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Platteville's boys basketball team is becoming a team that if you blink you could find yourself down by a dozen points or so.
That can especially happen when they hang one of the toughest defenses you will face on you making a big run hard to come by.
River Valley's boys basketball team was coming off perhaps their best performance of the season, beating Prairie du Chien convincingly the night before.
But the long, quick and deep Hillmen proved they had too many weapons by limiting what the Blackhawks tried to generate and went on to win the WIAA Division 3 Regional title 57-39.
While it wasn't a good shooting night for the Blackhawks the Hillmen's defensive effort had something to do with River Valley only being able to generate a 25% effort from the floor.
"They bring a brand of defensive pressure that you rarely see," said River Valley coach Luke Thatcher. "They defend the catch better than anyone which makes it hard to score."
Add to that a very physical team that can bring players off the bench with no drop off and you have the Hillmen this season.
"They are the number one seed and it makes sense they are," Thatcher added. "They should be regional champs."
In contrast the Hillman put in 50% of their shots with the field goal difference in their favor 23-10.
"It is hard to win with only 10 field goals," Thatcher said. "The 25% we shot was the lowest percentage for us this year."
Donavan Blevins led Platteville with 21 points and was a force, especially the second half when he put in 19.
Cade Rohrbeck scored all 10 of his points the first half as the Hillmen mounted a 28-12 lead. Trey Bartels came off the bench to add 10.
"They had a balanced attack and showed off their depth," Thatcher said. "We wanted to negate Blevins and keep them off the offensive glass but that did not happen."
The Hawks did make the Hillmen earn what they got.
"They were just too big and strong inside," Thatcher said.
Brett Nachreiner paced River Valley with 11 points.
The season ending loss did not dampen the respect Thatcher has when it comes to the over achieving, blue collar Blackhawks.
"All season the team played well together and at the end we were playing our best basketball," Thatcher said. "The kids were great to work with and our seniors were outstanding leaders. We were not stacked with talent but the kids made it work."
SCOORE BY HALVES
RV 12 27 39
P 28 29 57
BOX SCORE
RIVER VALLEY 39: (fg-ft-tp) Spurley 0-0-0, Rosenberg 0-0-0, Amble 1-0-3, B. Nachriner 3-5-11, Feiner 1-2-5, Fortney 2-2-6, Mickelson 1-3 5, Meier 2-0-5, Jewell 0-4-4, T. Nachreiner 0-0-0 Totals 10-16/25-38
PLATTEVILLE 57: (fg-ft-tp) Eggers 1-0-3, Blevins 9-2-21, Rohrbeck 4-2-10, Schambow 1-0-2, Oswald 3-0-7, Tauschner 0-0-0, Riley 1-1-3, Bartels 4-3-11. Totals 23-8/17-57. Fouls-20. Fouled out-Riley
3 point goals:
RV-Amble 1, Meier 1, Feiner 1
P-Blevins 1, Oswald 1, Eggers 1