LA CROSSE — Senior Tyson Labus and junior Drew McConkey had to step forward for the West Salem High School boys basketball team, and, boy, did they ever.
But junior Anthony Jones and sophomore Jorden Calvert did the same for Central with a spot in a WIAA Division 2 sectional final on the line at Logan’s Steve Hole Field House.
The consistency triumphed over the heroics as the Panthers held on for a 73-70 victory in an exciting semifinal that came down to the final possession in front of a capacity crowd on Thursday.
McConkey hit the second of two free throws for the Panthers — who led by 17 points on two occasions in the second half — with 5.1 seconds remaining before the RiverHawks got the ball in the hands of Calvert, whose contested shot for the tie from the left corner missed as time expired.
Fourth-seeded West Salem (23-4) advances to play third-seeded Menomonie (19-8) in a 1 p.m. sectional final at Arcadia High School on Saturday.
McConkey, who scored 18 points and hit the winning shot in a 50-48 win over top-seeded Onalaska in the regional finals, was fouled with his team owning a two-point lead. He missed the first attempt and buried the second to force second-seeded Central (22-5) to shoot a 3-pointer on its final possession.
“I felt a lot more stressed on the free throws,” McConkey said when asked to compare the situations. “Everyone was focused on me. Nobody expected me to take the last shot against Ona, but I got the last one, and it felt good.”
Calvert, who was clutch for the RiverHawks with nine points in the final four minutes, was a strong choice for the final shot after hitting a 3 from each corner during Central’s second comeback of the second half.
Junior Gabe Servais got the ball down the floor to Calvert, but West Salem senior Nate Dillaber ran down the floor with Calvert and got in his face on the missed attempt.
Labus finished with 16 points and combined with McConkey for 34 after they combined for six during a 68-50 loss to Central during the regular season.
The two also combined to defend Jones and made it tough for him to get anything going offensively. Jones finished with 15 points, but he was only able to get two shots at the basket during a first half that ended with the Panthers in front 34-20.
McConkey also finished with nine rebounds, and Labus added six.
The RiverHawks trailed by as many as 17 before unleashing a full-court press and halfcourt trap that decimated West Salem.
The Panthers led 50-39 after Labus scored off a pass from Spencer Kammel with 12 minutes, 12 seconds remaining in the second half before turning the ball over on four of their next seven possessions.
Central scored on eight straight possessions during that stretch and was within 52-49 when Calvert knocked down a 3 with 9:58 left.
“When you are down 17 at that point in the game, you can’t keep doing what you are doing,” Central coach Todd Fergot said. “I liked the energy we played with in the second half.
“We just needed to play with that energy in the first half, too.”
West Salem fought off that run with an Elliott Corcoran 3-pointers and a couple of baskets by Labus to get the lead back to double figures.
The RiverHawks made another run — this one a 13-2 burst — and went ahead 67-66 on a Calvert 3 from the right corner with 2:07 left.
McConkey scored four times in the final 1:36 — twice from the foul line, once on a pass from Corcoran and once on an offensive rebound — to put the Panthers on top for good as they eliminated Central from the postseason for the second year in a row.
“These kids are so resilient,” West Salem coach Shane Schmeling said. “Our worry coming into the postseason was that they hadn’t been in many close games, and we weren’t sure how the kids would react.
“New London (regional semifinal) one-point game, Onalaska two-point game, and I knew Central was going to make a run because they are just too good.”
Calvert scored 15 points and Servais 10 for Central, but Servais was shut down after scoring his final basket with 12:36 remaining.
Dillaber had 17 with three 3-pointers and Corcoran 13 with three 3s for West Salem, which has lost four games to teams — D.C. Everest, Fox Valley Luther, Onalaska and Central — with a combined 81 victories.
“We knew all along that (Labus and McConkey) were not going to play tonight like they did the first time (against Central),” Dillaber said. “All week, we were telling them in practice, ‘You are gonna have a good game,’ and they did.
“They came out here and absolutely kicked some butt”
