By Scott Williams
March 6, 2020
WESTON – Based off their two Wisconsin Valley Conference regular season meetings, it was anyone’s guess who would prevail Friday night.
Wisconsin Rapids won the first meeting with a 24-point win in mid-January. D.C. Everest earned some serious payback with 45-point drubbing a month later.
The rubber match came in a Division 1 regional semifinal and the WVC champion Evergreens left no doubt who’s the better team.
Alec Stuedemann paced four players in double figures with 20 points and DCE earned a spot in the regional final with a convincing 86-67 win over the Raiders.
Next up for the Evergreens (18-5) is a trip to Chippewa Falls, an 83-63 winner over Appleton East, for a 7 p.m. tip-off with the Cardinals.
DCE and Chippewa Falls met during the regular season with the Cardinals prevailing 78-51 on Feb. 18.
The winner Saturday advances to sectional play March 12 at Appleton East.
Wisconsin Rapids stood no chance trying to stop the Evergreens, who turned in a balanced performance from start to finish.
Bryan Halambeck was right behind Stuedemann in the scoring department with 19 points.
There was plenty of help to be found from a couple other sources too. Keaton Edwards and Ethan Ostrowski each chipped in with 15 points in the lopsided win.
DIVISION 2
Mosinee 54, Wausau East 39
MOSINEE – Points were tough to come by for the Lumberjacks in their regional semifinal and that ultimately doomed them in a loss to the Indians.
East played well enough on the defensive end of the court to put itself in a position to play again Saturday.
The only problem is Mosinee was able to make it even tougher on the Lumberjacks to score.
Senior center Gabe Krueger was the lone exception, tallying a game-high 24 points in his final high school game for East.
The Lumberjacks finish the season at 10-14.
DIVISION 5
Rib Lake 73, Newman Catholic 50
RIB LAKE – The Cardinals entered the WIAA playoffs as an underdog in their regional opener with Port Edwards.
Newman Catholic shrugged off the label and earned a double-digit win to earn a well-deserved spot in the regional semifinal.
Second-seeded Rib Lake offered another chance for the No. 11 seed Cardinals to pull off another upset.
The Redmen were having none of that though thanks to Nick Gerstberger who poured in a game-high 31 points for Rib Lake to help end Newman Catholic’s season.
Isaac Seidel led the charge for the Cardinals with 15 points. Mason Prey finished with 14 points, while Charlie McCarty added nine.
Newman Catholic concludes the season at 5-19.
