Wisconsin stars hold off Northern Michigan boys in Border Bash
IRONWOOD — Kelsey Jilek isn’t small. His breakaway dunk in the state quarterfinal pretty much clinched Ewen-Trout Creek’s trip to the Breslin Center. All season, the All-U.P. player proved to be a tough matchup with his length and ability offensively and defensively.
“I’m one of the bigger guys out there being 6-4, almost 190 pounds,” Jilek said.
Just not on Monday.
His defensive assignment was Denmark’s Donovan Short, a 6-10, 220-pound center committed to play at UW-Green Bay. Short, who had several highlight dunks Monday, led everyone with 23 points and he was named MVP of the Kiwanis Classic Border Bash after leading Northern Wisconsin to an 89-88 win over Northern Michigan.
“Playing him is insane,” said Jilek, who had a nice game himself with 12 points. “When he gets in the post, you just know you can’t do anything but get up in his grill and get some help on him. But he’s really big and strong. I had a little bit of success, he traveled like twice and the ball came loose a couple times. But he must have had 20-plus just by turnaround 1-on-1s.”
Wisconsin was playing catchup the whole game. They trailed 26-9 after the first 13-minute quarter and they were down again 65-53 going into the fourth.
Hurley’s Braxton Sbraggia played a big role in their final comeback. His and-1 tied it at 78 and he scored again after two Michigan baskets by Johnny Schutz of Jeffers to pull Wisconsin within 83-80.
Short tied it up again. Even though Jilek was right there to contest his shot at the rim, Short powered it through.
“I had the ball pinned and he still went up with it,” Jilek said. “And of course they gave an and-1 on it. My wrist was on the ball the whole way up.”
He made the free throw to make it 83-all.
The U.P.’s Mr. Basketball, Jaden Borseth, who scored 13 points, put Michigan back in front after Short turned it over in the post. It was 88-85 Michigan off a Cooper Conway (Menominee) 3 when Hurley’s Matt DiGiorgio passed to Short, who went in for the breakaway slam dunk. He pulled himself up the rim and had the whole support system rocking.
Wisconsin tied it with a take to the basket by Rhinelander’s Jacksen Smith and Michigan called timeout with about 17 seconds left. Borseth got a good look at the 3, but it hit the iron just before the buzzer.
“We had a couple good options off that,” Menominee coach Sam Larson said. “Getting Jaden the ball on the top of the key was one of our good options. We got what we wanted, we just didn’t hit the shot. But I thought the kids played hard and executed throughout the game.”
The Border Bash has featured dazzling performances from several Division 1 and 2 players from the U.P. and Northern Wisconsin over the years like Jason Whitens of North Central (Michigan State), Rhinelander’s Owen White (Michigan Tech), Ripon’s Bennett Vander Plas (Ohio) and E-TC’s Jake Witt (Michigan Tech).
Short, who had many D-1 offers, played like it. He could handle it, shoot from anywhere - he qualified for the 3-point contest and took some of the corner shots from out of bounds - and of course could dunk in a variety of situations, on the break, on a pick-and-roll, on a putback or on a post move.
“The kid’s a heck of a player,” Larson said. “I thought Brady (Schultz) and Kelsey both did a pretty good job on him for the most part. Obviously there’s a size advantage and he took advantage of that a couple times.”
Flambeau coach Jeff Podgornik, who played for the Samsons in the mid 80s, said Short is “pretty agile for his size.”
“I had lots of fun out here, guarding him was a pretty fun way to end a career, too,” Jilek said.
Michigan was up to the challenge all night, holding the lead for almost the entire 52-minute marathon.
Six of their players were from the two state runners-up from the U.P. - the Panthers’ Jilek, Borseth and Eric Abramson and Menominee’s Brady Schultz, Cooper Conway and Aidan Bellisle.
Jeffers’ Johnny Schutz led Michigan with 19 points, Schultz, the slam dunk contest champ (yes, it wasn’t Short) had 17 and Bellisle scored 12.
“I thought Schultz had a heck of a game. I thought Borseth was really good for us. I thought Kelsey Jilek was good for us and Aidan controlled the tempo as well,” Larson said.
Jilek was happy with his night offensively that featured a dozen points.
“I was finding my way, driving and getting some fast breaks and some layups and get some contested jumpers and stuff,” Jilek said. “Pretty proud that I came out here and showed what Ewen guys can do.”
Jilek said they know the Menominee kids outside the game, they enjoyed seeing them at state and it was even more fun to play with them Monday.
“It was fun following them downstate while we were on our run,” Larson said. “They supported us and we supported them. It’s nice to be able to get the groups together and see what we have. It was a fun group to coach.”
Bessemer’s Jack Matrella tallied five points and Wakefield-Marenisco’s Kyle Sorensen had two.
Speaking of teams that went to state, Hurley big man Sbraggia scored 14 points for Wisconsin and DiGiorgio scored three.
“They’re scrappers,” Podgornik said. “They hustle. There’s a reason why they went to state. The big boy, he’s tough inside.”
Wisconsin — Harley Opachan 3, Monte Mayberry 7, Jacksen Smith 16, Connor Taylor 7, Parker Prahl 11, Reece Stoltenow 5, Donavan Short 23, Matt DiGiorgio 3, Braxton Sbraggia 14. FTs: 15-23. Fouls: 18. Fouled out: None. 3-pointers: Opachan 1, Smith 1, Taylor 1, Stoltenow 1.
Michigan — Jack Matrella 5, Kyle Sorensen 2, Aidan Bellisle 12, Kelsey Jilek 12, Brady Schultz 17, Johnny Schutz 19, Jaden Borseth 13, Cooper Conway 8. FTs: 7-17. Fouls: 19. Fouled out: None. 3-pointers: Borseth 3, Schultz 3, Schutz 2, Conway 2.
This article originally appeared on The Sault News: Wisconsin stars hold off Northern Michigan boys in Border Bash
