By NICK BRILOWSKI
Special to The Gazette
Head coach Jody Hauser and the Pacelli boys' basketball team have ended up in the same situation and experienced the same result far too many times in one season. On countless occasions this year, the Cardinals have found themselves in a close game heading down the stretch but can never seem to find a way to experience a victory for their efforts.
Such was the case on Thursday, Feb. 7, at the Student Activities Center. Rallying from being down by as many as 18 points in the third quarter, Pacelli had its rally come up just short, falling to Manawa, 65-62. The outcome was still in doubt until the final buzzer when Pacelli's Derrick Lepak launched a running three-pointer from the top of the key only to have it bounce off the front of the rim.
"I felt that the kids put a lot of effort into in," Hauser said of his team's comeback attempt. "Maybe if we could win one we would find out what it takes to do it."
The Cardinals came out of the gates slowly in the first half. After Pacelli scored the first two points of the game, the Wolves rattled off 11 straight to take a nine-point lead. Trailing 15-4, Pacelli mounted an early run to get back in the game. The Cardinals outscored Manawa 12-4 the rest of the opening quarter to climb back to 19-16.
Remarkably, the 16 points were just four less than Pacelli scored in its entire first meeting with the Wolves when they devoured the Cardinals, 54-20.
Manawa was able to stretch the lead to seven in the second quarter before Pacelli closed to 31-27 in the waning moments of the period. However, the Wolves finished off the quarter by scoring the final four points to take a 35-27 lead into the locker room at halftime.
The opening of the third quarter was nearly a blueprint of the first as Manawa caught fire from the field, and particularly from three-point range. The Wolves used a 13-3 run to take what appeared to be an insurmountable 48-30 lead.
But Pacelli slowly managed to whittle away at the lead cutting Manawa's advantage to 55-44 at the end of the third. After scoring 10 points in the first half, Manawa's Lance Krueger scored another 11 in the third quarter behind three three-pointers on his way to a game-high 25 points.
A Jake Owens lay-up with 3:47 remaining forced Manawa to call a timeout as its lead was reduced to 61-51. Jim Milkowski then stepped to the forefront for the Cardinals, knocking down back-to-back three-pointers to chop the Wolves' lead to just four with 1:32 remaining.
Adam Grosskopf managed to hit one of two free throws with 1:20 to go before Pacelli's Brad Heeg hit another three to get the Cardinals within two, 62-60. Bill Nolan pushed the Manawa lead back to four by hitting two free throws with 36 seconds remaining.
An empty possession by Pacelli forced the team to foul Greg Bonikowske with 27.6 seconds left, but two misses left the door open for the Cardinals. Milkowski was then fouled attempting a three-pointer with 9.3 left on the clock and made two from the line to get Pacelli within two again.
Pacelli was then forced to foul Bonikowske again with 7.6 seconds showing on the clock. After making the first attempt, Bonikowske missed the second and the Cardinals got the rebound. The ball came loose near the mid-court stripe where Lepak picked up the ball and just missed on his 24-foot attempt to send the game into overtime.
Despite yet another close loss, Hauser said he was proud of his team's resilience.
"You can't fault the kids effort in the fourth quarter," Hauser said. "I think if we had a couple more minutes, who knows what might have happened.
"Tonight we came out and we struggled. Nothing against Manawa, they're big and athletic, but we didn't do a good job of attacking (their 1-3-1 zone defense).
Owens and Heeg led Pacelli with 14 points apiece while Ahern Cashin added 11 and Milkowski chipped in with 10. After a Valentine's Day match-up with Weyauwega-Fremont, the Cardinals return to action on Friday, Feb. 22, when they travel to Amherst.