Germantown ups winning streak to 44

WHITEFISH BAY, Wis. — If Cody Zeller stays at Indiana University next season, he may have a good low-post counterpart in Luke Fischer.

The 7-foot senior from Germantown, Wis., is lanky, athletic and knows how to score in the paint, just like Zeller.

"Everyone connects me with Cody Zeller and I've got no problem with that," Fischer said. "He's a great player and I'll be as much like him as I can."

Fischer showed why Indiana is high on its signee as he scored 25 points to help Germantown beat Dominican (Whitefish Bay, Wis.) 88-53 Saturday in a battle of two of the top teams in Wisconsin.



Germantown, No. 7 in this week's MaxPreps Xcellent 25 national rankings, is now 16-0 this season has won 44 consecutive games, not having lost in 97½ weeks.

"It's great," Fischer said. "Keep it going, knock on wood. I don't want it to end."

The streak isn't something Warhawks coach Steve Showalter talks about with his team.

"Try not to have that number be a factor in what we do," Showalter said. "Since I've been coaching, we've talked about just the next game. You lose it or we win it, we have to look forward to the next one. I know that's easy to keep saying, but I have to. … We can't let these numbers affect what we do to prepare for teams."

Germantown -- the defending Division 1 state champions, Wisconsin's largest class -- was well prepared for Dominican -- last season's Division 4 state champions -- which features Marquette signee Duane Wilson Jr. and sophomore five-star recruit Diamond Stone.

In what was supposed to be a marquee matchup between the 6-9 Stone and Fischer turned into a Fischer highlight clip show, especially with Stone on the bench in foul trouble. Fischer, who was 11-for-14 from the field, scored 13 points in Stone's absence, including two monster dunks. Stone only scored 10 points.



"(Fischer's) tough to stop and when Diamond (Stone) gets in foul trouble, we don't necessarily have the size to hang with them down low," Dominican coach Derek Berger said.

The Warhawks used their high-low combination to perfection against the Knights' 2-3 zone defense and let Fischer go to work inside or kick it out for an open 3-pointer.

"We were changing up our zone offense because they were just sitting back," Showalter said. "Once Diamond (Stone) got that second foul, that opened up the middle a little bit for Luke and then they had to worry about the inside and that's when we started making our outside shots."

Germantown's role players also came up big. The Warhawks had five players in double figures with Jake Showalter adding 16 points, Lamonte Bearden 14 and Evan Wesenberg 10. Brian Bearden came off the bench and scored 11 points.

Bearden drained three deep shots as Germantown was 11-for-22 from the 3-point line.

"We weren't expecting Brian Bearden to hit that many 3s," said Wilson, who scored a game-high 30 points on 7 of 14 shots from the field. "We really wanted to focus on Luke (Fischer) and stopping Jake (Showalter) from shooting 3s and Lamonte (Bearden) from penetrating. I felt like we did a good job on Jake and then second half he got loose. But I think Brian Bearden was the energy man that really keyed them and got them the lead with those two or three 3s he hit."



Dominican (13-4) stayed with Germantown early, leading 14-11 after the opening quarter. The Warhawks were up 26-23 with 2:04 remaining in the first half before going on a 9-2 run to go into halftime with a 10-point advantage.

Germantown started the second half by hitting its first eight shots and all but burying Dominican.

"We were right with them through the first half and playing strong, playing tough and in the second half we slowed down a little bit and they made a lot of shots," Berger said.

Fischer only scored four points in the third quarter, but Germantown's lead ballooned to 20 points, 61-41, entering the fourth.

"I didn't need to do a lot that quarter," Fischer said. "We were hitting so many 3s. Brian Bearden was knocking them down, which is awesome. It's great to have other guys step up and take over."

Germantown, which hit 20 of 27 shots from the field in the second half, didn't let its lead get below 23 points in the final quarter.



After winning 44 straight games, it might be difficult for a team to proclaim one victory as being big. However, Fischer said Saturday's win was a statement game.

"I sure hope so," he said. "We sure played our butts off."