Chris Caporale sports@wolfrivermedia.com
Leader Photo by Chris Caporale Shawano Community High School senior Austin Kohl pulls the ball out after attempting to drive on West De Pere’s Jake Karchinski in Shawano on Friday. Kohl had 14 points and 10 rebounds for the Hawks, who lost, 63-60.
With the defense collapsing on West De Pere’s Tyler Schwartz, he found Jake Karchinski for a deep two-pointer to tie the game with 50 seconds left, and back-to-back turnovers made it nearly impossible for Shawano to take the lead.
When the Hawks got possession back with 14.8 seconds left, Kaden Richards, who had 14 second-half points, drove to the basket and was contested by Karchinski and Quinn Norton. The Phantoms knocked down two more free throws, and Cole Nelson’s desperation heave at the buzzer bounced off the backboard in a 63-60 Shawano loss at home Friday night.
“I just thought we got a little careless with the basketball there at the end, and it ended up costing us the game,” Shawano head coach Dave Ambrosius said. “This is a good learning experience for the kids and something we can continue to improve on and continue to get better at.”
The Hawks, who trailed by as many as 10 points in the second half, pulled ahead by six points, 56-50, with five minutes remaining as Richards hit one of his five layups in the game. Shawano turned the ball over on two consecutive possessions, and West De Pere’s Taylor Rahn scored five straight points to pull within one.
Karchinksi, a sophomore, made a layup to take back the lead briefly, and Schwartz hit one of two free throws with 2:22 left to jump ahead by two. Richards was back at it, driving for another layup to even up the game just 18 seconds later.
Junior Dakota Maltbey, who was fouled on a layup attempt with 1:21 left in the game, knocked down both shots before Karchinski hit his deep two-pointer to tie the game.
“As a team, we feel a lot of confidence in Jake to knock that shot down,” West De Pere head coach Andy Werner said.
Ambrosius hopes the Hawks (3-7, 2-2 Bay Conference) can find the right player to make the big plays down the stretch like Karchinski did for the Phantoms.
“West De Pere is a good team, and they hit a shot,” Ambrosius said. “They did what good teams do. They made plays down the stretch, and that’s what we’ve still got to continue to work and get better at.”
Shawano, which has now lost at home to the Phantoms (9-4, 4-1 Bay) in back-to-back years, used a 22-6 run over nine minutes, with Richards, Cole Nelson, Austin Kohl and Jacob Lacy each hitting a 3-pointer during the stretch. Richards had nine of his game-high 19 points during that stretch.
Nelson added a fast-break layup, and center Dakota Maltbey scored two of his 14 points for Shawano on that run.
“I think it just comes down to, once one guy gets going, the rest of the team kind of feeds off of that a little bit, so once Kaden got himself going a little bit, that got Cole going, we got (Kohl) going a little bit there for a little while,” Ambrosius said. “The other guys, they feed off of each other’s energy, and I think that was very evident.”
Kohl added 10 rebounds for Shawano, which made 9 of 16 3-point attempts (56 percent). The Hawks trailed by eight points at the half, after the Phantoms got six straight points from Cody Eisch in the final 70 seconds of the half.
Nelson had five assists and two steals for the Hawks.
West De Pere (63)
Owens 3 2-2 8; Schwartz 3 2-3 8; Kempen 2 0-0 4; Eisch 2 4-6 8; Rahn 5 3-5 15; Jindra 0 0-4 0; Kocken 1 0-0 3; Karchinski 5 2-5 13; Norton 1 2-2 4.
Shawano (60)
Richards 8 0-0 19; Nelson 4 0-0 10; Lacy 1 0-0 3; Kohl 5 1-2 14; Maltbey 4 6-7 14.
West De Pere 36 27 — 63
Shawano 28 32 — 60