No. 2 Lake Mills defense, rebounding key in sub-state final

FOREST CITY – Lake Mills used its length to get rebounds and was solid defensively in the Class 1A sub-state 2 final at Forest City High School, ending West Fork’s boys’ basketball season on Saturday, Feb. 27.

The Bulldogs out-rebounded the Warhawks, 37-25, and held coach Frank Schnoes’ leading scorer Kayden Ames to only three points for a winning formula as Lake Mills returned to the state tournament with a 54-40 win.

“They did a nice job (defensively),” Schnoes said. “They are a little tall, a little long for us. We had a tough time on the boards. Every ball that was up for grabs there, they were just a little bit bigger, a little stronger, I guess.

“But our kids played hard, too, we held them to 54 – we always say if we can hold a team under 50 you have a chance. And we didn’t hit as many free throws as we needed to. They didn’t give us many looks for shots. They are real scrappy on defense, have some size and plug up the inside.”

Caleb Bacon of Lake Mills, who had a game-high 12 rebounds, including eight offensive boards, is second in all classes in the state in rebounding this season with 109.

Lake Mills’ starters didn’t have anyone under 6-foot-2. West Fork’s tallest starter, Joe Ingham at 6-5, led the Warhawks with 12 points. Cail Weaver, who had the first five points of the game for West Fork, finished with 10.

“I thought Joe played really well considering the size that he was going up against,” Schnoes said. “Cail played really well, I thought, too. They had Kayden’s number. They were going to be bothering him. We tried moving Kayden around a number of different places, they always seemed to have at least one player near him. That hurt.

“We did a nice job (defensively) on the (Wyatt) Helming kid, so that was kind of a wash. He had four the last I saw and Kayden had three, so I thought other kids stepped up for them and helped them out.”

Helming tallied five points late to finish with nine.

The Warhawks found themselves in foul trouble with Ren Heimer picking up his fourth and three others finishing with three fouls.

It was a 13-5 second quarter that made the difference and West Fork was playing catch-up the rest of the way. On a couple of occasions late, the Warhawks cut the deficit to within 10, including on Ames’ only three-pointer of the game, but could get no further.

“They were on the edge of some serious foul trouble, but the kids hung in there in the second half,” Schnoes said. “We played them even in the third and fourth quarter as much as I could tell. We had to gamble and take some chances. Second quarter got away from us. We missed some shots and they made some. Happy with the performance – the kids played hard and that’s all we can ask.

“They had a run there we couldn’t respond to. For quite a while there, couldn’t score. A lot of balls that we normally get, they finished off second and third chances on offense and we didn’t get that.”

West Fork graduates eight seniors, seven of which played throughout the entire contest.

“I think we are happy that we got to play the season,” Schnoes said. “We’ve talked about this before – we didn’t know what kind of season we’d have, so I’m grateful that with all of the senior we have we were able to get a whole season and have the success we did. We won a district championship and got to the sub-state. There is a reason Lake Mills was 24-0.”

Lake Mills 54

West Fork 40

West Fork (20-4, final)— Cail Weaver 2-10 5-9 10, Kayden Ames 1-4 0-0 3, Jakob Washington 4-12 1-2 9, Ren Heimer 2-7 0-0 6, Joe Ingham 6-9 0-0 12, Noah Maske 0-2 0-0 0, Colin Martinek 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 15-45 6-11 40.

Lake Mills (25-0)– Dashawn Linnen 3-9 2-3 8, Bennett Berger 2-6 4-6 9, Ryan Huston 2-3 0-0 5, Wyatt Helming 3-9 3-3 9, Caleb Bacon 8-12 0-1 16, AJ Ramaker 0-1 0-0 0, Kadin Abele 1-3 0-1 2, Denton Kingland 2-2 0-0 5. Totals 21-45 9-14 54.

W. Fork      11     5   13   11      -   40

Lake Mills  13   13   13   15      -   54

Three-point goals— WF 4-16 (Heimer 2-5, Ames 1-3, Weaver 1-5, Washington 1-1, Maske 0-1, Martinek); LM 3-10 (Kingland 1-1, Huston 1-2, Berger 1-3, Linnen 0-1, Helming 0-1, Ramaker 0-1, Abele 0-1). Rebounds— WF 25 (Washington 8, Ingham 7, Weaver 6, Heimer 3, Martinek); LM 37 (Bacon 12, Helming 11, Huston 5, Linnen 3, Berger 3, Abele 3). Assists— WF 13 (Weaver 4, Washington 3, Heimer 3, Ames 2, Martinek); LM 14 (Berger 6, Bacon 3, Linnen 2, Helming 2, Huston). Steals— WF 6 (Weaver 2, Washington 2, Maske, Ingham); LM 5 (Linnen 2, Berger, Helming, Bacon). Blocks— WF 3 (Ingham 3); LM 6 (Helming 4, Linnen, Huston). Total fouls— WF 16, LM 12. Fouled out— None.