Tosa East looks to rebound from loss

Veteran Wauwatosa East boys basketball coach Tim Arndorfer had everything in perspective following a disappointing 76-63 loss to Brookfield Central last Friday night.

"We're still there. It's not the end of it," the soft-spoken coach said. "It wasn't a do or die game. We have to forget it, (have a) short memory and start thinking about Marquette; because we're going to see a 1-3-1 again."

Arndorfer was talking about Central's signature 1-3-1 zone defense, which gave the Red Raiders fits all night.

What made it so difficult to penetrate?

"Their size; with (Seth) Mortag on the top he is such a presence," Arndorfer said. "When they're extending, we needed to find ways to get the ball over the top, into the wings to get our offense started.

"We just didn't do that. It helps if you can hit shots. I think we were 4-for-22 or something like that from the arc. If you're not hitting shots against it, as small as we are, we're going to have a hard time with it."

The Lancers starting line-up consists of Nick Olson (6-foot-7 inches), Mortag (6-5), Matt Lauritzen (6-4), Jason Meichtry (6-3) and point guard Riley LaChance (6-1). They have Nate Rohde (6-4), Jack Sandstrom (6-3) and Elijah Goodman (6-2) off the bench.

"They did what they do well longer than we did," Arndorfer said. "We were uncomfortable all night and that's a credit to them. They played that 1-3-1 pretty well. We'll try to figure things out.

"I will take the blame for that. Some things we may not have prepared them for. We just couldn't get into a rhythm and when we needed stops we couldn't get them. But that's a credit to them. They dictated the tempo of the game."

LaChance led all players with 24 points and Mortag had 22, while Tosa East had four players in double figures - Bryce Kratzer (13), Nate Moore (12), Anthony Carroll (12) and Kyle Vnuk (11).

"Kyle did a great job, Bryce did a nice job filling in a starting role (for injured Zak Sylvester), and Riley Poe did some really nice things," Arndorfer said. "We'll go back to the drawing board and try to figure out some holes in that zone."

The win gave the Lancers a 6-0 Greater Metro Conference record and moved them a game ahead of the Red Raiders (5-1).

Vnuk came off the bench to score six points in the first quarter and spark East to a 17-9 lead after 12 minutes. But the Lancers went on a 28-11 run in the second period behind 12 points by LaChance and took a 37-28 lead into intermission.

LaChance had 14 points at half and Mortag had 10, while East's Diamonte Mckinley, Vnuk and Kratzer each had seven.

With Central leading, 47-36, the Red Raiders started an 8-0 run to cut the lead to 47-44 with 1:54 left in the third period.

Moore scored twice, Vnuk scored on a pass from Carroll and Moore hit another basket in the run.

But the Lancers closed out the quarter with an 8-2 run of their own to ease into the final period with a nine point lead (55-46).

LaChance banked in a jumper and then Mortag did the same and also hit two free throws before East's Poe hit a lay-up with 25.6 left in the quarter. Mortag scored the final basket in the run for Central.

"It's a typical game with that much on the line," Central coach Mark Adams said. "There must have been three to four major swings by both teams. Sometimes those are the kind of things that cause people to fold and neither team did."

The Lancers held off the Red Raiders as reserves Rohde and Goodman had five points each in the final quarter and Carroll had five for the Red Raiders.

UP NEXT

The Red Raiders (10-2) travel to Marquette at 7:30 p.m. Thursday. The Hilltoppers are in second-last place in the GMC with a 1-5 league record and are 2-8 overall.

This is uncharted territory for Marquette, a usual contender for the conference title. The Hilltoppers have had only two other seasons in which it finished below .500 in the last nine years.

Junior 6-4 wing AJ Mueller (11.2 points) and senior 6-4 forward Donnell Cegars (10.4) led the team in scoring.

Mark Adams

Im really proud of these kids. I loved the way we finished the second quarter; I thought that was huge. Then we wavered a bit in the third quarter but when we finished the third quarter it was still a nine-point lead. So that was really big too.

Our theme all week was to rebound the basketball at both ends. That was definitely an advantage we had on them. I thought we did a pretty good job on that. And by doing that I thought we stayed aggressive in a lot of other things. Then I thought the aggressor got the rewards because we got to the free-throw line and made our free throws.

LaChance and mortag

Each week we tell those guys to expect it to be a war. People are going to try and do whatever they can do to make it diffuclt for them within reason. This is quite a tough task, but those two guys are pretty battle tested its not like this is the first time this has ever happened to them.

Im really proud of a couple other guys - Elijan Goodman came in tonight and did a good job. He's just been plugging away in practice. Sort of bidding his time. Just played great.

I thought Nat Rohde came in and gave us a nice lift too. And the couple 3's that Jack Sandtrom hit were huge also. Nick olson has been playing well, but he got in foul trouble and we couldn't get him going, so it was a next man up type of thing set in.

Riley LaChance

A lot of guys off the bench stepped up-everybody did a great job for us.

He (goodman) did a great job of getting the ball in the middle and not being tentative about getting some points. He finished at the basekt very well.

Unselfish

That's one thing that we really focused on this year we get guys balls who are open they are going to do what they're best at. We're doing a good job at sharing the ball.

Tim Arndorfer

1-3-1