'It was crazy': Mishicot girls basketball withstands chaotic final seconds to punch ticket to state
BRILLION - In the time it takes to blink, the Mishicot girls basketball team nearly went from happiness to heartache.
Fourth-seeded Mishicot held on to defeat top-seeded St. Mary Catholic 56-55 on Saturday in a WIAA Division 4 sectional final despite some nervous last moments.
With time running out and the Zephyrs’ players not defending down 56-53, Mishicot was assessed a technical foul when players from the bench stepped onto the court with .8 seconds remaining.
“St. Mary’s kind of pressured up, we got over the top and our bench celebrated a little early,” said Mishicot coach Mike Garceau.
Emily Vogel went to the line for St. Mary Catholic and converted both of her free throws to pull the Zephyrs within one point. On the ensuing inbounds pass, however, Mishicot forced a 5-second violation on St. Mary Catholic.
“We just had to get a touch and burn the clock out,” Garceau said of what he told his players after the violation.
Mishicot took over possession, and it appeared a foul would be called on Mishicot’s Cora Stodola as time expired reaching for the inbounds pass, but after a quick huddle by the officials nothing was called and Mishicot had completed the upset.
It was a whirlwind of emotions according to Mishicot freshman Kensington Rosenow, who scored all nine of her points in the final 10 minutes off the bench.
“It was crazy, we were all frustrated,” Rosenow said. “We knew we had to go right back out there and finish it.”
Junior Christina Moyle said it was a valuable lesson.
“It was kind of like ‘oh no’, we were very shocked about that,” Moyle said. “Next time wait till the buzzer ends and then have a good time.”
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Moyle and Rosenow combined to score 17 of Mishicot’s final 21 points, giving the team a pair of unlikely heroes as the duo averages about 10 points a contest combined.
During one stretch, Rosenow scored six straight points for Mishicot.
“It just came to me and I had to go and finish,” Rosenow said.
Stodola scored a team-high 14 points while Moyle finished with 11, including three 3-pointers.
“We had so many kids step up and just play good hard, aggressive basketball,” Garceau said. “We’re not always the best team on the floor. We don’t always have the best athletes, but the kids can play hard. Maybe harder than what the opponent is or is accustomed to.”
There was a sense of confidence about the players from Mishicot, which had lost to St. Mary Catholic twice in the regular season before Saturday’s meeting.
“Once we start knocking shots down, we don’t stop,” Moyle said. “It was more personal confidence. We didn’t get down on ourselves. We’d make a mistake and let it go.”
Garceau said his players took lessons from those earlier losses and used them to their advantage.
“Finishing,” Garceau said of the biggest difference. “A little bit of calm, a little bit of execution. We were leading both of those games late and we coughed it up. We didn’t do that today, we were poised. We’ve grown a hell of a lot in the second half of the season in terms of being poised and being patient. That’s the difference, we finished.”
It didn’t hurt that after the Zephyrs hit seven 3s in the first half, St. Mary Catholic was limited to three total field goals after halftime and only one 3-pointer.
“To hold a team like that to three field goals in the second half is outstanding,” Garceau said. “I want to bet that hasn’t been done to them this year.”
“We had to lock down the shooters and close them down well,” Rosenow said.
Garceau told his players all they had to do was not worry about doing everything right, just do what they could.
“There’s so many things you have to take away from them to be successful and we weren’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but we did enough and that was our message,” Garceau said. “You don’t have to be perfect, you just have to do enough.”
Mishicot did just that, and finds itself back at the state tournament for the third time in school history. In its last appearance in 2021, Mishicot won it all.
Throughout the course of the season, Garceau has used that team as an example of what grit and perseverance can accomplish.
After Saturday’s upset of St. Mary Catholic, Garceau will have a more recent group to use as inspiration in the coming seasons.
“(The players) are sick and tired of hearing about the Class of 2021. Now they’ve made their own legacy,” Garceau said.
Contact Tom Dombeck at 920-686-2965 or tdombeck@htrnews.com. Follow him on Twitter at @Tom_Dombeck.
This article originally appeared on Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter: Mishicot girls basketball upsets St. Mary Catholic, makes it to state
