By Greg Bates
SPORTS EDITOR
DE PERE – Starting the season with a 6-6 record hasn’t been ideal for the West De Pere boys’ basketball team.
However, the Phantoms took a big step forward on Monday night and stayed in the running for the Bay Conference title.
New London traveled to West De Pere with both teams in a three-way tie for second place in conference, two games behind undefeated Xavier.
After New London took a one-point lead with just over three minutes remaining, West De Pere closed out the game on a 13-4 run to score an 80-72 victory.
“We needed that one,” West De Pere senior point guard Thomas Walder said. “This team’s been grinding, trying to find its way and we came up clutch tonight and got a big conference win that will help us along the way.”
Winners of four of their last six games, the Phantoms have kicked it into another gear.
“We’re playing well, we’re doing things well,” West De Pere coach Todd Deschane said. “It’s just a matter of being consistent throughout the entire game.”
Following a contested basket by Walder that put West De Pere (7-6, 5-2 Bay) up 67-63, its bench was called for a technical foul.
New London (11-4, 4-3 Bay) hit both the technical free throws and then drained a 3-pointer for a five-point possession to take a 68-67 lead with 3:17 showing on the second-half clock. That would be the Bulldogs’ last made field goal of the game.
After four free throws by Walder and fellow senior Ethan Heck, the Phantoms were clinging to a one-point advantage. Sophomore Easton Deschane got a tough basket inside and was fouled. He nailed the free throw to put his team up, 74-70.
“Huge momentum swing there, we needed that one,” Walder said. “It got the crowd into it and it was a big-time play for us.”
A Walder free throw and a press-breaking layup by Langdon Nordgaard gave West De Pere a comfortable seven-point lead with 1:05 remaining.
The end of the game was a stark contrast to the start. New London hit its first five 3-point attempts and led 17-4 just four minutes into the opening half.
But West De Pere calmed down and rattled off 15 of the next 17 points to deadlock the game at 19-19.
“We started to play a little bit better defense,” coach Deschane said. “Their strength is catch and shoot, and we let them play to their strength right away. Once we got after it a little better and made a couple stops and got a couple baskets ourselves, it was better. I never really felt down. Sometimes you want to call a timeout right away to stop momentum or whatever the case might be, but I never really felt like momentum was completely out of our grasp.”
Tied 36-36 at halftime, the Phantoms took its biggest lead of the game, nine points, 63-54, after an Andrew Baumgart layup with 5:42 remaining.
New London answered with a 14-4 run to take its final lead, 68-67.
West De Pere then ended the game scoring 13 of the last 17 points. It was a team effort down the stretch to pull off the win.
“Just working together and being smart in situations, taking care of the ball,” Walder said. “They were pressing the whole game basically and we had to be strong with it. We had a few lapses, but we were able to come through and get the win.”
The Phantoms had four players in double figures with Heck scoring a team-high 17 points. Walder added 14, Bryce Borowicz 13 and Nordgaard 12 points.
West De Pere received great contributions with a pair of sophomores off the bench in Borowicz and Riley Kraft, which combined for 18 points.
“They’re starting to come around and play well and add contributing minutes for us,” Deschane said.
West De Pere is in the midst of an important stretch in its schedule, traveling to Green Bay East on Jan. 24, hosting Shawano on Jan. 27 and heading to first-place Xavier on Jan. 31.
“We need to keep the momentum rolling here and get on a hot streak,” Walder said.