DARLINGTON — For the first time in three years, Darlington is coming away with a season sweep against the Pointers thanks to a 55-46 win in which the Redbirds never trailed.

And #6 Darlington (15-2, 10-0 SWAL) was locked in from the tip. 

Zeke Zuberbuhler had the Redbirds’ basket on a jumper in the paint off a spin at the free throw line 30 seconds in. Broker Buschor then got the jump on a Mineral Point (13-4, 7-2) and took the ball to the hoop 20 seconds later.

Following a Pointers timeout to regroup, Buschor completed a 10-0 run with another steal-and-score four minutes into the night. 

“I loved the energy we came out with,” Darlington head coach Tom Uppena said. “The guys were fired up and wanted this one pretty badly after the last two years.”

Mineral Point finally got on the board in response to Buschor’s second score, and struggled to keep the gap at 10 points. The teams continued to trade blows, with the Redbirds climbing the lead to as much as a 14 points, though the Pointers reeled the game back to a 10-point differential with about three minutes on the clock. 

As Darlington looked on a 27-17 advantage with 2:00 on the clock, Buschor would contribute to his squad’s total once more. He came down with a defensive rebound and kicked a pass out to Marcus Kendall at midcourt, who had a clear line to the hoop. Kendall’s shot rimmed out, but Buschor was there for the putback. 

Mineral Point fired back with a three on the ensuing possession, but the Redbirds still entered the break on a 29-20 lead. 

Darlington didn’t score on the opening possession of the second period, but it did find the first basket of either team. Ryder Fitzsimons was left unguarded near the top of the key and Grady O’Brien found him for a 3-point kickstart to the Redbirds’ offensive engine.

As the Pointers maintained their scoring woes, the Redbirds pushed onward. The result — a 40-24 advantage less than five minutes off the clock. The ballplayer — if his name isn’t ingrained in your memory yet, you haven’t been paying attention — was Buschor. He took advantage of a defensive lapse in front of his own student section for a lightly-guarded three. 

Mineral Point’s coach had enough of his players’ performance, calling his team’s third timeout of the night.

The Pointers were methodical out of the break — outpacing the host squad 14-4 over the next nine minutes of play. 

Zuberbuhler then flashed his quarterback prowess, zipping the ball through a trio of defenders to Fitzsimons at the baseline, who made the easy shot in the paint.

The connection for a pair of points started off a 7-2 run that put enough of a gap between the squads that gave Darlington the advantage it needed to the final buzzer.

“I would’ve loved to see us keep [a big] lead the whole game and close it out sooner, but Mineral Point is a very good team that is well-coached, and they made it difficult on us,” Uppena said. “It’s good to have games like that to learn from though. We got some good film from it.”

Uppena also never was nervous if his team could handle the pressure that comes with facing a Pointers squad very recently familiar with trips to the Kohl Center.

“It definitely got a little tight at the end and we made a few mistakes, but we knocked some free throws down and did just enough,” Uppena said. “I have a lot of trust in our guys to be able to do what it takes to win. They are competitors.”

Surprisingly absent from any meaningful scoring for Mineral Point was its leading scorer, Drew Aschliman. The senior averaging almost 20 points per game was held to just five points on the night on a 2-of-11 effort. The Redbirds’ Dante Glendenning was the main reason for that scoring drought as he stuck to Aschliman like glue, providing press-like coverage any time the Pointers’ guard hit the court.

“Dante was incredible as usual,” Uppena said. “He’s such a good weapon to have. He may not get the glory, but what he does for our team doesn’t go unnoticed by people who know the game. In addition to Dante, the overall team defense was pretty solid. Holding them to 46 points isn’t an easy thing to do, especially without have Cagyn [Paisley] plus a bunch of other guys that missed school this week due to some sickness going around. They always buy into team defense, and then we got great contributions from Broker, Zeke, and Ryder on the offensive end.”

The former pair — Buschor and Zuberbuhler — led Darlington’s offense with 18 and 15 points, respective ly. Fitzsimons was close to double-digit scoring at nine points. Other high marks include 13 rebounds by Buschor for a double-double, along with a team-high five steals. Meanwhile, Zuberbuhler’s five assists led all players.

The Redbirds outpaced their conference rival in almost every stat category, including total made shots and free throws (28-22), rebounds (42-21), assists (9-5), blocks (6-4), while committing fewer penalties (14-12). 

The win against Mineral Point followed a 60-42 win at Fennimore three nights prior. Darlington cleared the opening half with a 10-point advantage, 33-23, and didn’t let its foot off the throttle to the end of the night.

“I thought against Fennimore we executed better on the offensive end than the last time we played them just a week prior,” Uppena said. “We are seeing a lot of zone from teams now to try to slow us down, so we’ve been working on attacking zones better.”

The Redbirds shot better inside the arc, making one more 2-pointer (16) with seven less shots (26). They were also accurate from the charity stripe at 10-of-14 at the Golden Eagles (9-10, 4-6).

“While we didn’t score our season average, our offensive efficiency was right on par for the rest of the year, and that’s more important,” Uppena said. “We will continue to see some zone and we’ll continue to get better attacking it.”

Buschor’s (16 pts) and Zuberbuhler’s (14 pts) names topped the scoring charts, with O’Brien (12 pts) also in double figures. Fitzsimons followed with nine points. O’Brien led supporting stats with eight rebounds, five assists, and four steals — all game-highs.