The Martin Luther Spartans and the Waupun Warriors advance to the WIAA Division 3 State Championship Game to be held on Saturday
In the first game, Spartan senior, Trequan Carrington, lead all scorers with 41 points. Teammate and senior, Ace Evans, supported Carrington’s performance with 21 points. The Northwestern Tigers were led by senior, Brody Payton, with 19 points and 15 of those coming from beyond the arc with a 5/6 three-point shooting performance.
The Spartans outrebounded the Tigers by a 36-29 margin. The Spartans took control of the game by scoring 32 points off of turnovers while the Tigers only managed three.
In the other Division 3 State Semi-Final game it was the #2 seed Waupun Warriors (21-1) and the #3 seed Denmark Vikings (18-4). The Warriors stepped into the locker room at halftime with a 32-24 lead and didn’t look back in the second half, securing the victory 60-43. The Vikings had cut the deficit to eight off of a three-pointer from Brennan Miller and wouldn’t get closer than that. In the second half, it was too much Warriors and too much Marcus Damask.
Damask, a 6’6” senior, led all scorers with 21 points, including 12 second-half points. Damask was helped by fellow senior, Trevor VandeZande, who had 13 points. Damask scored the first two points in a Warrior 10-0 run that started at the 5:53 mark and ended with another Damask bucket with 3:30 left in the game. In the run it was Damask with eight of the Warrior ten, sealing the victory and assuring Waupun with a trophy to bring home on Saturday.
“We knew the scouting report and knew we had to keep Denmark off the rebounding glass”, said Damask. “You always want to go in the locker room feeling good and heading into the half it felt good with me only having one foul”.
With the win, the Warriors get a rematch with an earlier season game against Martin Luther. Waupun fell to Martin Luther 79-64 in a non-conference game. The State Championship game is on Saturday, March 16th at approximately 12:45 PM.
