I'm Phil Knee for WRCO Sports.
The Highland boys basketball team won for the 20th time on the season with an 89-55 win over Riverdale last night.
The Cardinals had to come back to win.
The Chieftains were leading 34-30 at halftime and were up 40-34 before Highland came storming back with a 13-0 run on the way to improving to 20-3 on the season.
Riverdale fell to 4-19.
West Cracinger led all scores with 30.
He made 12 of those points from the free throw line.
Michael Lesser had 19.
Kate and Washa 15.
Bennett Smith and Jack Terrell each had 10.
John Dreschmeyer had three.
Gavin Schemek added two.
The Cardinals made three three-point baskets and went 22 for 35 from the free throw line.
Riverdale was faced by Bevan Dennis with 21, Henry Drone scored 12, Owen Blankenship put in 11, Conlon Walsh scored 5, Enriel Gantula and Chase Chitwood each had 2 points.
The Chieftains made 5-3 pointers and they went 3-4-6 from the free throw line.
Riverdale won the JV game 37-30 over visiting Highland.
Following the 89-55 win, Highland will now prepare for the final regular season game with Belmont.
Riverdale has Darlington in the final game of the regular campaign also coming up on Thursday night.
The WIA tournament for boys basketball will begin next Tuesday night, March 4th.
Darlington was a winner over River Valley, 77-50 in Boy's Basketball.
Fenimore, 63, Wasika Stubin, 36.
Seneca beat Pecatonica, 86-40.
Royal, 52.
Hillsborough, 29.
Dodgeville, 75.
Cuba City, 67.
It was La Crosse Logan over Prairie Duchenne, 71-53.
Lancaster, 83.
Iowa Grant, 63.
Westby beat Kickapoo, 52-45.
Verroqua over to Soto, 57-52.
Nassida, 64-1-0 center, 53.
Bangor got the win against Cashton, 84-49.
Mineral point, 63.
Nuglaris, 43.
North Crawford was the winner against Black River Falls, 77-59.
Lakeside Lutheran got the win against Wisconsin Dells, 44-32, and Wisconsin Rapids over Tomah 66-53.
There's girls basketball tournament action tonight.
The opening night of the WIAA playoffs.
Dodgeville will be at River Valley.
With the winner to play at Prairie Duchenne on Friday night, Broadhead will host Richland Center with the winner to travel to Platteville on Friday night.
In Girls Basketball, it will be Parkview taking on Riverdale tonight.
That's a 9 versus 8 seed and Lancaster, a 5th seed will host number 12 Iowa Grant.
Westby will be at Darlington and Fenimore travels to Nouglaris.
In Division 5 Girls Openers, Kickapoo is home against Plum City Elmwood.
Brookwood is at Cochran Fountain City.
Hillsborough will host Royal.
LeFarge Youth Initiative travels to Aliva Strum.
Potosi Casville is at DeSoto, Black Hawk hosts Southwestern, Boscabella Belmont, Wozika Steuben hosts Seneca, River Ridge will entertain North Crawford.
Benton plays at Scholesburg, and the Ithaca Bulldogs, a seventh seed, will host number 10, Highland.
The Cardinals are coached by Josh Terrell.
Well, it's going to be a tight one, I think.
You know, Coach Klang does a good job with them down there, and they got some good senior leadership with
You know, they got Peterson in the post and that sophomore Maxwell also post player.
They're good players and they work hard.
And then you got 13 Kersner as a good outside shooter and another king.
They're 31.
They're senior point guard and they get after it.
So we better come to play or it's going to be short-lived tournaments.
David Klang, the coach of Ithaca, talked to me recently about the team's resume so far in the season.
I think our signature win was probably DeSoto.
That was nice.
We felt like we should have beat them there, and kind of same thing.
We had our opportunities, but just didn't kind of clutch up.
And then when we played them here, we kind of clutched up and realized, OK, this is how we do it, and this is what we need to do to win games like this.
And it kind of hopefully led us
know that we can do that one we need to and be super helpful and useful coming up in the playoffs.
Coach David Klang of Ithaca, the Bulldogs and Highland can be heard tonight pregame time around 6.40 on FM 100.9 and WRCO.com.
Some other highlights from last night in boys basketball by the way the score for Royal over Hillsborough 52-29 that means the Royal Panthers finished out the regular season at a perfect
24 and 0.
Boys basketball tonight, Poinet will be at Mauston.
It's also Weston taking on Wisconsin Heights at home and Portage plays at Richland Center, a game at the RCHS Fieldhouse, second to the last game of the regular season for the Hornets.
Major bowling league action tonight, series high, quail run golf links, a 34-43, New York life at a 33-52, and Cardinal CG,
3331.
Team Game Honors, Quail Run Golf Links, 1200-5, Frazier Home Improvement, 11-79, and Cardinal CG, an 11-78.
Top Series, Jake Morris, 92 over average with a 7-10.
Chase Keller had a 6-98.
Todd Gruber a 6-57.
High Game Honors, Chase Keller a 2-79.
Jake Morris a 2-56.
Kirk Bartow and Todd Gruber each had 2-37.
games in the major bowling league.
Guard John Tange has averaged almost 25 points per game for the Badgers.
Since January 21st, no Division I college basketball player is matching that pace.
He has a chance to become the first Wisconsin player to average over 20 points a game for the whole season.
in 30 years.
The Badgers are coming off tough loss to Oregon.
Game that Coach Guard says, they've got to put behind them.
It hasn't been already.
We've gone through the film.
But then you've got to flush it, right?
You can't dwell on it.
And we, as I said to the team, I said we didn't have a parade last week when we beat Purdue, right?
We're not going to have a funeral today when we're lost.
You have to keep it balanced.
And
coach
talked about dealing with a loss.
You can't choke on it, right?
And you can't just not pay attention to it, right?
We have to learn from it and understand how important being aggressive is for us.
We're really good when we're aggressive.
And for whatever reason, we didn't keep the throttle down like we should.
The Badgers get set to do battle tonight.
They'll look to their leadership against the Washington Huskies.
The Huskies are last in the Big 10 standings with a 4 and 12 conference mark, 13 and 14 overall.
Marquette is searching for its mojo after four losses in six games.
The Golden Eagles started the season 6-0 in the Big East, but now have split 10 games since then.
They host Providence at the Pfizer Forum, a team struggling even more.
The Friars have lost five of their last six games and are trying to bounce back from a disappointing 21-point loss to Georgetown.
Games yesterday in major college basketball, it was a low-scoring affair.
15 Michigan outlasted Nebraska 49-46.
The trade for Kyle Kuzma wasn't seen as much of a difference maker when the Bucks pulled it off, but he's had a noticeable impact.
His length, athleticism and motor are already showing results in the first seven games.
Players he has been defending are hitting less than 37% of their shots in those games and his work is getting even better.
27% in three games since the All-Star break.
He's still hasn't been a big factor on offense, but Coach Doc Rivers benefits by knowing he can replace any player on the court.
with kuzma at any position the bucks get ready to get back to action tonight with a game at houston and commenting yesterday on his break
Blake Perkins of the Brewers talked about his injury that he suffered in batting
practice.
He was injured while taking batting practice swings against pitcher Freddie Peralta.
The Brewers lost yesterday's game 12-8 to Seattle.
I'm Phil Knee with an update on sports.