De Pere comes up short in WIAA state semifinal loss to Madison Memorial
· Yahoo Sports
MADISON - A big second-half surge helped lift Madison Memorial to a 75-62 win over De Pere in a WIAA Division 1 state semifinal March 20 at the Kohl Center.
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Memorial (27-2) advances to play top-ranked Wisconsin Lutheran (29-0) in the WIAA D1 state title game March 21. Tip-off is scheduled 15 minutes after completion of the D2 final.
"I thought Madison Memorial played very well," De Pere coach Brian Winchester said. "They got after us on the boards – that was a factor in the game. They slowed us down with their zone a little bit. And we didn't get as many stops as we needed to, which is the bottom line."
Memorial led De Pere 33-32 after a first half that saw 14 lead changes. Memorial connected on seven 3-pointers, but De Pere stayed within striking distance.
Madison Memorial made its move midway through the second half, outscoring the Redbirds 19-5 during a nearly 8-minute stretch. That helped give the Spartans control of the game, and they outlasted De Pere (25-4) the rest of the way.
"I think we're a very unique team in the sense that we can play very fast, but we can also play very slow," Memorial coach Steve Collins said. "And that stretch, you could just feel it was clicking. Then as a coach, you got to get out of their way ... you gotta let them do what they do."
Memorial led by as many as 19 points at one point in the second half. Anthony Miller had 22 points to lead the Spartans with Caleb Liggon adding 20 points and seven rebounds. Memorial also connected on 12 3-pointers and shot 70% from beyond the arc (12-for-17).
"I think we knew they were shooting the ball well and that we had to dig on defense," De Pere senior Jack Bookter said. "We did our best and we tried to communicate through it, and they just kept hitting shots."
Said De Pere senior Noah Maniscalco: "I think they kind of outhustled us a little bit on the 50-50 balls, loose balls. We definitely could have been better there. Still proud of the guys' effort and how we played really hard."
Bookter had 19 points to lead De Pere with Will Krueger (13), Isaac Herlache (11) and Maniscalco (11) also scoring in double digits for the Redbirds.
De Pere, the No. 2 seed, was making its first state appearance since winning the D1 state title in 2023 and its eighth overall. De Pere advanced to the Kohl Center with a 97-74 win over Brookfield East in a sectional final.
"They're carriers of the culture," Winchester said. "Players before them have built this over a long period of time. And they carry the weight of a lot of expectations and they looked up to those expectations. And now they continue to pass that down."
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: De Pere falls short in WIAA state semifinal against Madison Memorial