Sauk Prairie over Baraboo

First round of the playoffs took in the 8/9 match up of the Janesville Craig D2 sectional. There weren't alot of good match ups close to me on opening night of the playoffs and this game was very close to me and seemed to be a pretty good match up of conference opponents. The game did end up being a close game but, in all honesty this was kind of an ugly game to watch and wasn't that entertaining to watch.

This disappointing game kind of capped off a disappointing season for Baraboo. Baraboo had three pretty strong players in 5'11 senior Josh Statz, 6'7 senior Mark Kowalke, and 6'4 junior Sean McGann. Throughout the year all three had great games but, apparently couldn't put it together throughout the entire year as Baraboo finished 12-11 on the year. This was a team that I thought would battle Waunakee for the conference title but, in the end Waunakee was easily the class of the Badger North and outside of some close games really showed they were the class of the conference.

Well back to the game. Both teams started off very slow missing shot after shot and neither team seemed to be able to get in any rhythm. One thing that I think threw Baraboo off was the fact that Statz wasn't able to handle the ball as much as they would of liked because he was shadowed extremely close by Sauk Prairie senior 5'9 Brendan Coy and Statz never seemed to touch the ball until the ball was past half court and he was usually coming off a screen to get the ball. Those screens were costly as Baraboo got two early fouls within the first two minutes of the game setting moving screens which got them into foul trouble and those fouls ultimately allowed Sauk to get a lead late in the first quarter and carry it into halftime. In the second quarter Sauk went to a 1-3-1 zone defense which gave Baraboo even more problems, as they had a tough time figuring out the zone and seemed to spend alot of time just standing around on offense and when they tried to get the ball to the middle of the zone it seemed the ball was always tipped and Sauk ended up with the ball. Baraboo countered the Sauk zone with a zone of their own going to a 2-3 zone defense. The difference was Sauk was able to get the ball to the middle of the zone either score or kick the ball to open teammates. Halftime Sauk was up 21-14.

Honestly there isn't a whole lot more to talk about. Sauk was willing to give up the corner three point shots in the zone defense and Baraboo missed them again and again, I'm guessing Baraboo shot 1-7 from three point range in the first half and maybe shot slightly better in the second half as they did hit three, three point shots late. Midway through the third quarter it appeared that Baraboo was going to take the lead as McGann got hot hitting three straight shots including one of those corner threes and then the shots stopped falling for him and no one else could score. Kowalke was a non factor until he hit a pair of threes in the final minute to make the score close. For Sauk 6'1 senior Matt Rudig had a solid game not great but, did score 14 points half from the foul line and did hit some very tough jumpers, which he seemed to be settling for, in the first half. 6'3 senior Kenny McNeil and foul shooting were the real reasons that Sauk won the game. McNeil came off the bench and was a huge factor playing at the top of the 1-3-1 zone defense tipping balls and getting steals and then on the offensive end finding the opening in the zone defense and scoring. Foul shooting can be summed up with the fact that Baraboo hit four foul shots and Sauk hit 16 foul shots. Sauk shot probably around 75% for the game from the line and I believe they missed only one foul shot in the first half. Sauk won 39-36.

Top Players
Josh Statz 5'11 senior Baraboo- One of the few Baraboo players that actually looked to drive against the zone and score. Struggled at times though with his outside shot.
Sean McGann 6'4 junior Baraboo- Really carried his team in the third quarter and nearly got them a lead. When he got hot seemed every shot he took was going to fall.
Matt Rudig 6'1 senior Sauk Prairie- Just a solid overall game. Did a nice job rebounding on the defensive end and hit some nice jumpers.
Kenny McNeil 6'3 senior Sauk Prairie- Player of the game in my opinion, basically said it all earlier.

Box Score
Baraboo- McGann 14 Kowalke 9 Statz 9 Jesse Klink 2 Erik Anderson 2 Mike Weinke 0 Emerson Halbach 0 Caleb Leonhardt 0 Joe Becraft 0 Jed Traxler 0 Jacob Hacker 0
Sauk Prairie- Rudig 14 McNeil 13 Derek Sullivan 4 Jay Kuenster 3 Cameron Schwarz 3 Lucas Baier 2 Coy 0 Erik Meyer 0

I know I didn't have a ton of comments but, there wasn't much of a game. This game almost felt like the teams were sleep walking and there wasn't alot of excitement in the game. Sauk had a fairly small student section considering this could be their last game of the year and it's playoffs. Baraboo's season has ended and would be completely shocked if Waunakee didn't handle Sauk Prairie with ease, at least looking at the way Sauk looked tonight.