'We're doing something great at FVL': Surging Foxes capture third consecutive boys basketball conference title

FREEDOM − The exuberance during the postgame photo gathering couldn't be denied to the Fox Valley Lutheran faithful Tuesday evening.

The Foxes had just secured their third consecutive North Eastern Conference boys basketball title following a 62-53 victory over rival Freedom, a defining moment for an FVL program that had been searching for the high bar of consistency for years.

"It's just great," senior Adam Loberger said. "It's just a testament to the teams that we have and how we keep building every year to win these conference championships. Three in a row — we're doing something great at FVL."

Loberger and fellow senior playmaker Sam Ferge are the headliners for the Foxes (19-2 overall, 16-0 NEC). Loberger leads the team in scoring (21.7 ppg) and rebounding (8.4) with Ferge averaging 19.1 points and 4.9 rebounds. It was also the 26th consecutive NEC victory for FVL, dating to last season.

"Winning the conference was at the top of our goals but we really have the next-game mentality starting from the first game of the year," Ferge said. "But now that we’re here, it's great to check that off our goals list."

Ferge and Loberger had 18 and 16 points, respectively, against Freedom. The Foxes also got key contributions from Elijah Last (eight points, three rebounds), Lucas Papendorf (seven points) and Graham Feidt (five points, five rebounds). Liam Heiges (four points, six rebounds) and Trenton Heyn (four points, four rebounds) also contributed to the win.

"We’ve got great senior leadership on the team and you have different guys step up," Foxes coach Jay Wendland said. "We have the two dynamic scorers in Sam Ferge and Adam Loberger. But you look at the contributions from everyone tonight. Elijah Last, he may not have a ton of points up in the box score, but his defensive stops and his key free throws down the stretch, all those different things really play in to us being able to have some success. Trenton Heyn, being able to get key rebounds and get a couple of putbacks that way. And then you have a junior in Lucas Papendorf that came off the bench and gave us some key baskets in key moments too."

Fox Valley Lutheran, ranked fourth in the latest Associated Press Division 2 poll, was 22-4 last season and 21-5 in 2021-22. The team is 74-19 overall the past four seasons under Wendland, who took over prior to the 2020-21 season. He's brought success and stability to the program after the Foxes averaged seven wins per season the previous seven seasons under two different head coaches.

The Foxes finish the regular season with NEC games against Little Chute on Friday and Feb. 22 at Luxemburg-Casco. FVL also plays a nonconference game at Green Bay Notre Dame on Tuesday.

"We still have three games left in the regular season and the question becomes how do we get better for the postseason?" Wendland said. "Because you get to that postseason, it’s a one-and-done situation and you just have to be at the top of your game."

FVL has had 20-plus-win seasons the past two seasons but both postseason journeys ended with losses in the Division 2 regional finals.

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“That’s always the goal and we need to focus on today so that we don’t get ahead of ourselves," Wendland said of success in the postseason. "I think that’s the biggest thing because our regional and our sectional is loaded with teams like Onalaska and West Salem and Mosinee and New London … there isn’t going to be an easy night in the playoffs. So we can’t get ahead of ourselves. We just have to simply focus on let’s get better tomorrow so that we can continue that improvement and see where this journey takes us. Let’s see how long we can go."

This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Fox Valley Lutheran secures third consecutive league basketball title