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You can play the best defense in the world, rebound as hard as you can and handle the ball nearly without flaws.
You can play with heart and guts. You can leave everything you have out on the floor.
But if the shots won't find the bottom of the net there is little you can do. Even if everything else goes right, if you don't score you don't win.
River Valley's boys basketball team did all the above and unfortunately that included putting up with their worst shooting night of the season in the WIAA Division 3 Sectional Finals at Middleton Saturday. The Blackhawks could only account for 34 points and watched hopes of a trip to the state tournament disintegrate in a 42-34 loss to East Troy.
"I feel bad for the seniors for the loss but to their credit they left it all out on the floor," said coach Luke Thatcher. "We played a good game except for the shooting and the seniors did all they could to try and win. When they look back at this game they will never have to second guess themselves. They never rolled over and led us until the end."
But it wasn't to be.
The Hawks did put River Valley basketball on the map and made history as the first team in school boys basketball history to make the Sectional Finals. They also tied a record for the most wins in boys basketball history with 21.
Brandon Gilbeck, a 6-11 senior, led the Hawks with 15 points and scored all six points in a 16-6 first quarter.
The Hawks chipped away at the 10 point lead, cutting it to five by halftime.
East Troy went on a 6-0 run in the third quarter, some of it due to Gilbeck getting into foul trouble. With his big presence out of the middle they were able to attack the rim.
He got back into the game and helped the Hawks get up by one, effectively erasing an 11 point lead.
But, a couple steals resulted in unfinished layups and the Hawks had to foul. East Troy made nine of 15 free throws all night with all nine coming in the fourth quarter. They only had one basket in the frame.
A last ditch shot by Alex Shifflet went down and then back out and free throws took over for the Trojans.
"They pressured us all game and while we handled it I think it wore us down," Thatcher said.
The Trojans had two players in double figures as Connor Mitchell had 16 and Will Iloncaie 15.
"Iloncaie hurt us the most with some big shots," Thatcher said. He had a trio of threes.
"We had great community support for the game," Thatcher said. "Our adult fans outnumbered them 2-1 and our student section 4-1. It was nice to see people that excited."
"It was also good to see the seniors go out on such a good note," Thatcher said.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
RV 6 8 6 14 34
ET 16 3 12 11 42
BOX SCORE
RIVER VALLEY 34: (fg-ft-tp) Gilbeck 5-5-15, Gruber 0-0-0, Price 3-0-7, Shifflet 2-0-6, Solomon 0-1-1, Wermuth 2-1-5 Totals 12-7/17-34 Fouls-13 Fouled out-Price
EAST  TROY 42: Growel 1-2-4, Iloncaie 5-2-15, Kaminski 1-0-3, Mitchell 5-5-16, Remsza 2-0-4 Totals 24-9/25-43 Fouls-17
3 point goals:
RV: Price 1, Shifflet 2
ET-Iloncaie 2, Kaminski 1, Mitchell 1