Ike suffers first loss but earns first-round bye
Ike's 20-game win streak snapped
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New Berlin Eisenhower's Keith Kahlfeldt keeps the ball away from Whitnall's Bryan Nagy during the teams' first meeting this season. Photo By Mary Catanese
New Berlin — Holding the state's best Division 2 record was not enough for the New Berlin Eisenhower boys basketball team to land the top seed in their regional at Saturday's seeding meeting.
The Lions (20-1, 15-1), who had their 20-game winning streak snapped with a 55-50 loss at Whitnall on Friday, were handed the second seed while Wisconsin Lutheran (17-3) took the top honors.
"We'll take what we got and be ready to play," said Eisenhower coach Dave Scheidegger, whose team will host either Milwaukee Lutheran or Milwaukee School of Languages at 7 p.m. March 4 after receiving a first-round bye.
"(Seeding meetings) are always very interesting and you do your best and get ready for the postseason. After going through these, nothing surprises me. You have to take them with a grain of salt."
The teams were tied for the top spot after three votes; one coach changed his mind during the fourth vote, giving Lutheran the edge. Scheidegger did not believe his team's loss was the deciding factor.
Team too impulsive
Whitnall's William Pelkofer (20 points), Jake Lehmann (11) and Brian Nagy (nine) sent the Lions to the seeding meeting with one loss. The Falcons jumped out to a nine-point halftime lead (30-21) and held on down the stretch despite a game-high 23 points from Eisenhower's Mitch Sperka and 14 from sophomore center Keith Kahlfeldt.
"We kind of threw that ball away like it wasn't very important," Scheidegger said. "Not that we're real clean with the ball - we've had high turnover games - but there's something about how we were too impulsive. That was disappointing because we haven't done it to the degree that we did it (Friday)."
As of Friday, Eisenhower was the only undefeated team in the NOW area, and with the Lions' loss, only five teams statewide are still perfect: Division 1's Racine Park (20-0) and Antigo (20-0), Division 3's Cuba City (21-0) and Marathon (21-0) and Division 4's Randolph (20-0). According to Scheidegger, going undefeated was not a goal his team was focused on, even as the streak got longer and longer.
"If we had won (Friday) and got to the last game (against Greenfield on Wednesday), we'd say, 'Here you go. You win this and you get a perfect season,'" he said. "But we weren't to that point. You know the old line, if someone offers you 20-1 before the season starts, you're going to take it. You're not going to hold out for 21-0."
The loss came during one of the toughest weeks on the Lions schedule. Three days earlier, they survived with a 50-47 win over visiting Wauwatosa West (14-5). Sperka dropped in a game-high 20 and the Lions benefited from the Trojans' 10-of-25 shooting from the free-throw line.
But Eisenhower was not as fortunate against the Falcons.
Teams got up for Ike games
"Whitnall had something to do with (the streak ending)," Scheidegger said. "In our defense, it's high school basketball and we're sitting there and everybody is taking their best shot (at us). … The reverse of that, it makes us tougher. We have to be ready every single game. You cannot take a night off, or a play off. But really, our kids have done a fabulous job."
The Lions also locked up their fifth straight conference title despite playing the last six games without starting point guard Tyler Nickerson, a senior who tore his anterior cruciate ligament in a win at Pewaukee on Jan. 29.
"We're not wallowing in self pity (because of the loss)," Scheidegger said. "The kids had a great run, for those that want build that up. But we just want to improve and play good basketball. Maybe these things we saw and discovered Friday, at least now we have time to address them and attack them because once you lose in the playoffs, you are done. From that standpoint, maybe it was a good thing in the long run."
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