Elk Mound boys beat Berlin in overtime, nip Amery to win sectional championship

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by Joel DeWitt

Sports Correspondent

Much like the girls’ team, the Elk Mound boys’ basketball team was looking to punch their ticket to the state championship tournament with a pair of victories in WIAA Division 3 sectional action. The Mounders won their two regional contests by a combined eight points and their sectional matchups were even tighter.

The Mounders, third place finishers in the Dunn-St. Croix conference, are used to being tested on the year. The bright lights and big stage of the tournament hasn’t fazed a team anchored by three seniors as they held off both Berlin and Amery to secure a spot in Madison for the state semifinals.

Top-seeded Elk Mound opened action on Wednesday, March 12 (rescheduled from March 13 to avoid a conflict with the Elk Mound girls’ team playing in the state tournament) traveling to Marshfield High School where it tangled with Berlin, a six seed, in the sectional semifinal. Elk Mound pulled out to a 21-point lead midway through the second half and then had to hold off the Indians for the 83-71 overtime win.

The win pitted Elk Mound against Amery (21-8) in the sectional championship. The March 15 contest was held in Somerset in front of an excited, packed house of 2,500 spectators. Like the semifinal against Berlin, Elk Mound fell behind early and trailed by eight at halftime. The Warriors extended their lead to 15 points, but a senior-led rally saw the Mounder boys secure a thrilling 54-52 win and a state berth. 

“It’s absolutely amazing and I’m so proud of our or entire group,” praised Elk Mound coach Dennis Arneson. “I mean, we’ve been in so many close games all year.”

When pressed on his team’s tight games and perseverance, Arneson responded, “It seems like and I talked about this earlier in the season, but if we were up ten or down five with a few minutes left I think I’d pick our team being down five. It’s like, we just have that grit.”

The win, Elk Mound’s tenth in a row, avenged a sectional semifinal loss last season to Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau and returns the Mounders to Madison for the first time in 12 seasons. The 2013-14 Mounders lost to Lodi 50-47 in overtime in the Division 3 state semifinals.

Elk Mound, unranked in the latest coaches poll, received the fourth seed and will play top seeded Freedom (27-1) in the first semifinal at 1:35 p.m. on Thursday, March 20 at the Kohl Center in Madison. Freedom won the North Eastern conference with a perfect record and advanced to Madison with a victory over Little Chute in their sectional championship matchup. 

This semifinal winner will take on the winner of second-seed Milwaukee Academy of Science (MOS) (23-1) and third seed

Lake Mills (24-4) for the state championship on Saturday, March 22. MOS, an independent, comes into the state tournament having scored 90 or more points in 19 games, including breaking the century mark seven times. Lake Mills was undefeated in the Capitol – North conference and beat Wisconsin Dells 73-31 to advance to state.

Berlin

For the second time in two years, Elk Mound and Berlin matched up in the post-season. The Mounders took down the Indians 66-46 in the 2024 regional final. This year’s edition proved to be a roller coaster with runs and dry streaks being the norm.

Berlin held Elk Mound scoreless the first 2:30 of action while building a 6-0 lead. Victor Noller jumped started the Mounder offense with a spinning reverse layup to trim the deficit to four. Cale Knutson and Logan Jerome followed up with short buckets to knot the score at six apiece.

Zebulon Robinson hit on a drive and bucket and an elbow three pointer, however Berlin matched shot for shot as the game remained tied at 11-11 with 10:00 left in the first half.

Tied at 15-15, Jerome’s deep three pointer ignited a Mounder 7-0 run. A running jumper from Robinson and steal and fastbreak layup from Kamron Diermeier propelled Elk Mound to the 22-15 advantage and forced a Berlin timeout with 7:00 left in the half.

Every time the Indians pulled close to the Mounders, Elk Mound responded with a three pointer. Berlin’s James Paskey drained a trey from the top of the key to cut the Mounder lead to one at 27-26, Robinson responded to push the lead back to four. After Berlin pulled to a single possession as the first half waned, Robinson hit another clutch three-pointer as timed expired put Elk Mound up 36-30.

“We started down six but then Victor Noller started working inside and got us on the board,” indicated Arneson. “We started hitting shots, Knutson even banked a three in.”

Elk Mound started the second half right where they left off in the first, hitting shots. Cale Knutson started the half hitting the first shot from beyond the arc. Layups from Diermeier and Noller extend the lead to 43-30.

The Mounders extended the lead to 19 when Noller splashed an elbow three pointer with 14:07 left in the game. Berlin managed to score on the next possession, but the Mounders extended their advantage to 21 points with 11:12 left when Jerome connected on the front end of two free throws.

Trailing 60-40 coming out of a timeout with 8:46 left, the Indians implemented a full court press defense to pressure the Mounders. The Berlin defense was successful in disrupting the Elk Mound offense and this spark a resurgent Indian offense.

By the 3:55 mark of the second half Berlin trimmed the Elk Mound led to single digits when Blake Metoxen drained a transition three pointer to make the score 64-56.

To make matters worse for the Mounders, the recent struggles from the field also transitioned over to their free throw line. Berlin committed 11 second half fouls, allowing the Mounders to go to the line 16 times in the final period. However, Elk Mound was only able to convert on five of those charity line shots.

Berlin trimmed the deficit to one when Carter Hess hit a corner three. Elk Mound turned the ball over on the next possession and gave the Indians the chance to win the game on the final possession. Aaron Bartol was fouled with 6.7 seconds left and hit the first to tie the score at 68. The second shot came up short as Berlin ended the half on a 28-8 run to force overtime.

That’s where the Indian comeback failed. Berlin managed to hit on only a single field goal in the extra four minutes and the Mounders free throw shooting finally came though. Elk Mound converted on 11-of-17 free throws to secure the 83-71 win.

“We are battle tested in close games,” commented Arneson. “We have been in so many of them throughout the year and those experiences have prepared us for the close games we have had in our playoff run so far.”

All five starters notched double digits in scoring on the night. Robinson had 23 on 8-of-12 shooting with four three pointers. Jerome, Knutson, Noller, Diermeier had 18, 16, 13, and 12, respectively. Jerome paced his team with 12 rebounds while Diermeier dished out 11 assists.

Amery

In the sectional championship game played last Saturday afternoon, March 15 at Somerset High School, Elk Mound, a number one seed, was outrebounded and outscored in the first half and found itself trailing the upstart and fifth-seeded Warriors of Amery 29-21 at halftime.

The Warriors, who entered the contest with a 21-7 record after finishing fourth in a tough Middle Border Conference, came out of the locker room and extended their lead to 15 points in the first three and a half minutes of the second half prompting the Mounders’ first-year head coach Dennis Arneson to call for a timeout with 14:23 to play.

“Obviously, we talked about it at halftime. We just got a chip, chip, chip. I mean, there’s no 11-point shot just gotta do two at a time and rebounding, we really struggled with that in the first half,” stated Arneson. 

“I think they had eight, nine offensive rebounds and that was something we had to shore up, and then I burned that full time out early in the second half, and it was just to chew them out,” continued Arneson. “I told them like, hey, we’ve got to rebound. We just talked about this halftime. It was like, you guys wanna win right? Because if you don’t, then that’s an easy one. We have to rebound.”

Arneson’s words definitely struck a chord with his charges as they not only began to pull down rebounds, but score points particularly senior Cale Knutson, who sparked a 27 to 5 Elk Mound run with back-to-back three pointers that saw the Mounders go ahead 48-41 with 6:23 remaining in regular and scored 17 of his game-high 23 points in the final 14 minutes of action.

Another senior, Kamron Diermeier, stepped up with the final two Mounder hoops including a nifty one-handed jumper over a Warrior defender with 1.7 seconds left that lifted Elk Mound to a thrilling 54-52 victory over Amery for the WIAA Division 3 Sectional title and a return trip to the Kohl Center for the first time in 11 years.

“Oh, it’s been quite a year for the girls and the boys to be able to go both teams to the state tournaments,” said Arneson just moments after the win. “Our entire community is so great and you see it right now. I mean, the stands are packed and they follow you everywhere you go!”

Unlike its semifinal contest three days earlier against Berlin, Elk Mound started slowly and fell behind 8-0 to Amery.

Senior Logan Jerome finally put the Mounders on the scoreboard at 15:27 with his only triple of the game.

Brothers Carter, a senior, and Keaton Wollan, a sophomore added consecutive scores to bump the Amery advantage to nine points at 12-3.

Victor Noller netted the Mounders’ second hoop off a nice bounce pass from freshman guard Zeb Robinson. Knutson scored the first of his five three pointers and then added a basket on the Mounders next possession to cut his team’s deficit to 13-10. Jerome hit from the paint and suddenly the Mounders were within a point. But, the Warriors went on  a 7-0 mini-run capped by senior Blake Anderson’s triple that gave them a 20-12 lead.

Junior Brody Niven came off the bench and snapped the Warrior run with a basket and Noller followed with an inside hoop. The Warriors’ leading scorer, Carter Wollan, at 29 points per game, swished a long three pointer and added a basket to push Amery’s advantage back to double digits at 29-16.

Elk Mound, however, scored the final five points of the half as Diermeier connected for his only three-point hoop of the contest and Jerome swiped the basketball and went end-to-end for two which made it 29-21 at the break.

Amery came out of the intermission and put the first seven points on the scoreboard as it ballooned its lead to 15 points, the largest either team enjoyed that afternoon.

Coach Arneson had seen enough and asked for a time out during which he gave his players a tongue lashing and a challenge.

The Mounders responded.

Knutson sank threes on consecutive offensive possessions which were sandwiched around a Warrior two-point bucket. That pair of Knutson triples ignited a 27 to 5 Mounder run.

Jerome and Knutson closed the gap to 38-31 with consecutive baskets, Noller added a free throw, Knutson came up with a steal and another deuce, Noller added a pair of free tosses and an inside hoop and Knutson brought the Mounder crowd to their collective feet with a three at 9:25 that knotted the game at 41-41.

Elk Mound then went back inside to Noller who gave his team its very first lead of the game with a basket in the paint at 8:05. Another Noller inside hoop and Knutson’s fifth and final three pointer capped the run and gave the Mounders a 48-41 lead with 6:23 left on the clock.

Following an Amery time out, the Warriors scored nine of the game’s next 11 points to draw even at 50-50 with 4:04 remaining.

Just three baskets would be scored in those final four minutes, but two were by the Mounders, specifically senior Kamron Diermeier. Diermeier drove straight down the center of the lane and finished it with a deuce to put Elk Mound ahead 52-50. 

After Amery tied it, Elk Mound held the ball for the final shot. With just six seconds on the board, Diermeier headed to the hoop and got his shot to fall with just 1.7 seconds left.

After a quick Amery time out, the Warriors three-point shot from three-quarter’s court fell well short as the Mounders celebrated the two-point win and a return trip to state.

“The first one was a design play for Kamron and Logan (Jerome) to work with the pick and roll action there, and he made the right read because the guy didn’t dump on it so Logan wasn’t open, so that was an easy bucket,” said Arneson of Diermeier’s first hoop. “And then the last one, it was our play that we run that has multiple options out of it and it got busted up and Kam just went made a play.” 

Besides his 23 points, Knutson added seven rebounds. Noller, the only other Mounder in double figures, finished with 13 points and five rebounds, Jerome added nine points along with nine rebounds and a pair of steals, assists and blocks, and Diermeier tallied seven points, six assists and three boards. Elk Mound did finish with 31 rebounds in all and were 3-for-6 at the line.

Amery was led by Keaton Wollan’s 21 points while Carter Wollan added 17 points, 12 points below his average. The Warriors made four threes, but took many more and were just 4-for-13 at the free throw line.