Elk Mound boys fall in state basketball semifinal to top-ranked Freedom

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MADISON — Elk Mound certainly felt as though it was battle tested and ready for a challenge when the team returned to the Kohl Center in Madison after an 11-year absence to play in last week’s 2025 WIAA State Boys’ Basketball Championships.

After all, the Mounder boys had been in so many tight games over the course of a grueling regular season and the playoff gauntlet with ten of their games decided by five points or less including three of their four tournament wins with the other, the sectional semifinal versus Berlin, going into overtime before Elk Mound escaped with a 12-point victory.

But, as Elk Mound discovered, its difficult to prepare for, let alone comprehend the quickness, speed, length and athleticism that Freedom would bring to the pair’s Division 3 state semifinal that kicked off the 109th annual WIAA Boys’ State Basketball Championships Thursday afternoon, March 20.

The Irish used a 1-2-2 full-court pressure defense spearheaded by its top scorer, 6’ 8” sophomore forward Donovan Davis, to rattle the Mounders who coughed up 13 first-half turnovers. Freedom turned those Mounder miscues into 21 points and added another 14 via fast breaks as it bolted to a commanding 42-11 halftime advantage.

Elk Mound did show some improvement in the second half, but by that time the outcome had long been determined as Freedom went on to punch it’s ticket to Saturday afternoon’s D3 state championship with a 66-32 victory. The Irish lost the title to the Milwaukee Academy of Science.

“Obviously that didn’t go as well as we wanted it to,” stated Elk Mound head coach Dennis Arneson to assembled state media following his team’s state semifinal loss. “We just struggled with their length and their athleticism, especially in their press. We kind of beat ourselves here for a while just making costly turnovers. I don’t know what we had 13 or 14 turnovers in the first half there that obviously equated into easy buckets for them.”  

“We just weren’t ready for that and then obviously, we let one mistake turn into another mistake and it kind of just snowballed on us there,” added Arneson.

“The second half, I thought we did a little bit better job of handling that, but shots didn’t fall, we were kind of taken out of our rhythm right away,” he added.

Senior Cale Knutson, who appeared for the post-game interview along with Coach Arneson and fellow senior Logan Jerome, said it was difficult to simulate Freedom’s physical abilities during the team’s pre-state practices.

“We knew one thing that was big for them was their press,” said Knutson. “Coming out there, it’s hard to replicate that kind of press in practice. I mean, our guys did a great job trying to, but it was tough to go out there and be able to handle that pressure and that press.”

Arneson echoed Knutson’s assessment of the Irish’s potent skills set.

“We didn’t have many number 24s (Donovan Davis) in practice running the top of that one, two, two press,” noted Arneson. “Just nobody simulated that for us and their physicality and their length were definitely a struggle for us. Once it happened and we let one turnover, we just kind of kept letting a second and the third and the fourth and obviously that kind of opened the gates up for them.”

Even Logan Jerome, who is listed at 6’ 6” on the roster sheet, was taken aback by the height and athleticism of the Irish players saying, “I was really surprised by their length, honestly, especially that number 24. They were definitely longer than we thought they were gonna be, and then just the physicality. From the film (we watched), they didn’t look very physical, but they brought it today and that was a surprise to me.”

The Mounders’ state tournament game started with a bang as junior Victor Noller canned a three-point jumper just 14 seconds into the contest. That, however, proved to be the Mounders only lead of the game.

Just 23 seconds later, 6’ 1” Irish senior guard Drew Kortz knotted the contest with a three. That shot along with Freedom’s suffocating 1-2-2 pressure defense sparked a 16-0 Irish run over the next seven minutes that saw Kortz add a pair of fast-break hoops and another triple.

Elk Mound’s own senior guard, Kamron Diermeier, broke the Irish scoring run with a two-point shot from the paint at 10:29. Noller added two free throws and Jerome scored his first two points of the game to get the Mounder deficit under double digits at 18-9.

Kortz and Donovan Davis, however nailed consecutive threes to push the Irish lead to 24-9.

Knutson scored two for Elk Mound on a driving layup with 5:42 left. Those, however, were the Mounders’ final points of the first half.  

Kortz hit his fourth three of the opening half to send Freedom on another scoring splurge. 6’ 2” senior guard, AJ Wesoloski, got into the scoring act with a three before Davis took over the show finishing off the Irish’s 18-0 run with four deuces and a three pointer with just nine seconds left to send Freedom to the locker room with a 42-11 lead.

Davis and Kortz accounted for 37 of the Irish’s 42 points with 21 and 16 points, respectively. Davis also led with seven rebounds while Davis chipped in with four boards.

Freedom scored the first six points of the second half as Kortz netted a pair of two-point baskets and Davis added another to up the Irish lead to 48-11.

Diermeier scored Elk Mound’s first points of the second half after pulling down a rebound and driving to the hoop for the layup.

Davis and Kortz added fast break layups before Diermeier scored again via another hard drive to the basket.

Back-to-back field goals by Jerome made it 56-19. After another Irish basket by Davis, senior Aidan Schindler scored two for the Mounders. 

But, a Kortz free throw, a big slam dunk from Davis and a fast break hoop by 6’ 2” freshman guard Owen Henkel gave Freedom a 40-point lead at 61-21 and initiated a running clock with 8:14 remaining in the contest.

Elk Mound was able to outpoint Freedom 11-5 over the final minutes of the semifinal. Jerome netted a pair of two-point hoops, junior Brody Niven sank a three, Noller made a field goal in the paint and junior Brennan Loiselle-Christianson came off the bench late to cap the Mounders’ and the contest’s scoring with a free throw that made the final tally 66-32.

Jerome finished with ten points and eight rebounds to lead Elk Mound in both categories. Noller tallied seven points and three rebounds, Diermeier scored six points and had four rebounds, Niven and Schindler scored three each and Knutson had a two-point hoop and four rebounds as did Zeb Robinson who was held scoreless.

Elk Mound finished with a slight edge in rebounds, 35-33, but turned the basketball over 21 times to the Irish’s eight. The Mounders were also just 2-for-16 from behind the three point arc and went to the free throw line only seven times and made four. Elk Mound finished 13-for-48 shooting (27 percent) for the game.

Davis and Kortz both finished with 27 points to lead Freedom. The duo also led the Irish in rebounds as Davis hauled down ten and Kortz five. Freedom made eight of its 26, three-point attempts and finished 48 percent from the field on 28-for-58 shooting. Freedom, who took just three foul shots and made two, scored 34 points off Mounder turnovers, 26 of which came on fast breaks, and 38 points from the paint.  

Elk Mound, who finished 24-5 this season, said goodbye to its five seniors – Parker Dutzle, Aidan Schindler, Logan Jerome, Cale Knutson and Kamron Diermeier.

“Obviously, I am super proud of these guys. Both the girls and boys programs punching their tickets and coming down to the  state tournament is phenomenal for our community and I couldn’t be more proud of them,” said Arneson.

 “Cale and Logan were basically the only two that started our season this year with varsity experience,” said Arneson. “Nobody else had any varsity experience going on the floor and their leadership throughout and all summer long”

“When we got to season time, we had early injuries from football, from first week of practice. It took us a while to kind of get to full strength and then, the first game we had of the year was double OT, I think against Arcadia, and it just continued to be close game after close game, but those brought us obviously really good energy, gave us the experience when we got to the tournament play as we were able to play close game after close game,” he concluded.