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Mineral Point's boys basketball team had a shoot around Friday morning to get ready for their tournament championship game with Black Hawk later in the day.
When you take a look at the 75-44 win the Pointers earned over the Warriors they must have never quit shooting.
The Pointers nailed a dozen three-pointers on 22 attempts and made five of six of them in the fourth quarter to finish off the lopsided win. In typical Pointer fashion the threes were not forced but most of the time were the result of stopped penetration and a kick-out.
"They share the ball pretty well," Mineral Point coach Dan Burreson said, which may have been a little understated.
Friday they shared it as well as any team could.
While the threes brought the crowd to its feet often it was a Turner Poad save and a flip to Chanler Leonard for an in-your-face slam dunk that brought the biggest cheer. The 6-6 senior seems to have a knack of finding a way to get to the rim....just in case.
The Warriors were in the game for awhile in the first quarter but the Pointers pulled away to a 21-14 lead in the opening period. The Pointers had one more basket than the Warriors the first quarter but the three ball difference was four to one.
"I liked our team in the first quarter," said coach Corey Manlick. But after the Pointers cruised to a 35-22 halftime lead he wasn't so sure of his feelings.
"I felt we went into an excuse making mode the second and fourth quarters," Manlick said. "We will be addressing our attitude when we get back to the court. We need to find a way out of adversity when it hits us."
That adversity was compounded by the Pointers who had an answer for any run Black Hawk could fashion, usually answering with a flurry of threes.
"I don't know if we can shoot that well all the time but those three pointers were uncontested shots," Burreson said. "No one forced anything and if they were not open they did not shoot it."
The 21-6 fourth quarter was a blur for the Warriors. Trevor Wendhausen had an eight point run with a pair of threes and a two, the two point basket a dunk that more than likely signaled the end for the Warriors. Alec Schmitz hit one of his trio of threes and the final two came from reserves who entered the game, namely Jordan Kittleson and Joey Gorgen.
Sy Staver had 22 points and had a pair of threes at the end of the third quarter to change a 10 point lead into 16. He had 10 points in the third which ended in Mineral Point's favor 54-38.
Staver took game honors with 22 points while Wendhausen finished with 17, Poad 13 and Alec Schmitz 11. The fifth starter, Leonard had one basket but it was both a crowd pleaser and a back breaker.
Heath Butler had 10 to lead Black Hawk in what was their first loss of the season. The Warriors are now 5-1 while the Pointers moved to 9-0. The Warriors came into the game ranked third in Division 5 while the Pointers were ranked fourth in Division 3.
"The one thing that helps this team is they do not care who scores as long as we score," Burreson said, "And, they are buying into the defensive aspect. We are making strides in our defensive approach as no one wants to let anyone down. We still have a ways to go with that but we are getting there."
The defensive plan against the Warriors was to make sure Heath Butler, Seth Butler and Tyler Peterson took no shots that were not contested.
"We did a pretty good job of keeping a hand in their faces," Burreson said.
Besides Heath's 10, Seth had nine and Peterson eight, all below their averages.
"I am proud of all our kids," Burreson said. "It was good to see Joey Gorgen come in and score from the perimeter and it was also good to see we had four in double figures and eight score. We had 10 score last night so we are getting lots of contributions."
The Pointers saw Terek Oellerich, one of the first players off the bench, leave the game with an ankle injury.
"Joey Gorgen and Levi Zimmerman took up the slack when he left," Burreson said. "Both added to the contributions."
Burreson also said he felt Wendhausen and Poad played their defensive roles well.
"Turner took a couple charges for us," he said.
The Pointers are at Richland Center next Saturday (January 4) with games at 6 and 7:30 p.m.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
BH 14 8 16 6 44
MP 21 14 19 21 75
BOX SCORE
BLACK HAWK 44: (fg-ft-tp) S. Butler 4-1-9, H. Butler 3-4-10, Peterson 3-0-8, Rupnow 0-1-1, Meythaler 0-0-0, B. Paulson 3-0-6, Lovelace 3-0-6, Woodruff 1-0-2, Wolff 1-0-2, K. Paulson 0-0-0 Totals 18-6/14-44 Fouls-14 Fouled out-S. Butler
MINERAL POINT 75: Staver 8-3-22, Kittleson 1-0-3, Gorgen 1-0-3, Oellerich 1-0-2, Poad 4-4-13, Schmitz 4-0-11, Paradis 0-0-0, Wendhausen 6-2-17, Zimmerman 0-0-0, Leonard 1-2-4, Ryman 0-0-0 Totals 26-11/14-75 Fouls-17
3 point goals:
BH-Peterson 2
MP-Staver 3, Schmitz 3, Wendhausen 3, Poad 1, Kittleson 1, Gorgen 1