Mitch Tordoff picked a fine time to have the shooting day of his life last weekend in the Wisconsin Division 2 boys' basketball state finals for Monroe.
But it wasn't enough.
Tordoff scored 33 points and was 8-of-17 from 3-point land. But Wisconsin Lutheran still came away with the title.
Wisconsin Lutheran, with a 79-67 victory over Monroe in the title game, ended the season at 24-2. Monroe was 19-8.
Flavien Davis had a big day himself for the champions. He was 12-of-17 from the floor and had 29 points plus 15 rebounds. P.J. Marion had 17 points.
Monroe was up 17-12 after the first quarter, but Wisconsin Lutheran led 34-29 at halftime.
“I thought we played pretty well after the first quarter. We had a solid second quarter. We were 10-of-12 from the field,” said Wisconsin Lutheran coach Ryan Walz. “We established ourselves on the inside. That resulted in some outside makes as well. The first quarter, we rushed some shots and got excited. They came out and hit some outside shots.
“We talked about reestablishing ourselves inside. In the second quarter, as they continued to shoot threes, those long rebounds allowed us to get out on the break and have some penetration.”
At that point, Wisconsin Lutheran established its game plan firmly on inside penetration.
“I was told that early in the game we were down 12-2 in rebounds,” Walz said. “We had a final 38-22 rebounding advantage. That's a pretty big margin. And Flavien Davis was just excellent. They had no answer for him. We knew if we posted him up they would double and maybe triple team him. So we put him on the baseline and let him roam.”
Walz's team had a whopping 42-10 edge on points in the paint.
“They stayed in the game by knocking down 3-pointers,” Walz said, adding that Tordoff “was shooting them from beyond the arc. We had to extend our defense. He was going from wherever he could get them off.”
Davis will be back next season.
“We'll build off of him,” Walz said. “We're excited about the future.”
Division I
Jerome Maybin had the hot scoring touch for Madison Memorial in Saturday's Division I championship game. He scored 25 points and had 12 rebounds in Madison Memorial's 56-41 victory over Racine Horlick. Memorial ends the season at 26-1 while Horlick is at 24-2.
Maybin shot 11-of-19 from the floor.
Vander Blue added 19 points and 11 rebounds for the champions. Madison Memorial shot 23-of-51 from the floor. Antwon Oliver had 13 points for Racine Horlick, which also got 10 rebounds from Jamil Wilson.
Madison Memorial's largest lead was 25 points late in the third quarter.
As for next season, the state champions have three starters back in Vander Blue, Tre Creamer and Junior Lomomba.
Division 3
A balanced attack gave Racine Saint Catherines a reason to celebrate a boys' basketball state title at the Kohl Center last weekend.
Steve McWhorter had 12 points and seven assists to lead Saint Catherines (25-2) to a 48-34 championship win over Aquinas, 20-4.
“It was our defense,” said Saint Catherines Coach Bob Letsch. “We only allowed 42 points a game. There were 11 games when we held the other team to under 40. We had some good games from our people.”
Jake Thomas was usually the team's leading scorer. “If not, someone else would pick it up,” Letsch said. “Our offense is pretty balanced. Jake was our outside shooter. McWhorter would take it to the basket.”
Letsch was confident coming into the season that his team had a chance to go all the way.
“We had four returning starters,” he said. “Last year we lost our top player to a knee injury but they won 21 games as juniors. McWhorter was a sophomore. We felt and the kids felt from the beginning we had a chance to win the state this year. They had great confidence in themselves. They were talking about state early in the year but I said 'don't talk about that. Talk about our next game.”'
Saint Catherines has McWhorter coming back next season along with three other key players.
The Angels have won state titles in four of the past five seasons.
Jimmy Whitehead had 17 points for Aquinas.
Division 4
Benton reigns supreme in Division 4 thanks to a 55-43 victory over Assumption in the Division 4 game and finishes the season as state champs with a 25-2 record.
It was a balanced attack for Benton, led by Michael Droessler with 14 points and 11 rebounds and Jordan Hendricks and Matt Savatski with 13 points apiece. It was tied 8-8 after the first quarter but Benton led at halftime 19-16.
Assumption, 24-2, also had a balanced attack, but it wasn't balanced enough. Alex Erdmann had 14 points while Elliott Eichinger and Matt Turba had 10 points apiece. Turba had five assists.
Forwards Michael Droessler and Matt Savatski, along with Class of 2012 prospect David Neis, will lead the hopes for Benton next season.
Kane Hoffmann, Jordan Hendricks and Connor Hendricks are four-year players for Benton who graduate this season.
However, one of the state's top prospects will be 6-8 forward Kyle Kelm of Randolph, who also plays in Division 4.
