Posted: Feb. 3, 2010

Some people become ill when riding a roller coaster, while others love the thrill of the peaks and valleys. If you asked Wauwatosa East boys basketball coach Tim Arndorfer, he probably isn't fond of the wild ride.

When your team is 4-5 in the Greater Metro Conference race and 7-10 overall to begin the week, there are a lot of win one, lose one stretches in your schedule. Last week was a perfect example, as the Red Raiders split two games with the Brookfield schools and continued their roller coaster ride.

Tosa East used a huge second quarter to pull away from Brookfield Central, only to have to hold off the Lancers and win, 53-48, Jan. 26 at Central and sweep the series.

Three days later, the Red Raiders hosted Brookfield East, a team that won a 27-26 thriller the first time around. Tosa East, which overcame a 23-18 halftime deficit, saw the Spartans then rally late to tie the game and take it into overtime, sending the Red Raiders to a 56-50 defeat.

"It's the summary of our entire season," Arndorfer said. "Up and down, up and down. In games we could have won in the last couple of minutes we played down, instead of up. We're working, we're still fighting. So I give them credit for bouncing back. It's easy for these guys to roll over, but they refuse to do that."

Brookfield Central

Central led 14-9 after one quarter, but the Red Raiders came out and outscored the Lancers, 18-4, behind eight points by Dan Sayles and five points each from Jake Larson and Darrell Bowie. The Red Raiders held Central to one basket at the 7:21 mark, and the Lancers didn't score after Seth Mortag sank two free throws with 6:23 left in the half.

The Lancers' leading scorer, Alex Diciaula, who only scored two points in the first half, then scored eight of Central's 12 third-quarter points. Sayles had five points and Aaron Uden added four as Tosa also scored 12 points in the period.

When Mortag scored on an inbounds play with 45.3 seconds left, Central cut the lead to 49-47. But Bowie hit two free throws and Sayles hit two, while Central only got one free throw from Nick Hubbard the rest of the way.

Diciaula scored 16 points and Mortag 10 for Central, while Sayles added 18 and Bowie 11 to top Tosa East.

"We needed it bad," Arndorfer said, "especially on the road. It was big for us."

Brookfield East

The Brookfield East Spartans' win Friday snapped a 13-game losing streak at Tosa East, but they were fortunate to get into overtime. Tosa East led by six points with more than a minute to play in regulation, but free throws by Colin DeVoe and Darius Barnes' tip at the buzzer tied the game.

Brookfield East then outscored the Red Raiders, 13-7, in overtime to win going away. A 3-point play by senior guard DeVoe got the Spartans off and running.

The four-minute overtime lasted a little longer as a fire alarm went off with 3 minutes, 18 seconds left to play and the game was delayed 20 minutes while the Fire Department checked the building out.

"That's a Greater Metro Conference first for us," Spartans coach Andy Farley said. "We snapped a 13-game losing streak there. It is unbelievably huge for the school, for the kids and the program. That was our theme this week: to win down there."

Sayles led the Red Raiders with 16 points and Bowie added 12, while DeVoe led all scorers with 20.

Tosa East will now play at 7:30 p.m. Friday at West Allis Central. The Red Raiders beat the Bulldogs, 45-37, in their first meeting Jan. 5.