Change in strategy leads to victory

New Berlin - The turning point for the New Berlin West boys in a 58-46 victory at Wauwatosa West on Friday came when the Vikings got the Trojans to play their type of basketball.

"When we went to the three-quarters court pressure to slow them down, we got some steals, but we slowed the pace on them," New Berlin West coach Jeff Lewiston said. "That was critical to our success."

It took the Vikings awhile, however, as they finally put the game away in the final three minutes.

Leading 48-44, the Vikings went on a 10-2 run in the final 2 minutes, 32 seconds to win going away.

First Darin Sowinski sank two free throws, and then Dan Sidesky stole the ball and scored before the Trojans' Ricky Landers put in a layup with 1:17 to play to cut the lead to 52-46.

But Sidesky then took over the game as he usually does and scored the last six points by going 6-for-6 from the free throw line.

With the Vikings coming off an emotional 50-46 loss to cross-town rival New Berlin Eisenhower three days before, Lewiston was worried about how his squad would come out of the gates.

Tosa West, a team that starts three freshmen, a sophomore and a junior, jumped out to a 13-7 lead in the first quarter.

"They have a lot of talent here," Lewiston said. "They're going to be really good. They have kids who can slash to the basket. We're not blessed with a lot of quickness. We were very concerned.

"They have seven slashers and a couple 3-point shooters. The way they play with that dribble-drive hand-off stuff, we thought we could do a lot of switches but we didn't come out with the eye of the tiger."

But New Berlin came back with a 16-7 second period, as Sidesky scored six points, Sowinski four and Dino Poulos and Kevin Marx three apiece.

"The part I was happiest about was we could have folded up the tent right there when we fell behind but we didn't," Lewiston said. "We even got back to we were ahead by three at half. I was pleased that we weathered adversity. It was a good learning moment there."

Leading 23-20 at intermission, the Vikings expanded the lead to 38-30 after three periods.

Tosa freshman Steffan Brown opened the final quarter by rebounding his own shot and tossing a basket, sophomore Blake Harvey sank two free throws, freshman Andre Carroll sank a 3-pointer and scored a layup on a pass from Harvey to cut the lead to 41-39 with 5:04 left in the game.

But once again Sidesky stepped it up for the Vikings, drilling a 3-pointer and a jump shot before Harvey had a layup for the Trojans, cutting the lead to 46-43.

After that, Sowinski scored another basket and Landers countered with a free throw that set up the Vikings final run.

Sidesky finished with 32 points, while Sowinski had 11 and Poulos nine, while Carroll had 12, Brown and Harvey added 10 each for Tosa West.

Lewiston had praise for Sidesky, Sowinski, Dino Poulos and Kevin Marx.

"Dino had a heck of a game," Lewiston said. "One of my assistants said he looks out of control but he is in control and caused them a lot of problems. He's quick, his handling the ball. Sowinski and Marx are consistent and give us some nice intangibles."

The Vikings are 2-3 in the Blue Division, 2-6 overall. They played Whitnall on Tuesday and now they play in the New Berlin Classic on Tuesday and Wednesday.