I'm Phil Ney with Look at Sports on WRC.
The River Valley girls basketball team won a second game of the week with Thursday nights
69-39 win against visiting Potosi Castville.
The Black Hawks led by 11 and a half time and continued in the second half with an aggressive defense
that led to lots of steals and fast break baskets.
Four players scored in double figures and a fifth player added nine.
The River Valley also was 15-21 from the free throw line, which helped build a 30-point lead at the end of the night.
The Black Hawks scoring was led by Brooklyn Stokes with 12, Brooklyn White and Bella Davini,
each at 11, Ella Myers total 10, and freshman Rosie Spawn added nine.
Others scoring came from Kalea Blakely with seven, Heidi Hegglin put in four,
Elisabeth Kastomsky had a three-pointer and Hannah Birchfield scored a two-point basket.
Potosi Castville is now one and one on the season after the loss.
They were led in scoring by Lily Cooley with 15 and Emma Oppenah scored 13.
The team was 11-4-20 from the free throw line.
Following the 69-39 win, River Valley will now prepare for a trip to Argyle to play peccatonica Argyle on Tuesday night.
Potosi Castville will not play again until December 2nd when they take on Highland.
Others scores from last night in girls basketball.
Hillsborough is a winner against Weston, Ithaca 71-35.
Riverdale is a winner over Seneca, improving a 2-0 on the season, 45-24.
Riverdale led at halftime 28-8 and never looked back.
The lady chieftains had a balanced attack on the evening by Bailey Harris and Macy McCay's 10 points of peace.
Ali Goblin and Josie Adams each had two-three pointers finishing with six points of peace,
along with sophomore Kate Meese's six points.
Ava Kratzenberg had five points and senior Megan Krill's two points,
wrapped up the scoring for the lady chieftains.
He'll be back in action Monday heading to the five serve forum with a conference matchup with Boscabel
before hitting the road to North Crawford Tuesday in a matchup with the Trojans.
That's where in girls basketball, Phenomore 50, Belmont 32, Dodgeville edged Evansville 58-56,
Platteville over middle 0.63-51.
Lancaster 51 was Zika Stuban 39, Wanywalk Center Beat LaFarge 55-38, Royal 51, and Verokwa 41.
Brookwood 48-29 over North Crawford, Riverage 46 to Soto 36, Wisconsin Heightspeed Judah 43-35.
It was Lakeside Lutheran over Mount Horob 53-49, Belleville 57, Barnabelle 49,
and Wisconsin Rapids Lincoln over Toma 55-42.
There is girls basketball this evening.
Games include Benton and Boscabel.
Shoesberg playing at Kikapoo, Cubicity playing Fox Valley Lutheran today.
And Richland Center is Ed Westby.
We'll have it for you tonight on WRC Radio.
Here is Coach Jeremy Kui of the Hornets.
Well, I mean, we did play him twice last year.
I had a close one in the holiday tournament that went into overtime.
And then when we played him at home last year, they got hit in three.
So I know they graduated one of their better guards.
And, you know, we'll kind of see what they bring in.
And we'll adjust accordingly as the game hits.
The tough thing with these early games is there's not a lot of scouting to be had yet.
So we just kind of have to come in and be planned for whether they're going to go man whether they're going to go zone.
You know, they did a little folk or man press on us or pressure, I should say.
So we'll just adapt and be prepared for what they're going to throw at us.
And we'll adjust accordingly into the game.
Here the game tonight on WRC.
FM 100.9 and WRC.com Richland Center at Westby.
That will begin with the pregame time around seven o'clock.
Also, we have some bowling scores to recap from yesterday.
First of all, in the All Star League, it was Jones Collision Center with a 2850 Midnight Repair and Fabrication at 2815 Pioneer Print Company at 2798.
Top game, Jones Chevrolet at 1016.
Jones Collision Center 1015 Midnight Repair and Fabrication at 992.
Top series, Jason Gerner, 136 over average with a 748.
Chris Gerber, 105 over average with a 720.
And Brady Blato, 138 over average with a 699.
Top game, Chris Gerber, a 279.
Pat Parr, a 266.
Jason Gerner, 255.
Pat Parr, a 658 series, 139 over average.
Ethan Haffner with a 669, 129 over average.
And Rich McConkey with a 434, 94 over average in the All Star bowling league.
Yesterday at the WIAA State Football Championships, Kenosha St. Joseph Catholic was a winner 3519 over Cochrane Fountain City.
Darlington with its first state football championships since 1995 got a win against Edgar 4218.
That won Division 6, Division 5, Mayville 4232 over Northwestern and Winneccony 28-22 over little shoot in Division 4.
Now we profile today's games and joining us on the line from Bound Wisconsin, Travis Wilson.
Travis, I'm guessing that nerves might play a little bit of a factor for you as we join you.
Looking at Readsburg and Grafton this morning at 10.
You have to be nervous a little bit, right?
It's a big opportunity, a big stage, a big task, but just as much excited as nervous.
Tell us about the game last week, what put Readsburg over the top?
Well, we got 30 to nothing at halftime and it was not cruise control from there.
There's a little bit of nervousness in the second half, but ultimately pull it out 43 to 20.
Having Wilma Conowicz is just a difference maker.
He's the running back senior running back for us and actually played quarterback for us the last couple of years.
We moved him there and we fired after starting running back who we thought was an all-state caliber type kid got hurt and went out for the year.
Wilma running back and he has really taken off since then means something special.
There's a reason that Wisconsin just offered him a preferred walk on and he made his mother do you want attention?
So having him really helps and makes up for some things.
We didn't even feel like we played all that well against Whitefish Bay last week in the state semi-final.
But we put up 30 in the first half.
We scored 43 in the game, which was the most of any team in the state.
And we did enough things right and again having Wil really makes things a lot easier.
Well I know that a lot of people are rooting for you.
I'm sure that the outpouring of support has been great.
There are some ties to Southwest Wisconsin.
You have a former Riverdale graduate on staff, don't you?
Yeah, Matt Galkamp is one of the defensive assistants.
He was a long time assistant at Leedsburg with a defensive coordinator on the team that went to state in 08 and then 1809.
He stepped down along with a number of the other coaches after 2019.
But Matt and some of the other coaches, including Brian Pottenger, who was the head coach back during that time,
have come back and are helping out in the system.
So glad to have him and Quint Byer as well.
He's been in Southwest Wisconsin for a long time.
Coach at Leedsburg, I think he was maybe a year or two at Weston at some point.
But yeah, it's excited to represent Southwest Wisconsin in Richland Center.
And it's certainly gotten a lot of great messages and support from people back home that have been watching and following along.
And excited to be able to show that this weekend.
What about Grafton? Let's take a look at the scouting report.
Well they're a really good strong fundamental football team.
Very athletic group.
They're not overly huge in terms of size, but they're strong and physical.
And aggressive up and down the board on the line on both sides.
And I have some really good athletes behind that.
So there's a reason they're undefeated and have beaten many of the top teams in Division 3 already.
They beat Monthorab and a non-conference game.
They beat Port Washington non-conference.
They beat an undefeated port watch.
Excuse me, Plymouth team earlier in the playoffs and then took down Captain Memorial last week.
That was kind of a wild game actually.
And down 28 to 7 in the fourth quarter and came back and were able to tie it up.
And then it went into overtime and they ended up winning with a touchdown in overtime.
But just the team that is really well coached, really well disciplined, strong and athletic and aggressive.
And we'll certainly present a lot of challenges.
Is it my imagination? Is there a whole helping of teams that are 13 and 0?
I don't know if that's a record or not.
There are a lot of undefeated, aren't there?
Many of the 14 teams are undefeated.
I haven't gone back and charted it to see what the record is or the record percentage anyways.
That's certainly more than normal, I think.
There's been years that there's been a lot of undefeated teams.
Reevesburg is, I guess, the Cinderella, if you will.
We have the most losses with three with the lowest seeded team as a four seed.
Everybody else is one of those either ones and twos or Bayport is a three seed.
But they're also defending champions in division one.
So yeah, a lot of the top teams have made it through.
And I think that is partially a result of the new football matrix that was put into place this year,
which one of the goals I'm about was to get the best teams, you know, the farthest in the playoffs,
give the chance of the best teams leading deeper into the postseason.
And again, that's what we're seeing.
Is Reevesburg an example of a team that is really steadily improved, you know, peaking at the right time or how do you look at it?
Yeah, I think we're definitely playing our best football here during this postseason stretch, especially on defense.
Even in our losses earlier this year, we were able to put up points and move the football and do some good things.
And it really gotten some things straight and out on defense.
You know, we've got the three losses, but we feel like we should have won every one of them.
They were combined three losses by combined 14 points, two of them and over time.
We've had a lead in the second half and at least two of those games and just shot ourselves in the foot too many times
and weren't able to finish those out.
Again, we felt like we should have won, felt like we, you know, should have been the best team in the conference
and we didn't earn it on the field, but that certainly flipped here in the playoffs.
What about game number two today, division two, Notre Dame and West appear.
How do you see that?
That is for entertainment value.
If you're only able to watch one game besides the Reevesburg game, which of course everybody's going to tune into, that's really one of the ones to keep an eye on.
The whole players of the year in the state of Wisconsin are going to show down, match up in that one.
West appear quarterback Patrick Greisen, set a record with 100 career touchdown passes.
Just an incredible player, two time off state player.
On the other side, Kingston, Alan of Notre Dame, he's sitting at 3200 Russian yards, which is second in state history and has a chance.
If he puts up another huge game to break the all time rushing record.
55 Russian touchdowns.
So two of the best players, really exciting offenses that are going to put up a lot of points.
They'll do it in different ways.
West appear likes to throw the ball quite a bit.
I mean, they can run it.
They're running back, Ryan Lodge at 1800 yards.
But much more of a passing team. Notre Dame is going to be grinded out, run the football.
Kingston, Alan's going to look to hit some big plays in the run game.
They might, you know, in a good game, they might throw it five or six times.
So a little bit of contrast in styles, but the entertainment value is huge.
And Arrowhead and Bayport for division one today at four. How do you see that one?
Hard to believe this is the first state finals appearance for Arrowhead in 10 years.
That's a program that's always up at the top and has loads of talent and has had loads of talent over the last few seasons.
But have it quite been able to get the job done.
But against a very tough schedule this year, they've gotten through playing in the classic eight conference.
And then went through a challenge and schedule in the playoffs that deep won a key last week on a late field goal.
So they're back at it.
Again, one of the powerhouse programs in the state of Wisconsin.
And then on the other side, you've got Bayport to defend and champion and be wanting.
And really, they're running the postseason.
It's been very similar to what we saw last year, where they had a loss early on in the non-conference.
They also shoot out to West DeKir.
Maybe flew a little bit under the radar as a result.
You've got a 3-C, but went through a really daunting schedule of their own.
They'd be previously undefeated Franklin in level three.
Then took down Lestido in level season last week in a state title game rematch.
So looking very similar to last year and having some very similar players from last year.
Matt Stevens with the quarterback last year, he's having a huge senior season.
Brady Moon had a big game in the state championship last year.
And he's back at running back for the pirates.
So yeah, that's a look like a Titanic matchup in D1.
It looks to me like there aren't as many private schools in the Seven Division Finals.
Is that my imagination or is that true?
There's maybe a few less than we normally see.
I don't think there's anything necessarily contributing to that other than just how it's cycled this year.
Of course, as we're talking, you know, she said Joseph did when a state title in Division 7,
which will certainly speak a lot of interest.
And we'll result in some interesting comments on Facebook news articles and things like that.
But overall, just two private schools at state this year, you know, she said Joe is in Division 7.
And then Notre Dame in Division 2.
Well, I know it's got to be an exciting time not only for the community, but for you as a dad.
You got a couple of players there and you get to be on the sidelines there.
How thrilling is that, Travis?
You know, it's been a pretty amazing last few weeks and last week to deal with experiences with my kids.
My son, Brett, his senior starts at Titanic.
You know, I've coached him in that group that senior groups since they were in third grade football.
I was their head coach all the way through youth and of course in the last few years at the high school.
And it's been a pretty amazing experience.
And my son, Brett, is a freshman and has been able to suit up with the varsity along with a number of other freshmen.
So having them both as part of it and being able to go through it with the kids that I've been with for a long time has been pretty amazing.
We talked about it in our coaching staff.
There's not many days that have been able to be, you know, what we're going to experience tomorrow or even what we experienced last Friday night when we want to stay semi-final to advance to state, getting married, having kids.
And there's not many days beyond that that are much better.
Yeah. And you know that it's going to be your last game.
You know, there's always that that shock when you lose in the tournament, but this one is the very final game so you prepare for it, don't you?
Yeah, it's been interesting in the last couple of weeks knowing that, you know, it's just the end before not only the season, but also for Brett's playing career and my experience working with him as a coach.
In just in general, I mean, I understand now what my parents went through and what so many parents go through as parents and you know, support parents.
Being a parent of a senior athlete is terrifying.
Just wondering and hoping that it's going to go well for them, being worried about injuries.
My son had a couple injury issues this year at a back injury before the season started that we were concerned if it was going to keep them out for an extended period.
Thankfully, he made it back for the start of the year and then I did miss two games late in the season with a knee injury that we kind of feared could be an ACL, but turned out not to be so.
It's, you know, it's a very scary process to go through a lot of times, but so enjoyable and rewards in a payoff or so much that it's all worth it.
Well, congratulations on what's happened so far and we'll be rooting for you today, my friend. Thank you so much for joining us this year.
Sounds good. Thanks so.
Travis Wilson from Bound, Wisconsin, well, Wisconsin men's basketball team puts an unbeaten record on the line in today's non conference game at BYU.
It's an afternoon game today on WRC E FM 107.7 and AM 14 50 tip off is set for 3 p.m.
The Bucks, third straight defeat came in overtime last night against the 76ers 123, 114.
The Bucks will try to get back on the winning track when the Piston's visit Pfizer forum this weekend.
And the Badger football team will try to take down a ranked team for the second time this season when Illinois arrives at Camp Randall Stadium.
Some are calling this game the Brett Belima bowl because the coach of the Eli and I previously coached at Wisconsin Yahoo sports reports.
The Badgers are a nine and a half point underdog for the game that has a 6 30 p.m. kickoff time tomorrow night.
Houston's dominant defense sack Josh Allen eight times and it was a win last evening for the Texans 23 19 over the bills.
I am Phil Ney with an update on sports.