By Murray Gleffe
Correspondent
Feb. 5
DE PERE—The West De Pere boys basketball comeback from 17 points down with five minutes to go fell just short as the Xavier Hawks prevailed by a final of 80-73.
Garrett Kempen led the Phantoms with 18 points, while Jovan Webb chipped in 16 points.
The Hawks were paced by Nick Otto who had a game-high 24 points.
56 fouls were called in this electric, high-intensity game.
West De Pere was ready from the tip as they quickly forged ahead 17-8 with dribble, drive penetration to the hoop.
Xavier showed little resistance on the defensive side of things and head coach Matt Klarner called two early time outs to try and get his message across to his team.
A little later in the half, Kerry Kodanko made a bucket from inside the paint, in which he put an up and under move on his defender. It gave West De Pere a 26-17 lead with 7:01 left till halftime.
“We like to play up-tempo and the kids were getting to the basket very quickly in the first half,” said head coach Andy Werner.
As much as their outside shooting wasn’t going down for the better part of fourteen minutes, the Hawks caught fire to end the half.
The trio of Otto, Henry Egan, and John Bunks couldn’t miss down the stretch and was part of a 22-10 run to give the Xavier a 39-36 lead heading into the locker room.
The Hawks continued to surge to start the second half as Otto continued his sharpshooting to extend the lead to 55-46 with 12:48 left in the game.
As the fouls were mounting, it forced Coach Werner to substitute big-men Jake Karchinski and Kodanko in and out of the lineup.
“Our bigs had some foul trouble, but guys like Marcus and Jackson gave us a big lift off the bench,” added Werner.
Late in the second half, the Hawks increased their lead to 72-55 with 5:01 left in the game after the perimeter shooting deserted the Phantoms for a seven-minute stretch.
West De Pere refused to pack it in and get blown out on their home floor.
Instead, they mounted a valliant comeback that included triple after triple, and seven Hawks turnovers added to the mix.
Suddenly, after Kempen brought the house down with a 28-footer from the right wing, the Phantoms were down 75-73 with 1:21 left in the contest.
On the ensuing Xavier possession, the ball went off Otto’s leg in the frontcourt and the Phantoms had a chance to tie or grab the lead.
The last shot or dramatic comeback never came to fruition as West De Pere was called for a moving screen violation and the Hawks knocked down five of six free throws to come away with a hard-earned road victory.
“I like the fight the guys showed down the stretch,” Werner said about his team’s comeback. “We lost to Xavier by 30 or so at their place not too long ago.”
Next up: The Phantoms will host the Shawano Hawks on Feb. 8.
Box Score:
Xavier: 39, 41—80
West De Pere: 36, 37—73
Hawks: Otto 24, Bunks 17, Egan 12, Pfefferle 9, Zubella 6, Twombly 6, Mares 6
Phantoms: Kempen 18, Webb 16, Edinger 12, Karchinski 11, Van Vreede 8, Kodanko 6, Wall 2
