SOUTH WAYNE — If Pecatonica, seeded sixth, was going to knock off third-seeded Black Hawk in the opening round of the WIAA Division 5 boys basketball playoffs, the Vikings needed to bring their A game — and hope that Black Hawk was a B- at best.
Instead, the Warriors came out with an at-minimum A- game, and the Vikings? Well, closer to a C.
Final score: Black Hawk 65, Pecatonica 39.
“They drilled us, there’s no doubt about it,” Vikings coach Matt Fink said after the game. “The two or three things that we knew we had to do — we had to rebound, we had to limit them to one shot, and we had to match their physicality — and I don’t think we could have checked off any of those boxes tonight. So, credit to them (Black Hawk). Like I said, they drilled us.”
They drilled us, there’s no doubt about it. The two or three things that we knew we had to do — we had to rebound, we had to limit them to one shot, and we had to match their physicality — and I don’t think we could have checked off any of those boxes tonight. So, credit to them (Black Hawk). Like I said, they drilled us.Matt Fink, Pecatonica coach
The Warriors (8-8) followed the leadership of senior Clayton Stietz, who scored the team’s first 10 points in staking out a 10-6 advantage.
“Clayton usually is the one who brings it out for us. He’s the one who gets the team pumped up a lot of times, which is huge for us to have somebody to do that,” Black Hawk coach Trent Wyssbrod said.
Stietz went on to grab 5 rebounds, 3 steals and block a shot before picking up his second foul and sitting the final 7:10 of the half. By then, the rest of the Warriors had stepped up on both ends of the court, and his team led 24-10. In fact, Black Hawk was in the middle of a 22-4 run that put the home squad ahead 30-10 with 5 minutes to play to intermission. By halftime, the Warriors held a 37-19 advantage.
“I’m happy with the way our defense has been playing,” Wyssbrod said. “You know, even before having two weeks off, I didn’t think we were the team that was getting the loose balls, and now it seems like we are. I think it’s just the fight and the kids realizing that they could be done for good. They are really fighting hard for every loose ball.”
Black Hawk came into the game still trying to get its legs back after a COVID-19 pause late in the season.
“I don’t know if they needed to get their legs back under them or what, but they seem like they’re a lot faster and getting after loose balls and getting rebounds now. Before the break it seemed like we’re maybe just getting a little bit tired, so it’s nice to see,” Wyssbrod said.
The opening minutes of the second half were just as unkind to the Vikings, as Black Hawk extended its lead to 25 points at 46-21 in just the first four minutes. In that same short stretch, Pecatonica sophomore Coy Ruegsegger picked up his third and fourth fouls, essentially sitting him for a large portion of pivotal minutes early in the second half.
“It’s not so much the points that Coy scores, its if he can neutralize Thatcher a little bit, because Thatcher is a high-volume shooter for a big kid. If he catches it, he’s usually going to get a shot — and he’s a gifted enough shooter from 15 feet that you have to contest him a little bit,” Fink said. “(Coy’s fouls) hurt, because then you’re significantly undersized at that point. We have some athleticism, but we’re just a little bit undersized.”
Pecatonica eventual, slowly, brought the deficit to within 16 with 8:41 to play, but the Warriors turned up the heat and spun off a 10-0 run to squash any thoughts of Vikings fans looking to quote LL Cool J in a tweet: “Don’t call it a comeback.”
The Warriors finished with four players in double figures — Thatcher Schliem had 16, Clayton Stietz and Lucas Milz each had 12, and Jexen Stietz added 11. Hunter Enloe led Pecatonica with 14, followed by Kegun Brunker with 9.
I don’t know if they needed to get their legs back under them or what, but they seem like they’re a lot faster and getting after loose balls and getting rebounds now. Before the break it seemed like we’re maybe just getting a little bit tired, so it’s nice to see.Trent Wyssbrod, Black Hawk coach
The Warriors were slated to play at Benton Feb. 19 in a regional semifinal, with the regional championship the next night against either top-seeded Shullsburg, or fourth-seeded Belmont. Wyssbrod said his team should have another good showing so long as they put together two solid halves of play.
“We’ve struggled with that this year and it’s something that we need to start doing here at the end of the year,” Wyssbrod said.
Fink couldn’t help but look forward. He knew entering this season his team would be young — there are four freshmen on the varsity squad, and only one player, Enloe, had a large amount of varsity minutes in previous years. But the COVID-19 pandemic kept the team from competing in summer leagues and contact days during the offseason, and the team only recently started to gel on the court — in fact, the Vikings lost their first 10 games of the season before riding a 4-game winning streak into the postseason.
“I think we salvaged some good feelings and good energies at the end of the year by being able to figure out a way to win some games,” Fink said. “I think that’ll carry over, and you can tell on the looks of guys faces in the locker room that I think we get a resemblance of a normal summer where we can have leagues and our open gyms and fundamental nights, I think we can get this thing back on track.”
