NEW GLARUS — The 14-point lead was squandered. Marshall had slowly and methodically gotten back into the game in the second half and tied it at 53 with 1:35 left in regulation. New Glarus coach Travis Sysko yelled to his players to hold for the last.

His players followed suit, completing every pass and every dribble in the process until Sysko called a timeout with 19.9 seconds remaining.

“My thought was that they can’t win if we don’t give them the ball back,” Sysko said. “I thought we could dribble it out, and when it got down to 20, I called a timeout and set up the last play.”

Connor Siegenthaler held the rock with 10 seconds to play, dribbled to his right, then used a pick from Mason Martinson to clear some space as he moved back to his left. Siegenthaler, a sharpshooter from beyond the arc for the past three years in a Knights uniform, sank the 3-point shot from the top of the key and slowly walked backwards to half-court with his arms out at his side.

“(Coach Sysko) knew I wanted the ball, so he drew up a play for me — a simple screen — and I was feeling the three … and it went in,” Seigenthaler said. “I just had a feeling going into this game it was going to be a special one, and yeah, it turned out to be awesome. It shouldn’t have been that close. We let them back in, but we ended up on top.”

Sysko said that hitting clutch shots over the last three years is something that Siegenthaler just does. “Tonight was no different.”

Martinson, arms extended above his head holding up his index fingers, joined Siegenthaler in celebration, as did teammate’s Nathan Streiff, Darris Schuett and Garrett James.

“I felt it when it left his hands. There’s not much more you can say — it was perfect,” Schuett said.

The bucket capped the 56-53 victory for New Glarus (13-6, 8-0 Capitol South). The win was more than just a single-game celebration, though. It clinched the Knights’ fourth-straight Capitol South Conference title — an unlikely feat considering the circumstances.

A season ago, the New Glarus boys basketball team won the first state championship in school history, but some of the squad’s biggest leaders graduated. This year’s team brought back many pieces from the championship run, but a 2-4 start led to some second-guessing and a players-only meeting.

“We had a player-only meeting and talked about how we were used to those guys last year take all the shots and stuff, but now it’s our turn. We have to bring every night in practice and not just in games. We’ve been showing that we can do that,” said Siegenthaler, a senior.

Sysko said that despite the underwhelming wins-and-losses through those first few weeks of the season, the Knights played some top competition. Monticello (19-1) has just one loss this season and is ranked fourth in Division 5, while Darlington (19-1) also has one loss and is fourth in Division 4. Evansville (11-8) is near the top of the Rock Valley Conference and Monroe (14-5) has breached the top-10 in D2. 

“We’ve been playing really well as of late. We started the season 2-4, but we also played some pretty darn good competition over that stretch with Monroe, Darlington and Mineral Point,” Sysko said. “I think it took a little while for guys to figure out roles on the team and what to do, and we’ve done that. Guys have bought in to where they are at and what they are doing. They’re believing in each other right now, which is really fun to see.”

After a loss to Mineral Point (10-9) in the eighth game of the season, the Knights strung off an 8-game winning streak, seven of which were in conference play. After a nonconference loss to Deerfield (12-9), the winning streak against Capitol South teams has reached nine, with victories over Belleville and now Marshall.

“That’s one of the goals you set out for at the beginning of the season,” Sysko said of being conference champions. “We had some adversity out there that we needed to fight through and found a way to get it done.”

After trailing Marshall 4-2 in the opening minutes, New Glarus went on a 19-3 run to take a 14-point lead. The offensive outburst had two key components — Knights players were making an extra pass to find a man open underneath, and Schuett caught fire from distance.

“I think we scored on 8 of 9 possessions there in that first half, and I think it was making that extra pass. One of the coaches said to the guys that we passed up good shots for great shots. We just shared the ball really well and found the open guys. It was fun basketball to watch,” Sysko said.

Schuett finished with 21 points, including 11 in the opening half on three 3-pointers and another backdoor cut to the hoop. Deven Vasquez scored on a key basket in the post, and he found Martinson down low for another.

Schuett, who brings a lot of flair to the court said he knew he was having a good night when he connected on a triple with 53 seconds left in the first half.

“When I hit the third one in (Craig) Ward’s mouth down in the corner, I was just feeling it,” Schuett said. “I just like to bring the energy and get everyone going."

New Glarus went into halftime with a 13-point lead at 30-17.

The second half was a different story, however. Marshall (13-7) started hitting some shots, with big man Reid Truschinski scoring 14 of his 17 points in the frame. The Knights also didn’t do themselves many favors, with sloppy turnovers on multiple occasions. 

Perhaps the biggest turning point came just after the clock went under 14 minutes. The Cardinals pressed following a cut to the hole by Ward, which capped an 8-2 Marshall run. Sysko attempted to call a timeout but was not noticed by any of the three officials as the Knights brought the ball up the full length of the court, and subsequently turned it over in front of the home bench. Truschinski scored in the post on a foul seconds later, and Martinson was given a technical foul for complaining about the no-call on the timeout.

Three minutes later, Siegenthaler hit a corner 3-pointer to extend the Knights’ lead back to eight, but another foul on defense led to a double bonus and Siegenthaler complaining about the officiating, which resulted in another technical foul. Of the seven free throws attempted between the two technicals and the bonus shots, Marshall hit just three, keeping New Glarus in front by two possessions each time.

“Marshall is a good team. They didn’t shoot the ball particularly well in the first half, but they played great defense and hit some shots — and made some adjustments — in the second half,” Sysko said. “They got Truschinski going to the basket in the second half, and he got to the line a lot — 13 times. That hurt, and obviously we didn’t do ourselves any favors with the two technicals, but we found a way to get over it and we’re putting ‘2020’ on the wall for conference championships.”

The Knights got back on track after the escapade, with Martinson and Schuett hitting key baskets and free throws, putting New Glarus back ahead by double digits at 51-40 with 4:39 left. But the lead still would not hold, as Marshall capped a 13-2 run on Truschinski’s put back off a rebound with 95 seconds to play to tie it up. That is, until Siegenthaler’s big shot.

“We definitely have to play smarter down the stretch. We had way too many fouls and a couple of technicals that really hurt us. We’ve got to be smarter finishing off the season and going into playoffs,” Siegenthaler said.

Ward led Marshall with 18 points. Schuett’s 21 paced New Glarus, with Martinson finishing with 12, Siegenthaler nine and Garrett James seven. The Knights hit eight 3-pointers.

The Knights have two conference games remaining — at Waterloo (7-12, 1-7) Feb. 21 and home against Cambridge (7-12, 2-6) Feb. 27. A nonconference home game against top-ranked and unbeaten Cuba City Feb. 24 could be a vision of what’s to come in the grueling subsectional the following week. Cuba City, Darlington, Mineral Point and Fennimore (15-5) are clustered together in the same subsectional.

“Our half sectional is loaded again this year. I think there are two teams with a losing record,” Sysko said. “You’ll have three teams that are conference champs; you’ve got Darlington in there with only one loss on the season, Fennimore is a great team, River Ridge is coming in as a conference champ — it’ll make for an interesting meeting on Sunday (Feb. 23), that’s for sure.”