Sauk Prairie rolls past Edgewood

MADISON — Four wins in the span of five games — with the only loss coming to now Division 2 No. 1 Mount Horeb — left the Sauk Prairie boys basketball team feeling good about the way things were heading. The good vibes didn’t last. The Eagles next two contests were lopsided defeats, both by 25 points while allowing an average of 74.5 points. “We got punched in the mouth,” Eagles coach Sean McGann said. “So we came out and got back to the basics of our defense and taking some pride in it. Effort stuff.” It worked. Sauk Prairie stymied Madison Edgewood for all but the last 4 minutes last Friday, holding the Crusaders to 12 points in the first half en route to an easy 58-39, Badger Small Conference victory at Edgewood High School. “I am so excited to watch the film on this game because we did exactly what we wanted to do,” McGann said. “We were always in position. That was our best full defensive game all year.” It’s hard to argue with that. Edgewood (2-11, 1-4 Badger Small) didn’t score for the first 3 minutes, 15 seconds of the game. Then after the Crusaders rallied to go in front 9-8 with 9:52 left in the first half, they didn’t score again for nearly 8 minutes. “Our last practice was 90 percent defense,” said junior guard Otis Andres, who led the Eagles with 18 points. “We’ve been really focusing on that. Our last two games have been high scoring so we just wanted to slow other teams down.” Andres helped Sauk Prairie (8-7, 3-4) to a fast start, hitting a pair of 3-pointers — the second one from 25 feet out on the right wing — as the Eagles led 8-2 prior to Edgewood’s run. That burst prompted McGann to call timeout for an opportunity to reset. “Literally all we talked about in that timeout was shot quality,” he said. “Really valuing the ball. And they did a really good job of that for a good 10-minute stretch, and we expanded our lead.” Indeed, the Eagles did. And true to form, the counterpunch started with an easy basket inside by 6-foot-5 sophomore Brendan Marquardt, giving Sauk Prairie the lead for good at 10-9. Senior forward Trent Backeberg followed with seven of his 10 points in the game as Sauk Prairie finished the half on a 20-3 run to lead 28-12 at the break. The Crusaders’ full-court press, which was what helped them respond to their slow start and go in front, no longer rattled the Eagles.   “We handled the pressure better and turned the ball over less, which led to more inside touches,” Andres said. “Just staying calm and using more time — staying calm and being careful with the ball.” Sauk Prairie’s defense didn’t let up after halftime, either. Senior guard Nicholas Keyser’s drive to the basket with just under 5 minutes remaining gave the Eagles a 52-22 lead before Edgewood finished on a meaningless 16-6 run to make the final score a little more respectable. Even with that final push the Crusaders came nowhere close to making the Eagles sweat out accomplishing their goal for the game. “Our aquatics facility has a basketball hoop in the pool, so I said, ‘If you hold them under 50, we’ll have a practice in the pool,’ ” McGann said. “They were really hyped about that. I was like, ‘Really, that’s what motivates you?’ ” Turns out dangling even the smallest carrot paid dividends for the Eagles on Friday night. And they got the job done without the services of third-leading scorer Casey Brickl (6.8 points per game) in the second half after the 6-4 senior forward rolled his ankle in the first half. As well as the Eagles defended, they didn’t need him to score in order to win. “He’ll be fine,” McGann said. “But for us to be able to say, ‘Hey, we got your back’ and extend the lead was awesome.”   SAUK PRAIRIE 58,  MADISON EDGEWOOD 39 Sauk Prairie .......... 28 30 — 58 Edgewood ............ 12 27 — 39 SAUK PRAIRIE (fgm ftm-fta pts): Braden Schaaf 1 1-1 4, Trent Backeberg 4 0-0 10, Jake Buckles 2 1-1 6, Casey Brickl 2 0-0 4, Otis Andres 4 6-6 18, Nicholas Keyser 1 2-2 4, Boden Breunig 2 3-4 8, Brendan Marquardt 2 0-0 4. Totals: 18 13-18 58. EDGEWOOD: Timmy West 6 2-2 15, Connor Wood 1 1-2 3, Gannon Bagstad 1 0-1 2, AJ Gnewuch 2 0-0 5, Drew Christensen 5 2-2 14. Totals: 15 5-8 39. 3-pointers: Sauk Prairie 9 (Schaaf 1, Backeberg 2, Buckles 1, Andres 4, Breunig 1), Edgewood (4 (West 1, Gnewuch 1, Christensen 2). Total fouls: Sauk Prairie 17, Edgewood 15. Fouled out: None.