Kettle Moraine Lutheran, The Prairie School both fall in WIAA state girls hoops semifinals
ASHWAUBENON — Kettle Moraine Lutheran's first trip to state in nine years ended abruptly after a 56-52 defeat to No. 3 seed Xavier on Thursday afternoon at the Resch Center in the WIAA Division 3 girls state basketball semifinals.
The Chargers held a 24-23 lead at intermission following a half they shot just 9-for-29 from the field, including 1-of-9 from 3-point range with six turnovers. Despite the poor shooting, they held the Hawks to similar numbers on the other end, including an 8-for-29 shooting performance with seven turnovers.
Less than two minutes into the second half, the floodgates opened.
The Chargers raced out on a 12-0 run to take a 36-23 advantage on the back of seven Makenzie Luehring points, who scored a game-high 32 points on 11-of-24 shooting with nine rebounds and five steals for the Chargers. Luehring's scoring output was the sixth-highest in Division 3 state tournament history.
"You feel good," Kettle Moraine Lutheran coach Jason Walz said on the explosion out of halftime. "My father who coached for a lot of years used to say that the three-point shot is sometimes fool's gold. We came out and hit some shots, but then it felt like there might have been four possessions in a row where we just settled for three-point shots.
"You got a team against the ropes and then you let them off by not forcing them to play defense, not putting them in a situation to where you have a chance to get fouled and get to the free throw line. Clearly, they bounced off the ropes and knocked us out."
Like they've done all season long, the Hawks picked themselves off the canvas and swung back. From Luehring's bucket with 16:04 to play in the contest until the media timeout with 6:38 left, the Hawks outscored the Chargers 15-5 to trim a 13-point deficit to just three (41-38).
Outside of Luehring, the Chargers just couldn't get shots to fall. The other seven Chargers that saw action on Thursday shot just 7-for-32, including 2-of-15 from long range.
The Hawks outscored the Chargers, 18-11, with nine of those 11 points scored by Luehring. Xavier freshman guard Elle Krull scored 13 of her team-high 20 points in the second half, including a wild sequence inside of the final 92 seconds. She attacked, missed a shot at the rim, got her own rebound, dribbled back to the 3-point line, made a 3 and then hit three free throws with 1:02 left to give the Hawks a 54-52 advantage they wouldn't relinquish.
"She has the mentality of, I would say, a senior after today," Xavier coach Andy Vande Hey said. "She doesn't play like a freshman. She doesn't speak like a freshman. Our conversations that we had -- it'll blow your mind. If you talk her about basketball, about life itself, this young lady is very impressive and has the mentality of a senior.
"We knew that if it was her day to carry the team, she would do that. She would be that spark. She wants to be that spark and she certainly was today."
With the victory, Xavier moves on to Saturday's Division 3 state title game against top-seeded Edgewood (26-3), which trounced No. 4 seed Baldwin-Woodville (22-7) in the first semifinal, 62-29, Thursday. Kettle Moraine Lutheran's season concluded at 24-5 after its first loss since Feb. 10.
Laconia knocks out The Prairie School for second straight postseason in Division 4
For the first time since 2013, Racine County had a girls basketball program at a state tournament, but for the third time in the last two seasons, Laconia got the better of The Prairie School.
Behind a 20-point, 16-rebound performance from junior Tierney Madigan, and the Spartans accomplishing their goal of holding Hawks star guard Jasonya "JJ" Glass-Barnes to more shot attempts than points, Laconia eliminated The Prairie School from the Division 4 state tournament on Thursday night, 67-49.
Glass-Barnes had 20 points on a tough 8-of-21 shooting performance, while the rest of the Hawks' rotation shot 10-for-35 from the field.
"Our girls' effort was there tonight," Hawks coach Abby Garchek-Jaramillo said. "We just went cold shooting in the second half. They won the rebounding battle by a lot, which we're not used to. It was almost a 20-rebound advantage (47-25 total), especially when you're missing quite a few shots."
The No. 4 seed hung with the defending champions in the opening 18 minutes. They trailed by as many as 10 points (28-18) in the first half, but an 11-5 push capped by a silky-smooth stepback left wing jumper from Glass-Barnes pulled the Hawks to within four at 33-29 heading into the locker room.
"The first half, we struggled with JJ Barnes a little bit. We lost (Reese) Jaramillo, so we talked about that at halftime and we found those girls and did a better job on them," Laconia coach Chris Morgan said.
"We kept coming with composure on the offensive end. They came to try and turn us over. They turn a lot of teams over and I thought that last eight, nine minutes, for the most part, we were solid with the ball and it kinda brought their spirit when they couldn't go get the ball."
After a pair of free throws from Glass-Barnes tied the game at 33, Laconia asserted themselves with a 34-16 charge to close out out the game and The Prairie School's first trip to state in 11 years.
"They pack it in on defense and they sag off girls that they know aren't outside shooters for us, so they have extra people flying into the lane all the time," Garchek-Jaramillo said. "It's tough to get inside. We knew that a lot of flare screens, skip passes and pull-up jumpers were what we needed to do today and we weren't able to get a lot of that.
"Laconia has seven players that are just solid players. They can come in there, all seven of them could be starters or star players on any team. They dribble with both hands and it wears you down after a while. You can hang with them for a little bit, but they just wear you down with the amount of talent they have one through seven."
With the win, Laconia (27-2) moves on to its third straight state title game and its fourth state championship game in program history, all since 2019. The Prairie School's season ends at 25-4 with its first loss since Jan. 13.
"It means a lot," Hawks guard Reese Jaramillo said after her 12-point outing in her final high school game.
"It's been one of my goals to win state. Just getting here, I was happy, but I wasn't fully fulfilled. I didn't just wanna stay (for one game). I was happy when we won sectionals, but just getting here and losing is not what I wanted. It's nice that we got here, but I wish we could've held strong and finished strong and finished on top."
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Kettle Moraine Lutheran, The Prairie School fall in state girls semis
