DARLINGTON — At this point of the season, all you need to do is survive and advance.
The No. 2-seeded Darlington Redbirds (22-2 overall) did just that to open the 2020 WIAA Division 4 boys’ basketball playoffs as they held off the seventh-seeded Belleville Wildcats, 68-55, in a regional semifinal showdown at Darlington High School March 6, and then rallied past the No. 6-seed River Ridge Timberwolves, 59-52, in a regional championship clash back at home the next day to capture the regional title.
“I’m very proud of our team for winning the regional championship after falling short last year. Hopefully, we can keep it going,” said Darlington head coach Tom Uppena.
Sixth-ranked Darlington moves on to sectionals for the first time since their state runner-up finish in 2017. The Redbirds will meet up with top-ranked and No. 1-seeded Cuba City (24-0) in a D4 WIAA sectional semifinal game at 7 p.m. March 12 at Mineral Point High School.
“To beat Cuba, it will take a strong team effort from everyone. They don’t have a lot of weaknesses, so we need to play our very best in every facet of the game,” Uppena said.
The Redbirds fell to the Cubans twice during the regular season.
Thursday’s winner advances to the sectional championship game against the winner of the other sectional semifinal contest between Palmyra-Eagle (21-3) and Markesan (19-5) at 7 p.m. March 14 at Middleton High School. Saturday’s winner moves on to the 2020 WIAA D4 State Tournament at the Kohl Center in Madison on March 19-21.
After fighting off a second-half surge by Belleville (16-8) on Friday night to advance to Saturday’s regional finale, the ‘Birds needed a second-half rally of their own to get by the Six Rivers West champion Timberwolves (20-5).
Darlington used an 8-5 run at the end of the first half to trim a four-point deficit down to one at the half at 25-24, and the Redbirds outscored the T’Wolves, 35-27, in the second half to complete the rally. The ‘Birds went 12-of-16 from the free throw line in the second half to secure the victory.
“The win over River Ridge was definitely a defensive battle. We struggled to get good looks against their zone and didn’t shoot well from outside,” Uppena said. “Our 1-3-1 (zone defense) gave them some trouble (in the second half) and we were able to use it to generate some offense. We made our free throws when it mattered and were able to hold on against a good River Ridge team for the win.”
Junior forward Carter Lancaster scored 14 points in the first half to help keep the ‘Birds in the game, and then added another 13 points in the second half to command the comeback. He finished with a game-high 27 points, including a 7-of-13 effort from the foul stripe.
Darlington junior Cayden Rankin added seven of his 11 points in the second half, and fellow junior Curtis Stone chipped in with eight of his nine points in that same half while finishing 7-of-8 at the line.
Senior Cole Crubel poured in 19 points and sophomore David Neis followed with 15 for the T’Wolves, who knocked off 11th-seeded Wisconsin Heights, 56-48, on Tuesday night, and then defeated third-seeded Mineral Point, 64-57, on Friday to make their first regional final appearance since 2006.
Against Belleville in Friday’s regional semifinal affair, the Redbirds ended the game with a 29-16 scoring run, hitting eight of the 12 free throw attempts over the final three minutes of play to put down a hard-charging Wildcats’ squad.
Darlington scored the first eight points of the game and eventually built up a 27-16 advantage by the intermission.
The Wildcats came out firing in the second half, getting four 3-pointers from senior Kody Fahey, two more 3s from sophomore Trevor Syse and another trey from sophomore Carson Syse to pull even with the ‘Birds at 39 all with 10:46 remaining.
The ‘Cats sank 10 of their 12 3-pointers in the second half.
Senior Ross Stauffacher put Darlington ahead to stay with a basket at the 10:22 mark, which sparked a 15-5 run that put the ‘Birds back up by double digits.
Belleville never got closer than six the rest of way, but Darlington was able to put the game away from the foul line down the stretch.
“The Belleville game was definitely not an easy one. They got hot in the second half from 3-point range to get it close. We kept going inside and getting to the free throw line and it was enough to build the lead back up,” said Uppena.
Lancaster matched his career-high by leading all scorers with 28 points. Rankin netted 15 points, while Stauffacher and sophomore Hunter Hardyman came off the bench to provide nine and seven points, respectively, for the ‘Birds, who finished 22-of-33 from the foul line in the game.
Carson Syse led the Wildcats with 17 points and Trevor Syse and Kody Fahey added 12 points apiece. Junior Sawyer Fahey and senior Brody Duerst each scored six points for Belleville, who opened the playoffs with a 62-47 win over Necedah on Tuesday.
