ONALASKA — There are new faces in new roles for the Onalaska High School boys basketball team this season, but senior Broden Steiner’s transition has been the one to open the most eyes.
He didn’t have a consistent spot in the rotation as a junior, but that has changed while the Hilltoppers have won their first four games.
The 6-foot-4 forward was at it again Thursday night with an imposing Caledonia team in town for a nonconference game.
Steiner finished with a team-high 18 points and scored six of them exactly when his team needed them as Onalaska posted an impressive 80-70 victory over the visiting Warriors.
“Broden has worked very hard, and he’s kind of a late bloomer for us,” Onalaska coach Craig Kowal said after his team improved its record to 4-0. “He’s always been able to score the ball, and he’s very explosive and electric in transition.
“That’s how we have to use him, and he’s made great strides. A few easy (baskets) from him each game allows our shooters to knock down shots, and that makes us a pretty good team.”
The Hilltoppers made seven second-half 3-pointers and had three of them to finish off a 15-point run that turned a 34-31 deficit into a 46-34 lead. But those were set up by three straight Steiner baskets — one of them a dunk on the break — to get things started.
Freshman Grant King gave Caledonia the three-point lead with a steal and layup with a little more than 16 minutes left. But Steiner scored in the lane over the 6-6 Garrett Konz at the other end and followed that with a breakaway dunk.
Steiner’s third basket, a putback on a missed shot, gave Onalaska a 37-34 lead, and the Warriors (2-1) never caught up.
The Hilltoppers also did a good job of taking away some of the balance possessed by Caledonia. The Warriors didn’t have a great shooting night from the perimeter, but Onalaska also challenged them out past the 3-point line.
Senior Mason King scored 41 points in Caledonia’s first two games and made five 3-pointers in a win over La Crescent-Hokah. He scored three points against Onalaska.
“He’s a high-level scorer,” Kowal said of King. “We did a great job of making everything difficult for him. Their big guys did hurt us inside, but part of it was that we were extending so hard to try and limit (King’s) shots.”
Onalaska led by as many as 17 points in the second half at 64-47, but the Warriors — playing without 6-4 senior Ethan Stendel due to a football commitment — cut within 68-61 on a Reid Klug putback with 3:26 left and 78-70 with 33 seconds to go, but the Hilltoppers held off the charge.
Klug scored 17 of his game-high 27 points after halftime, and Konz added 25 for the Warriors.
Junior Ian Kowal made four 3-pointers and scored 15 points for Onalaska, which also received 13 from freshman Tyler Kowal and 11 each from senior Jack Smith and junior Tristan Molling.
Ian Kowal, Molling and Smith — in that order — followed Steiner’s six straight points with a 3-pointer each during the critical 15-0 run.
“It makes us more difficult to guard,” Craig Kowal said of the balance of five double-figure scorers. “That’s how we have to play.
“We have to move the ball, get buckets in transition and share the ball. I think our balance was what won out tonight.”
