Mount Horeb edges Sauk Prairie

All that was missing were the helmets and shoulder pads. The boys basketball rematch between Mount Horeb and Sauk Prairie last Friday night was a throwback to the old Badger Conference days of grind it out offense necessitated by a physical, in-your-face brand of defense. It was a street fight from the opening tip-off with every shot contested and every 50-50 ball drawing a crowd. Host Sauk Prairie, though, was unable to take advantage of its annual ‘Pack the Gym’ night to take down conference powerhouse Mount Horeb in the second round of Badger Small Conference play. Junior sharpshooter Josh Manchester scored a game-high 32 points and came up with a pair of late steals on defense to help Mount Horeb escape with a 50-44 victory over the host Eagles. “I was really happy with our effort, but it came down to late game stuff for us,” Sauk Prairie coach Sean McGann said. “We have struggled in almost every game when it’s a close game. This was no different. We had six turnovers in the last five minutes.”  With Manchester — who set Mount Horeb’s career scoring record earlier this season — on the floor, the Vikings know who to turn to when the pressure is on. “We knew we had our work cut out for us,” Mount Horeb coach Todd Nesheim said. “It was pack the gym, full house. You know how games are in this conference with top tier teams. Grind it out, grind it out. I thought we did a good job of grinding tonight on both ends of the floor.” With the Vikings clinging to a 46-41 lead after Manchester sank a 3-pointer, he came up with a steal on the Eagles’ ensuing possession. Manchester was fouled with 57.4 seconds remaining and drained two free throws help put the game out of reach. “I knew I wanted the ball,” Manchester said. “I always trust myself in those situations, just from the work in the off-season. I knew I was ready to step up.” Mount Horeb improved to 17-2 overall and remained perfect in the Badger Small Conference at 10-0. The Vikings also moved to 5-0 in games decided by six points or less. That is something the Eagles, who are 1-3 in two-possession games, haven’t been able to duplicate. “The whole gym knows who Mount Horeb is going to in those moments,” McGann said of Manchester. “I think our team is still searching for that. It doesn’t have to be just one guy. We can do it collectively. Right now, we don’t have a guy who consistently is craving for the ball in that moment.  “But it takes a real special player to want the ball in that situation. We’ve got to stop doing this to ourselves and learn from it eventually.” Mount Horeb never trailed after opening an 8-0 lead just under 5 minutes into the game. McGann, a Baraboo graduate, said the game then settled into a contest that brought back a few memories from his playing days. “I was telling Todd (Nesheim) before the game like I remember when I was in high school playing Mount Horeb it was like the game would be in the 30s,” McGann said with a smile. “If you would have told me we would hold Mount Horeb to 50 (points), I would have said I will take it in a moment. Unfortunately, we didn’t make our own shots.” The Vikings, ranked second in the Wissports.net Division 2 coaches’ poll, could never get any breathing room against the Eagles (9-10, 3-7), who were just as relentless on defense for most of the game. “They were very physical obviously,” Mount Horeb senior forward Zach Maguire said. “Jake (Buckles) is an all-conference lineman, so he’s a physical guy. That was the lowest we’ve scored all season. They were very solid defensively.” But Mount Horeb matched Sauk Prairie’s intensity on the defensive end of the floor all night. “That’s what our program has hung their hat on. This has been mostly an offensive team at times this year,” Nesheim said of the Vikings, who have scored 70 points or more in 12 of 19 games this season. “This is one of the best defensive games this year.”  Maguire, who finished with three points and six rebounds, agreed.  “That will win us games down the line, in the playoffs,” Maguire said of the Vikings’ pack-line defense that limited Sauk Prairie to 22 points in the paint. “If our defense can hold teams to 44 points, we should be good.”  Junior forward Jake Buckles led Sauk Prairie with 12 points, including three 3-pointers, and senior forward Trent Backeberg added 11 points and a game-high eight rebounds. But while the Eagles held the rest of the Vikings to a combined 18 points, including eight from sophomore guard Alex Chapman, Manchester earned every point he scored. “You’re at his mercy,” McGann said of Manchester, who shot 12-of-28 from the floor, including 2 of 10 from beyond the arc. “The coaches were saying, ‘Who do you want to have guard Josh?’  “I’m like, does anyone actually guard him? He guards himself. You’re at the mercy of him making shots or missing. He’s a great player. I have a ton of respect for all the work he puts in his games. We tried our best to make it tough.” The Eagles, though, tried their best to slow Manchester down with Backeberg taking on the tough assignment of shadowing the shooting star. Backeberg knew it wasn’t going to be easy to limit Manchester, who scored a game-high 34 points in the team’s first meeting when host Mount Horeb pulled away for a 73-60 victory on Jan. 6. “He’s averaging 30 (points) so there’s not much you can do,” said Backeberg, an all-conference defensive back in football, who tried to stick to Manchester like glue. “We just have to make him take the toughest shots he can take.” Manchester nearly outscored Sauk Prairie in the first half, finishing with 16 points to help stake Mount Horeb to a 26-19 lead at halftime.  McGann was pleased with the Eagles’ efforts, though, with starting point guard and leading scorer Otis Andres out with an ankle injury that he suffered in a loss to McFarland on Feb. 4. “We were without our leading scorer and our other two lead guards were in foul trouble in the first half,” McGann said. “But what a battle. That was really fun. I told the guys that those are the types of crowds you have to be thinking about in the summer when you’re working on your game.”  Manchester sank a pair of free throws just more than 4 minutes into the second half to give the Vikings their largest lead of the game at 37-26. But Sauk Prairie used an 8-0 run capped by two free throws from Backeberg to pull the Eagles within 37-34 with 11:27 to play. After senior guard Chris Kiel sank one of two free throws for Mount Horeb, Backeberg scored on a fastbreak layup off an assist from sophomore guard Lincoln Ganser to trim the Eagles’ deficit to 38-36. But that was as close as Sauk Prairie would get the rest of the game. “One of the things we talked about before the game was how we wanted to be remembered as a team,” Buckles said. “We went out there as a team and tried to give everything. We believed we could beat them, but we came up short.” Both teams struggled shooting from the field. Mount Horeb shot 33.9% (19-of-56), including 22.7% from 3-point range (5-of-22), while Sauk Prairie wasn’t much better shooting 35.6% (16-of-45), as well as sinking 5-of-22 shots from beyond the arc (22.7%). McGann, though, was pleased that the Eagles held their own on the boards and were outrebounded just 35-34. “Every single rebound was an absolute battle. Our guys really competed,” McGann said. “Mount Horeb is an elite rebounding team. They can shoot it. But their role players just get a bunch of rebounds. We didn’t back down.” While Manchester, who is averaging 31 points per game this season, surpassed 30 points for the 12th time in 19 games, it was his defense that helped secure the victory against the Eagles. “He’s been getting so many steals,” Maguire said of Manchester. “It seems like every time he’s guarding the ball, he comes away with a tip, steal, something that we get so many transition points out of. It’s really nice when he’s pressuring the ball like that.” Manchester finished with six rebounds, five assists, 11 deflections and five steals, including a pair of key stops down the stretch. However, Buckles said the Eagles accomplished their goal of making Manchester earn every point he scored. “I have a lot of respect for Josh,” Buckles said. “He puts in the work day in, day out. He was a difference maker. “Big time players make big-time plays, and he did down the stretch. He is their guy. That shows. The rest of the team had 18 points. He’s just a big-time player. But I’m really, proud of our guys and how we fought. That’s how we have to play every game. It was awesome to see.” • McFarland 69, Sauk Prairie 61 — Braden Schaaf scored a game-high 16 points, but the host Spartans held off the Vikings in a Badger Small Conference game on Feb. 4. Jake Buckles finished with 14 points, while Nicholas Keyser added 10 for Sauk Prairie, which trailed 40-22 at halftime. Ben Forbes led McFarland with 16 points. • On deck: Following a non-conference game at River Valley on Monday, Sauk Prairie travels to Portage to face the Warriors in a Badger Small Conference game at 7:15 p.m. on Thursday. The Eagles then play at Baraboo in a conference game on Feb. 18 at 7:15 p.m.    Feb. 4 MCFARLAND 69,  SAUK PRAIRIE 61 Sauk Prairie ......... 22 39 — 61 McFarland …....... 40 29 — 69 SAUK PRAIRIE (fg ft-fta pts) — Braden Schaaf 6 2-2 17, Jake Buckles 4 2-2 14, Casey Brickl 4 0-2 8, Otis Andres 2 1-2 5, Nicholas Keyser 4 2-2 10, Boden Breunig 2 0-0 5, Brendan Marquardt 1 0-0 2. Totals 23 7-10 61. MCFARLAND — Grayson Gauwitz 1 0-0 2, Garrett Crull 6 0-2 15, Hayden Harrison 4 0-0 9, Kellen Peil 0 0-0 0, Eli Krueger 4 2-2 10, Mason Roe 4 6-6 14, Ben Forbes 6 4-4 16, Kam Meinholdt 1 0-0 3. Totals 26 12-14 69. 3-point goals:  SP 8 (Braden Schaaf 3, Jake Buckles 4, Boden Breunig 1), McF 5 (Garrett Crull 3, Hayden Harrison 1, Kam Meinholdt 1). Total fouls: SP 14, McF 10.   Feb. 7 MOUNT HOREB 50,  SAUK PRAIRIE 44 Mount Horeb ….. 26 24 — 50 Sauk Prairie ….... 19 25 — 44 MOUNT HOREB (fg ft-fta pts) — Kam Nesheim 0 0-0 0, Josh Manchester 12 6-7 32, Chris Kiel 0 1-2 1, Cal Odgers 0 0-0 0, Hayden Anderson 0 0-0 0, Owen Aeschlimann 0 0-0 0, Zach Maguire 1 0-1 3, Griffin Hannah 3 0-0 6, Alex Chapman 3 0-0 8. Totals 19 7-10 50. SAUK PRAIRIE — Braden Schaaf 0 0-0 0, Trent Backeberg 4 2-2 11, Jake Buckles 4 1-2 12, Casey Brickl 1 2-4 4, Nicholas Keyser 3 0-1 6, Boden Breunig 3 0-0 6, Lincoln Ganser 0 2-2 2, Brendan Marquardt 1 0-0 3. Totals 16 7-11 44. 3-point goals: MH 5 (Josh Manchester 2, Zach Maguire 1, Alex Chapman 2), SP 5 (Trent Backeberg 1, Jake Buckles 3, Brendan Marquardt 1). Total fouls: MH 12, SP 17.