By John Dalton
The Dodgeville Dodger boys’ basketball team hosted Westby in the first round of the WIAA Regional on Tuesday evening. With a 77-71 victory, Dodgeville advances to the semi-regional final at Mineral Point, scheduled for Friday at 7:00 p.m.
At halftime, the Dodgers enjoyed a comfortable 37-23 advantage. Elliot Hesseling had an impressive game, topping all scorers with 25 points- 13 of which he tallied before the break. Four Dodgers finished in double digits: Bryce Crubaugh-Lockard, who managed just two points in the first half, added 15 more after halftime; Andrew Hesseling contributed 12 points, while Jayce Halverson scored 11.
Despite the comfortable lead at half, Westby made it uncomfortable seconds into the second half. Maddux Fencl hit back-to-back 3- pointers to jump start the Norsemen and cut the Dodger margin to eight, causing Dodger Head Coach Matt McGraw to call a timeout to settle his team down.
Westby also had four players in double digits. Fencl and Griffin Nelson were tough to stop, both scoring 21 points a piece. Maddox Torkelson and Jay Johnson had 11 and 10 points respectively.
The Dodgers answered each run that Westby had, hitting some clutch shots when necessary, and an important stat to notice the Dodgers were 16 of 20 at the foul line, hitting key free throws when Westby was forced to foul. Six Dodger players contributed at the charity stripe in the second half.
“We saw that they are capable of coming back in games, they’ve been down in a few of there games and fought back so, we figured it was a game of runs, even when we had that nice lead. What I was most happy with, when things went not the way we wanted for a stretch there, we were able to respond and slow things down and get some good things going again,” said Coach McGraw following the game.
The Dodgers will now face rival Mineral Point on Friday night. The Pointers had a bye as the regional #1 seed. The Dodgers, the #8 seed in the regional, defeated Mineral Point at Dodgeville back on January 2, 66- 59.
And against the Pointers, McGraw said, “It will be a fun one. We talked after the game at this point in the season it’s just survive and advance whether you win by one or you win by twenty, you’re still moving on. We’re happy with the victory but there are some things we need to clean up, we’ve got two days to work on those and make sure we’re at our best come Friday night.”
“We know that they’ve been playing very well (Mineral Point) as of late and it’s been a long time since we played them last, they’ve changed some things, we’ve changed some things, so it’s bound to be a battle. They play similar ball, they’ve modified some things, but ultimately, we’re going to focus on us, focus on the things that we need to do to be successful, and we had stretches of that tonight, which was great to see, but we’re probably going to need longer stretches on Friday.”
For video highlights of the Dodgeville vs Westby game, check out The Dodgeville Facebook page.
Box Score
Dodgeville 37 – 42 – 79
Westby 23 – 48 – 71
Dodgeville (fg-ft-tp); Elliot Hesseling 10-4-25, Bryce Crubaugh- Lockard 7-3-17, Andrew Hesseling 5-2-12, Jayce Halverson 3-5-11, Griffin Busch 3-1-9, Blake Stodola 1-1-3, Jentry Olson 0-2-2.
3-pointers; Busch 2, Elliot Hesseling 1.
Westby (fg-ft-tp); Griffin Nelson 9-1-21, Maddux Fencl 4-10-21, Maddox Torkelson 5-0-11, Jadon Johnson 4-1-10, Anders Hoven 1-1- 3, Micah Larson 1-0-3, Everett Hoven 1-0-2.
3-pointers; Fencl 3, Nelson 2, Johnson 1, Larson 1, Torkelson 1.