Boys Basketball: Dominican knocks off Martin Luther, but Spartans share title
WHITEFISH BAY - This was a night to protect the home court and send a message.
Dominican’s boys basketball team has played through the transition to a new coach, been slowed by injury and taken its lumps against a tough schedule. Thursday night, however, the Knights looked like a team hitting its stride just in time for the WIAA tournament.
With Martin Luther needing to win to assure itself of its first league title since 1988, Dominican started fast, got a big-time performance from junior guard Gacoby Jones and scored a 68-64 victory to close out the regular season. The win was the team’s seventh in the last eight games and it marked the second time in a week that Dominican avenged an earlier loss.
Last week it got payback against Racine St. Catherine’s. This time the Knights snapped Martin Luther’s 16-game winning streak.
“We knew we were going to see them in the playoffs,” Jones said. “We had to make sure they knew that Dominican is back. We had a rough start to the season, but we’re back now.”
The contest, however, marked the rare occasion when both winner and loser went home happy. Despite the loss, Martin Luther (19-3) won a share of the Metro Classic Conference title thanks to St. Catherine’s win over Racine Prairie. Both Martin Luther and Prairie finished league play with 14-2 records.
BOX SCORE: Dominican 68, Martin Luther 64
“It was weird. I found out with about 8 seconds left in the game," Spartans coach Paul Wollersheim said. "The whole crowd knew. They were all following St. Catherine’s on the Twitter account they keep."
Jones sealed the victory with 10 seconds left by sinking two free throws to give Dominican a six-point lead. The points capped a 26-point night for the team’s leading scorer that featured 10 straight free throws in the final 6 minutes.
Dominican led from start to finish, and down the stretch coach Jim Gosz spread the floor and relied on Jones to make plays.
“Doing what I did tonight is basically my job,” Jones said. “Coach tells me to be a leader and make smart decisions.”
Will Jelacic, Dominican’s 6-foot-8 senior center, added 12 points. So did freshman guard Abe Scruggs IV, who provided a spark off the bench. Senior guards Ralen Brown and Jack Bennett had nine points each.
Martin Luther got 14 points each from junior guard Gabe Mack-Roundtree, sophomore guard Ace Evans and junior guard/forward Ki-Anthony Blake. Sophomore wing Xzavier Jones added 13 points.
The Spartans, however, fell behind, 9-0, and never completely caught up. They were down 14 at the half and managed to get the lead down to three on a handful of occasions during the final 6½ minutes. They also were able to make it a two-point game on a ridiculously deep three-pointer from Evans with 45 seconds left.
Jones, however, is a cool customer and he was able to keep the ball in his hands until Martin Luther was forced to send him to the line.
“I thought our young guys really played young in the first half,” Wollersheim said. “We took quick shots. I thought we got panicky on defense a little bit and it snowballed from there.”
Speaking of momentum, Dominican carries some into the tournament. The Knights, who have won the last five Division 4 titles, are in Division 3 this year.
They’re the No. 3 seed in the bottom half of the Whitefish Bay Sectional and barring an upset will open postseason play against Brookfield Academy next Friday. From there they could face No. 2 seed Racine St. Catherine’s in the regional final and top seed Martin Luther in the sectional semifinal.
The winner of that portion of the bracket likely will face Ripon, the state’s top-ranked D3 team, for the right to advance to state.
“Everyone is playing better," Gosz said. "We had a lot of kids who played football and were coming off off-season injuries. Our guys didn’t get a lot of fall basketball and now they’re getting the hang of things and starting to buy into what we need to to be successful.
"And we’re making shots. When you do that it opens up the game a little more.”