February 23, 2017 at 2:22 p.m.
Eagle boys claim outright title
By defeating all other conference divisional foes to date and headed into last Friday's match-up, the Vikings had put themselves in position to potentially climb into a first play tie with Barneveld - but the Eagles would have none of it.
Matthew Myers, a 'coach's son', a precision sharpshooter and a floor general, shot the basketball with an assassin's stone-cold accuracy on this night, finishing with 29 total points including six 'three-pointers' - all on an evening when the Eagles may have started slow on offense, but finished with a blistering 42 point second half.
Pecatonica's 6'5" senior standout, A.J. Hendrickson, was also impressive for coach Matt Fink's Vikings, 'dunking', making free throws, hitting a 'trey' and in total, racking up a team-high 27 points, including 20 in an ultra-productive second half for the Vikings.
"It was a great team win for us against a high quality opponent," said Eagles' coach Jim Myers. "We wanted to slow A.J. down and although I'm not sure we did that. He did have to work hard to earn his points and we did a nice job defensively on their other guys. Jake (Dearth) hit a trio of nice threes for them, but after we built a 10 point lead, our guys settled in, focused and played very good defense. Matthew had a huge night shooting for us and after he hit some threes and they moved out on him, Mike Zouski (19 points) fed off of that and he and Kauy (Fargo) and Luc (Lucas Evans) had big hoops inside. It was everybody tonight - even my bench went in and played really well and really hard tonight - being productive and scoring, in addition to providing a breather for others. I felt we saw open players well, attacked well inside and out and were patient on offense," added Myers.
Hendrickson's break away two-handed thunder dunk ignited Pecatonica fans at the 12:20 mark of the first half as it gave the Vikings a short-lived 10-7 lead.
The tale of the game was written in part, however, in the next six scoreless minutes for Pec's offense during a 10-0 run by the Eagles.
Later, in the second half, a Myers trey, a Trey Laube spin move and runner in the lane - followed by back-to-back hoops in the lane by Myers and Zouski extended Barneveld's lead to 46-31.
For coach Matt Fink, the loss was a disappointment and he said what's critical now is bouncing back tonight Thurs., Feb. 23) at Juda.
"I kinda thought we had a game that we had a chance to stay in get away from us tonight, especially at the end and that's disappointing. We had to work so hard to get great looks and heck, we worked very hard just to get average looks, so that's a credit, in part, to Barneveld's defense. I thought we passed up shots at times that we should have taken and with their match-up zone, we need to do better at setting screens and moving the ball better. On defense, we knew and know just how good a shooter he (Matthew Myers) is and we needed to get a hand up on him on defense quicker than we did because we know better than to let his touches become shot opportunities."
Going into tonight's (Thursday, Feb. 23) final game of the regular season in South Wayne and versus the third place Black Hawk Warriors Barneveld's players, in the eyes of some, have little to play for.
Barneveld has already won the Six Rivers 'East' divisional title for a second consecutive season, making the 'finale' meaningless, otherwise than playing for pride and for a chance to be able to say they 'ran the table' for two consecutive seasons.
In his first year as boys' coach - last year, Hall of Fame basketball coach Jim Myers guided his team to a perfect 'in-division' 12-0 record. and the Eagles (19-2, 11-0) could duplicate the feat tonight in South Wayne. The Warriors (17-4, 8-3) have one of the biggest line-ups in the conference and Charlie Anderson's ballclub has been especially impressive of late, having defeated Argyle by 42 points Friday in a 65-23 victory, a performance Anderson described as his team's 'best defensive game' of the entire year.
The Warriors lost by just three (55-52) in a February 7 game 'in' Barneveld. Simultaneously tonight, Fink's Vikings (16-5, 9-2) will be in southern Green County, trying to guarantee themselves a solo second place finish in the standings against another tough foe, the Juda Panthers (14-7, 6-5).
Barneveld hosts Johnson Creek (1-19) Tuesday, Feb. 28 at 7 p.m. in the WIAA D-5 Regional opener.
Pecatonica hosts Central Wisconsin Christian High School (1-20) Tuesday, Feb. 28 at 7 p.m. in Blanchardville.
Barneveld 72 Pecatonica 48
Barneveld 28 44 - 72
Pecatonica 18 30 - 48
Barneveld (fg-ft-tp) Myers 9-5-29, Fargo 4-0-10, Laube 1-0-2, Evans 3-1-7, Reed 1-1-3, Zouski 5-9-19, Roberts 1-0-2. Three-pointers: Myers 6, Fargo 2. Totals: 16 (8) 16-19 72. Fouls: 16.
Pecatonica (fg-ft-tp) Schraepfer 1-4-6, Dearth 3-1-10, Ruegsegger 1-0-2, Hendrickson 8-10-27, Green 1-0-2, Eaton 0-1-1. Three-pointers: Dearth 3, Hendrickson. Totals: 10 (4) 16-23. Fouls: 16. JV: Pec won.
