couldn’t be said for efforts on Holmen senior Alex Berget.
Berget, who is five points shy of 1,000 for his career, scored 21 points and was a challenge for the RiverHawks.
“The thing with Berget is he is so darn sneaky and slippery,” Fergot said. “He’s really playing well.
“We did a nice job with Bartels, but we just couldn’t get stops on Berget.”
Central opened the second half with a 7-2 run, and a 3-pointer by Pretasky gave it a 38-27 advantage with 15:01 on the clock. But Bartels connected on a 3, and Berget followed that with a step-back 3 to make it 38-33 with 12:20 to go.
The Vikings weren’t able to get their deficit down to one possession the rest of the way and tightened it up as much as they could when Jax Meyer made a free row to cut Central’s lead to 40-36 with 10:55 left.
Meyer scored 10 points for Holmen, which has lost two straight games heading into a nonconference matchup at Prescott (10-5) on Thursday.
Central puts its winning streak on the line Friday at Sparta (7-7, 1-6).
