Brookfield Central, Diciaula making their points
Diciaula, lineup changes key two Lancers wins
Brookfield Central's Alex Diciaula shoots over Hamilton's Brian Gryszkiewicz during the first half Feb. 4 at Hamilton. Photo By PETER ZUZGA
Brookfield Central senior guard Alex Diciaula's farewell tour took a turn for the better last week, and coach Mark Adams made his point about practicing hard.
As a result, the Lancers went 2-0 with wins over West Allis Hale on Feb. 2 and Hamilton at Sussex on Feb. 4, improving to 5-6 in the Greater Metro Conference and 9-9 overall. The Hale Huskies fell to 0-10 and 0-17, while the Chargers fell to 7-4 and 11-7.
The Lancers will take on Brookfield East at home Friday and then travel to Monona Grove for a game Saturday; both start at 7:30 p.m.
Being sole senior tough
Diciaula had a huge week, scoring 56 points, including a career-high 30 Thursday in the upset win over the Chargers. This is the senior's final time through the conference, and he wants it to be something special.
"It's kind of emotional for me," he said. "Looking back, it's the last time I'm ever going to do this - the last time playing these teams. It's tougher for me being the only senior; I have no one to really share it with. I'm kind of by myself.
"No one really understands what I'm going through. They still have one more year, two more years. I'm just trying to stay focused and stay in the moment, relaxed. That's been my theme the last week or so, and it's paid off for me rather well."
In the game against Hamilton, the Lancers led 26-19 at halftime, as Diciaula had 11 first-half points. Nine of those were made in the second quarter. Central expanded its lead to 43-32 after three quarters, as Diciaula scored 11 of his team's 17 points in the quarter. He then closed out the game with an eight-point final period. He hit 10 of 13 shots (.769 shooting percentage) from the field.
"It's my role to step up in tough situations," he said. "This is the first time we beat a tough team, and a team who beat us last time - it was really a tough loss (55-53), like three seconds left on the clock.
"It really meant a lot to us to get off to a good start and keep the energy up. It seemed like every quarter we picked it up even more and more. We kept feeding off each other and we played great defense and they were really frustrated. We really did what we wanted tonight."
Coach makes big play
After second-place Marquette beat the Lancers, 61-50, Jan. 29, coach Adams told his team that the players who practice hardest will start. Central has had trouble practicing hard all season.
So 6-foot-5 sophomore forward Seth Mortag and 6-4 junior forward Jacob Mahkorn stepped into the starting lineup against Hale, and Central responded with an impressive win.
"So I started Mahkorn and Mortag because they had good practices and Mahkorn was blocking out anything that was moving," Adams said. "Practice picked up pretty well yesterday, but I wasn't going to change the lineup (for Hamilton) because those guys (Mahkorn/Mortag) did what they were supposed to."
Nevan Lewis, one of the players who lost his starting job, played well coming off the bench in both games. He scored eight points and rebounded well against Hale and hit six of seven shots and scored 13 points against Hamilton.
"Nevan in the last two games has had some bust-outs," Adams said, noting how quickly he got down the court.
The coach also was thrilled with point guard Alex Olson, who didn't score a point but finally played outstanding defense.
"His decision-making was outstanding," he said. "Our problem with Alex Olson is he hasn't learned that a good point guard has to play both ends of the floor. He's played the offensive end, better and better each time out, but not the defensive end. Tonight he was really good. He doesn't care whether he has 11 assists or 11 points, but he has to deliver the ball for those other guys to score. It's all the same to him."
LANCERS 71, HALE 62
Feb. 2 at Central
Brookfield Central beat West Allis Hale in a high-scoring affair, pulling away in the final quarter. The Lancers held a 30-29 lead at intermission and a 50-46 lead after third quarters. They finally got some breathing room in the fourth period. Alex Diciaula had 26 points and a career-high eight 3-pointers, while Nick Hubbard added 12 points, Alex Olson had 10 and Nevan Lewis eight.
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