Winning a state boys basketball championship is a “bucket list” item for Central High School senior wing Bennett Fried.
“Teachers would ask us what we wanted to do in high school,” Fried said. “Number one was always to go get the gold ball and for these guys. It's the same.”
After finishing runner-up last year, the second-seeded RiverHawks return to the WIAA Division 2 state tournament on Friday afternoon at the Kohl Center in Madison to face third-seeded Whitnall in the state semifinals.
It’s the fifth state tournament appearance of the RiverHawks (23-5) since 2016, including a title run in 2017. Several seniors, including guard Nic Williams, feel a sense of familiarity around championship week.
“We have a couple of guys that came back from last year’s team that have that experience,” said Williams, who joined Fried on Central's state runner-up team a year ago. “The coaching staff has been down there a lot lately, so they know what they’re doing. Going hard in practice will be good for us.”
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On the other end of the spectrum, the Falcons (23-4) have only made five state tournaments in school history and none since 2016. Central dedicated Monday’s practice to working on details while coaches began formulating a game plan for the Woodland Conference’s East Division champions.
“We just practice super hard every day,” senior guard Boston Brindley said. “We work on things we need to work on, what our opponents do really well and work on those pretty hard throughout the week. We do a lot of scouting, which our coaches do a really good job on.”
The name basketball fans will find most familiar on the Whitnall roster, coached by Travis Riesop, is Herro. Senior guard Austin Herro, the brother of Miami Heat guard Tyler, averages 15.3 points per game and leads the team in rebounds (6.3 rpg) and assists (4.7 apg).
The Falcons leading scorer is sophomore guard Jack Lutz, who averages 17.7 ppg on 40.5% 3-point shooting.
Tip-off Friday is set for 15 minutes after the first semifinal set to start at 1:35 p.m. between first-seeded Pewaukee and fourth-seeded Nicolet. Pewaukee is the defending Division 2 champion while Nicolet returns to state for the first time since winning the title in 2019.
The ninth-ranked Central High School boys basketball team used a 27-2 run from late in the first half through the middle of the second to beat fourth-ranked Onalaska 54-35 on Friday.
