WEST SALEM — West Salem High School boys basketball coach wasn’t happy with a couple of the things he saw in the opening minutes of a Coulee Conference game against visiting Luther on Saturday afternoon.
A timeout changed all of that for the rest of the game as the Panthers rolled to an 86-51 victory over the Knights in a matchup that was also played at Luther on Thursday.
West Salem responded to the “encouragement” it received during that break and immediately, found the game it needs to play to succeed and gradually pulled away from Luther the rest of the afternoon.
“We saw it, but not as quickly as I wanted to see it,” Schmeling said of an effort that including creating turnovers, getting into transition and dominating the boards. “We beat them by 25 on Thursday, and I told them we needed to bring the same intensity today. There were a couple specific things on the first couple trips, but then we got it going.”
Junior Elliott Corcoran made all five 3-pointers he attempted and scored a team-high 18 points for the Panthers (13-2, 6-0), who maintained sole possession of the Coulee Conference lead.
A 12-0 run late in the first half took a 26-15 lead to 38-15, and an 8-0 run to close out the first half gave them a 46-18 lead.
Senior Nate Dillaber added 17 points, senior Tyson Labus had 12 to go with five rebounds, and junior Drew McConkey scored 10 to go with a team-high eight rebounds. McConkey and Will Schmidt also tied for the team lead with six assists.
The Knights (7-7, 3-3) were led by senior Max Huelskamp’s 15 points and nine rebounds. Junior Jonny Holub added 10 points.
Central 62, Sauk Prairie 43
LA CROSSE — The RiverHawks (13-2) — eighth in Division 2 for this week’s Bound Wisconsin/Zaleski Sports media poll — pushed their winning streak to nine games by handling the Eagles (12-5) at the Mark Sutton Memorial Gymnasium.
Central hasn’t lost since an 11-point setback at the hands of top-ranked Onalaska (13-1) on Jan. 6 and hosts Medford (6-9) on Tuesday before getting that rematch with the Hilltoppers in Onalaska on Thursday. Sauk Prairie is the fourth team with a winning record to come up short against Central during its current win streak.
The RiverHawks had an 11-point lead by the end of the first half and held the Eagles to 21 points in the first half and 22 in the second. Five opponents during the win streak have failed to reach 50 points and none have reached 60.
Junior Anthony Jones scored 15 points with one 3-pointer, and junior Gabe Servais finished with 12. Senior Joey Pretasky added 10 points for Central.
McFarland 65, Aquinas 60
LA CROSSE — The Blugolds — fifth in Division 3 for this week’s Bound Wisconsin/Zaleski Sports media poll — were knocked off by the Spartans (15-2) at the Reinhart Athletic Complex.
Aquinas (15-3) was outscored by eight points in the second half one day after beating Division 2 top-ranked Onalaska.
Junior Calvin Bahr led the Blugolds with 18 points, and senior Logan Becker added 11.
Junior Henry Berns and sophomore Roman Kirchner scored nine each for Aquinas, which had won three in a row and next hosts Tomah (7-9) on Thursday.
