BRODHEAD — For the first time since 2009, the Brodhead Cardinals boys basketball team is the Rock Valley champion.

On Feb. 21, the Cardinals (17-6, 14-3 RVC) knocked off Big Foot (13-10, 10-7) at home in decisive fashion, 67-51.

The game was also Senior Night, and it was the seniors that showed up. Just four Cardinals scored — three of which were seniors — and all four reached double digits.

“This is a great group of seniors,” Brodhead coach Tommy Meier said. “I’ve been with them since seventh grade football, so it’s a little bittersweet that we’re almost done.”

Senior Owen Leifker led the way with 28 points, four steals and eight rebounds. Brady Malkow had a double-double with 16 points, 14 boards and five assists. Fellow senior Josiah Engen had 11 points and six rebounds, while freshman Cullen Walker tallied 12 points and four rebounds.

“It’s not about the scoring for me, I just want to get the win. It’s great that I had 28, but on to the next game,” Leifker said. 

The victory capped at least a share of the Rock Valley championship for the Cardinals since the 2008-09 season, when the conference was split into North and South divisions. 

“It all means so much,” said Leifker, the team’s leading scorer this season. “Going from playing as a sophomore and having a losing record to this. We put in so much work each summer and it feels great to see us at the top now.”

Leifker, Malkow and Engen have been starters since their sophomore season, with Gage Boegli and Syler Weeden getting plenty of varsity experience as juniors. Leifker said that experience, as well as the way the team has meshed to close out the regular season, bodes well for the playoffs, which begin March 1.

“I think we all want to be in this position. Most of us have been starting or playing since our sophomore year, and the time is now for us. I think we all want that responsibility to take care of it,” Leifker said.

Leifker has averaged more than 21 points per game each of the last two seasons. As a sophomore and junior, he was a sharpshooter from the outside, hitting 65 and 73 3-pointers at a clip of more than 42%. This season, his numbers from distance have been down, but he’s countered that move by drive to the hole and hitting a higher percentage of shots in the paint. He is a single point shy of 1,300 in his career.

Malkow will finish his career as one of the all-time highest rebounders in the program history, having grabbed more than 640 rebounds in three seasons — a rate of 9.3 boards a game. He’s also averaged 8.5 points per game in his career, and 10.1 this season. Engen is averaging 14.1 points per game this year — a nearly 9-point increase from his output a year ago.

In the win over Big Foot, Brodhead opened the game determined to win the game inside and on the glass. The Cardinals out-rebounded their opponents 33-23 and forced 14 turnovers. They also hit 19 2-pointers to go with six 3s and finished 11 of 18 from the free throw line. 

“I think that was probably one of our most complete games that we’ve played in a long time,” Meier said. Gus Foster and Hudson Torrez are “really good,” Meier said. “Those are their go-to guys. We tried to limit Foster as much as we could. These guys played lights-out defense for the most part.”

By halftime, Brodhead led 33-25. Big Foot scored the first basket of the second half, but the Cards rattled off an 8-0 run to make it a 14-point game with 12 minutes to play. Big Foot’s next five baskets were all 3-pointers, but the Cardinals continued to score themselves and saw the lead reach 17 after a pump fake 3 by Leifker. The Chiefs never sniffed a single digit deficit after that.

Foster finished with 19 points and three 3s, while Torrez had 16 points and four 3s. Big Foot hit 11 3-pointers to stay reasonably close throughout much of the game. 

Late foul discrepancy saw a Big Foot fan walk out of the gym in anger, while the Chiefs coach Hunter Price received a technical foul for loudly commenting on a late 50/50 out of bounds call “that’s just embarrassing” to the officials.

The frustration carried over from a Big Foot win days earlier against second-place East Troy, where nearly 50 foul calls were made and the referees had to be escorted from the gym by security. Against Brodhead, Big Foot was whistled 17 times — including 10 in the second half — while Brodhead committed just six fouls all night, trying to play clean as an ice storm was barreling down on the city.

The Cardinals were set to close out the regular season Feb. 24 at Jefferson (1-22, 1-16), with a win sealing the outright conference crown. Second place East Troy (17-6, 13-4) was at third place McFarland (14-8, 12-5) the same night.

“We were kind of disappointed we didn’t close it out last week Friday up at Edgerton, but we got the help we needed thanks to Big Foot last Friday,” Meier said. 

Brodhead will host Parkview (8-14) in the opening round of the WIAA Division 4 basketball playoffs March 1, with the winner traveling to Marshall (17-6) three days later for the regional semifinal.

“It gets very serious now. Regular season, we are happy and screwing around a little bit; having fun. But once it gets to playoff time, I think we’ll lock in more — just based off of last year,” Leifker said, mentioning his team’s narrow loss in the playoffs to the top-ranked team in the state at the time. “I’m excited. We’re going to have a lot of good practices.”