Madison West edges Baraboo

When the eight and nine seeds matchup the result should be a very good close game. Tonight when Baraboo the eight and Madison West the nine, this was the case as West edged out Baraboo 62-59. West was able to use their athleticism in this game to get offensive rebounds and to force Baraboo into some turnovers that really made the difference in this game.

For Madison West it was offensive rebounds that made the biggest difference and the player that provided the rebounds was Deon Johnson. Johnson is a superb leaper and he used his leaping ability to snatch multiple offensive rebounds and got a bunch of second and third chance buckets, which led to 26 points for him. Despite Johnson leading the team in rebounds and points it was Michael Horton who won the game for the Regents. I have said it before and I'll say it again Horton is vastly underrated player and is one of the better pass first point guards around. Horton sat the entire second quarter due to some foul trouble but, really took over the game in the third and fourth quarters. Horton had five points in the third quarter, had a hand full of steals, and at least five assists, which led to the majority of Johnsons second half baskets. When West was struggling against Baraboo's 1-3-1 zone it was Horton who was able to beat the zone with some cross court passes and some impressive no look passes. Corvonn Gaines also had a fairly solid game as he was able to score early in the game by penetrating to the inside and finishing strong and getting fouled and then knocking down the free throws. Another guy that was able to score was John Harth who was able to penetrate and go over the defenders out stretched hands to score.

Baraboo did their best to keep the game close as they hit nine three point shots. Baraboo star Chris Siebert had a very quiet 19 points as he hit midrange jumpers, three pointers, and had some break away layups. The main three point man was Jon Schlender who hit four three pointers. Everytime West was pulling away it seemed that Schlender was able to knock down a three. The third scored for the T-Birds and the only inside presence was Jordan Taylor. Despite being only 6'2 Taylor did a great job of scoring in the paint with his back to the basket.

Scoring Breakdown
Madison West 62- Johnson 26 Gaines 12 Harth 11 M Horton 7 Daniel Buie 4 Michael Carter 2 James Horton 0 Sam Bester 0 Antonio Golden 0 Clifford Simon 0
Baraboo 59- Siebert 19 Schlender 15 Taylor 14 Jacob Overlien 6 Ethan Dosler 3 Griff Kalepp 2 Michael Kohnert 0 David Kohnert 0 Brady Olson 0 Micah Kuchta 0 Bryan Szdlowski 0 Riley Arnold 0 Taylor Jahn 0

Well this was a great start to the state tournament hopefully the following weeks will be just as great with some great games.