Pointer boys win 3rd straight Regional Championship

By John Dalton

The Mineral Point Boys’ Basketball scored early and often and never looked back en route to their 3rd WIAA Regional Championship over Lancaster Saturday night in Mineral Point.

The Pointers would start the game on a 13-2 run using balanced scoring on offensive, and tight full-court pressure on defense causing turnovers, resulting in Pointer baskets.  The Flying Arrows cut the lead down to 7 with two free throws from Taylor Williams, but Pointer Bryce Vamstad would follow that with his second 3-point shot of the half and Lancaster never could climb back into this game.

Up 26-15, Point would finish the first half on a 14-3 run and led this game at halftime 40-18.  Four Pointers would score in double figures in this contest, led by Vamstad who had a game-high 16 points.   

Immediately to start the second half, Pointer Eli Lindsey would post up, get the ball, and make a nice spinning shot in the lane for a bucket.  And moments later, Landon Thousand would steal the ball and find Vamstad in the corner for another 3-point shot.  He had four, 3-pointers on the night.

Moments later, it was Jaxson Wendhausen off an inbound pass who got open in the corner and buried a 3-point shot.  Both Wendhausen and Lindsey had 13 points apiece.  Thousand had 12 on the night.

Mineral Point would easily go on to win this game 67-43 and advance to a sectional semi-final game on Thursday.  

Mineral Point Head Coach Dan Burreson after the game, “We always say it starts on the defensive end and I thought we were locked in defensively from the get-go.  That’s a good offensive team, but I thought we made them work for what they got.  And then offensively, we moved the ball well and got good looks.  Impatient a little bit but that can happen, but then we got back to who we are and it helps that we have a lot of seniors out there.”  

Regarding another regional championship, Burreson had this to say, “The one thing I’ll say is this is the first time we’ve won three regional titles in a row, pretty storied history here at Mineral Point, and it's quite an achievement.  But we’ve got more work to do.”  

And that they do as Mineral Point, ranked 3rd in the state in Division 4, will play Darlington, ranked 2nd in the state in Division 4. Both teams have identical 22-2 records.  The teams split during the season each winning at home. The WIAA Sectional semi-final will be played on Thursday, March 7th at Lancaster High School.  Tip-off is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.  

BOX SCORE

Mineral Point 40 – 27 – 67

Lancaster        18 – 25 – 43

Mineral Point (fg-ft-tp); Vamstad 6-0-16, Wendhausen 5-1-13, Lindsey 5-2-13, Thousand 6-0-12, Ross 2-2-6, Aschliman 2-1-5, Radtke 1-0-2.

3-pointers; Vamstad 4, Wendhausen 2, Lindsey 1.

Lancaster (fg-ft-tp); Williams 4-3-12, Reuter 3-3-9, Murphy 3-0-9, Kauffman 2-0-4, Mack 2-0-4, Schmitz 1-0-3, Hermsen 1-0-2.  

3-pointers; Murphy 3, Schmitz 1, Williams 1.