Red Raiders take advantage of short-handed East
It was a typical Brookfield East-Wauwatosa East boys basketball game. Knockdown, drag ‘em, defensive battle, not pretty to watch.
In the end Tosa East came alive on the boards and used a 16-2 run in the third and fourth period to rally for a 41-36 victory at home.
The Spartans, who are playing without star guard/forward Brian Smith (ankle) and post Mike Nowak (elbow), lost point guard Ryan McBride with 5 minutes, 32 seconds left in the third quarter. The gutsy McBride returned with 2:45 left in the period after having his leg worked on.
Then to make matters worse, Jake Wiesmueller, East’s top 3-point shooter, and 6-foot-7 inch Jonathan McGinley, spent the night running in and out of the lineup in foul trouble.
“It was a game of runs,” Spartans coach Matt Malett said. “You try to minimize theirs and maximize ours and they got us when it counted. We’re hobbled, but nobody feels sorry for us. The Greater Metro Conference isn’t going to feel bad for us. They are going to try to go for the jugular when they can.
“We scrapped, but we had 14 offensive rebounds given up. That’s not going to win in this conference.”
The Tosa East big men took over in the second half, Derrick Hurt on the boards and Ben Mihelich and Kyle Vnuk in the scoring column and it was too much for the Spartans to overcome.
With the Spartans leading 26-18 with 5:24 left in the third quarter, Vnuk hit a 3-pointer, Hurt drop in 1-of-2 free throws and Vnuk and Mihelich scored before Brookfield East’s Steven Tongas scored on a beautiful reverse layup to make it 28-26 after three.
But the Red Raiders weren’t through, as Mihelich opened the final period with a basket and a free throws, Hurt but in a rebound and Ben Carpenter nailed a 3-pointer to end the 16-2 run and put Tosa East up, 34-28,
A steal and a basket and a free throws by Wiesmueller and two free throws by McBride cut the lead to 36-33 with 35 seconds left before the game turned into a free-throw contest in the final 30 seconds.
“We knew it was going to be a battle,” Tosa East coach Tim Arndorfer said. “It always is with Brookfield East. Even with a limited roster, Matt has them playing fundamentally well; smart basketball. We were pretty flat in the first half, especially on offense. At halftime we said our defense has to help our offense, which I think it did in the second half.”
The Red Raiders pressure defense in their big run took advantage on the short-handed Spartans.
“With a limited bench you’re going to wear down," Arndorfer said. "We wanted to come out endline to endline in the second half, hopefully wear them down, cut the lead and then see what happens in the fourth.”
Mihelich led all scorers with 15 points while Wiesmueller had 13 in limited minutes.
But the big story in the game was McBride, who played most of the game on one leg.
“He’s a senior that wants it badly,” Malett said. “He’s one of the toughest kids around. No one can question his toughness. I applaud him for his effort tonight. So much of our offense is dependent on him. When he’s hobbled and the other team sees that they try to exploit that a little bit.”
Arndorfer also praised the Spartans senior point guard.
“What impresses me most is he’s always in control,” he said. “He never forces anything. He’s a true team player. I think he’s a guy who makes everyone else on his team better. Those are hard guys to find.
“And the great performance he put on especially after going down with that ankle, says something about his heart. He’s a special player.”
Brookfield Central takes seat at GMC table
The Brookfield Central girls basketball team started Friday night’s Greater Metro Conference opener with a three-pointer, and it was a sign of things to come in the Lancers’ 51-42 victory over Menomonee Falls.
Sophomore guard Emma Brauer gave the Lancers an early 3-0 lead over the visiting Indians, and junior guard and captain Lydia Rohde followed with four first-half triples to give the Lancers a 26-19 halftime lead.
“Lydia is a big, strong athletic kid with a great stroke,” Brookfield Central head coach Dan Wandrey said. “She’s such an unselfish player that sometimes it’s hard to get her to be that assertive offensively. But you saw what she can do.”
The Indians remained competitive, pulling within four in the second half, but the Lancers remained in control and held a lead that grew as large as 11 on the night. A competitive contest was expected after the teams finished third and fourth in the conference last season and split their head-to-head matchups.
“We had a slow start, but we fought hard and got back, we got it into within four,” Menomonee Falls head coach Craig Amundson said. “We threw every defense we had them. Rohde was pretty good tonight.”
At several moments in the second half, the Indians appeared ready to make a run, but turnovers or big plays on Central’s side stymied their rallies.
“We fought really hard,” Amundson said. “That’s why we really weren’t terribly disappointed with the effort. It’s not like our kids weren’t trying. We worked really hard right until the end. But the feeling I got was, we just couldn’t get over that hump.”
Wandrey offered a similar analysis.
“I’m kind of a doomsday guy,” he said. “It felt like it was at 42-38 for a really long time, and they just couldn’t get over that hump. I was thinking if they make a couple of plays, we could be in trouble, but our kids were on the floor, we were diving, and we just made the difference in hustle points.”
The Lancers, who improved to 3-1 overall and 1-0 in the Greater Metro, visit Slinger for their first road test of the season on Tuesday night, while the Indians (2-2, 0-1) will try to bounce back at Wauwatosa East.
Looking ahead, Amundson said it wouldn’t get any easier for the Indians.
“This is the toughest schedule I’ve had in my 16 years as the varsity coach, and that includes conference and our non-conference schedule,” he said. “Brookfield Central is good. There’s never going to be an easy game all year. If we look too far ahead in the schedule, you might get a stomachache. All we can do is focus on our mistakes and try to correct them in practice and work on improving. And we have been improving.”
Wandrey said the conference opener was a statement game for the Lancers and singled out the play of Rohde, who finished with 21 points, and junior forward Jasmine Lewis, who helped defend the Indians senior standout center Erin Crownover on the interior.
“We have sometimes struggled over the last few years with our consistency and intensity, and I don’t think we had that at all tonight. Jasmine is great. She’s an undersized inside player, maybe a slow-footed outside player, but whatever deficiencies she has, she makes up for it in hustle.”
Wandrey added a quality win early in the season could provide a boost of confidence for a team still trying to find itself.
“Last year there was this separation in our league and we were right in the middle,” he said. “We didn’t compete with the top teams; we just handled the weaker ones. We’ve been talking about our identity, and I think this tells us we can compete with those teams at the top of the conference.”
Failure to buckle prisoner in nets officer 4-day suspension
The Brookfield Fire and Police Commission voted, 4-1, today to uphold a four-day suspension of an officer who failed to properly buckle a prisoner in a seatbelt in her squad car.
Andrew D. Schauer, attorney from Wisconsin Professional Police Association, said his client, officer Sarah Mork, will serve the suspension and is looking forward to moving on.
"Sarah and the association are disappointed with the commission's decision, but we fully respect the decision. It will be carried out as the commission orders, and Sarah looks forward to returning back to work, ready to serve and protect the citizens of Brookfield," Schauer said after the ruling. "The statutes provide for a circuit court appeal, which we will not be doing."
Chief Daniel Tushaus filed charges against Mork alleging she had engaged in "serious acts of misconduct warranting disciplinary action" earlier this year. She appealed, and the case was heard this week.
Packers' A.J. Hawk to sign autographs in Brookfield
Green Bay Packers linebacker A.J. Hawk will sign autographs at the grand opening celebration of ATI Physical Therapy in Brookfield, located at 17500 W. Bluemound Road, Suite B, Dec. 11.
The celebration will kick off with a broadcast of ESPN Radio's Homer and Thunder show live from the clinic from 2:30 to 5 p.m. A.J. Hawk will be available for autographs from 4:30 to 6 p.m.
ATI, the Official Physical Therapy Provider of the Milwaukee Bucks and Brewers, is a provider of physical therapy and sports medicine services. ATI has 16 locations in Southeastern Wisconsin and more than 200 locations nationwide.
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