LA CROSSE — The inbounds pass went from Keenan Eisermann to Alex Berget as the Holmen High School boys basketball team tried to complete an unlikely comeback.
After trailing by as many as 15 points in the second half, the Vikings were one shot away from tying their game against Aquinas as the final seconds ticked off the clock at the Reinhart Athletic Complex on Tuesday.
Trying to get the shot off before he was fouled and sent to the free-throw line instead of getting the 3-point attempt, Berget launched the ball at the basket, but it didn’t get far. Junior Finley Strom got his hand up high and partially blocked the attempt to save what became a wild 54-50 MVC victory.
Holmen (11-4, 4-2) entered the game with a share of the conference lead, but Aquinas (15-1, 5-1) took sole ownership of first place with enough big plays to run its winning streak to four games.
With the blocked shot, the Blugolds won a game in which it trailed by 12 points in the first half and led by 15 in the second as the Vikings struggled mightily with its shot and to hold its own in rebounding missed shots at either end of the court.
Strom helped shoot Aquinas out of a slow start and there to make the big defense play after things nearly slipped away at the end.
“We were a little lackluster and passive in the first half,” Strom said. “We went over some ways we could really attack and get more quality looks (in the second half).”
But they had to get in position to do that first after Holmen scored the first 12 points. Strom came off the bench and scored nine points in a span of 4 minutes, 34 seconds to turn that 12-point deficit into a 16-16 tie with 6:01 left in the first half.
He finished with a team-high 18 points as Aquinas took control of a very tight conference. The Blugolds lead the Vikings and Onalaska (12-4, 4-2) by one game and fourth-place Central (7-5, 3-2) by a game and a half as the MVC’s top teams take turns knocking each other off.
“Some of us coaches were talking early on when we were squaring off,” Aquinas coach Brad Reinhart said. “We figured no one would get through this (conference season) unscathed, and there are going to be great battles night in and night out.”
This was definitely one of those battles, and it was turned into one by Holmen seniors Eisermann and Kaiden Wilber, who combined for 24 of Holmen’s 27 second-half points.
Both had success taking the ball to the basket an in transition. Eisermann scored eight points and Wilber four in the final 1:50 as a 42-27 deficit with 7:13 remaining was cut down to one possession.
Eisermann’s three-point play made the score 50-41 with 1:50 left, and he got to the basket three more times for five more points down the stretch. He also fired a perfect inbounds pass to Wilber at the hoop for a huge basket that cut the Aquinas lead to 53-50 with 14.7 seconds to go.
Wilber was fouled on the play and missed the free throw but grabbed the offensive rebound to give the Vikings their final chance to tie the game.
Eisermann finished with 17 points and Wilber 16 on a night where a good perimeter shooting team had to adapt when those shots just didn’t fall with any consistency. Holmen made 4 of 18 shots from the 3-point line and dug itself a hole by going more than 12 minutes between field goals from the final four minutes of the first half well into the second.
“It was nice to see that (the Vikings) were resilient and gave us a chance,” Holmen coach Ryan Meyer said. “But give credit to Aquinas because they played pretty good defense on us, and we struggled for a while.”
Senior Trey Bahr scored 12 of his 15 points in the second half, and sophomore Calvin Bahr scored 11 points for the Blugolds, whose only loss this season was at Onalaska.
Strom said his team just has to do a better job of staying out of trouble — using the 12-point run Holmen had to start the game as evidence — as it chases the MVC championship and WIAA postseason success for the next six weeks.
“We just beat a very good team in Holmen, but we still have to string together 36 good minutes,” Strom said. “I feel like we’re a real tough team to beat if we don’t dig ourselves holes like that.”
