WIAA basketball: Oshkosh North golden in state title win over Brookfield East

MADISON – This year, Oshkosh North reached its goal.

Tyrese Haliburton scored 23 of his 30 points in the second half and Oshkosh North unleashed a stifling defensive effort in capturing the program’s first WIAA state championship with a grueling 61-44 win over Brookfield East in the Division 1 title game at the Kohl Center on Saturday night.

“We’ve been dreaming about this ever since we have been playing basketball,” said senior Quincy Anderson, who added 15 points and five rebounds. “To come up short last year was devastating. We knew we had some new opportunities coming up this year and I’m just so glad we took advantage of those opportunities.”

And even after a hard-fought 36 minutes with a physical Brookfield East team, there was plenty of energy left to celebrate the state title and hoist that elusive gold basketball trophy.

“A lot of student sections like to chant, ‘Weight Room’ at me,” Haliburton said. “But the trophy might be the only thing I can lift and I’m fine with that.”

Oshkosh North held Brookfield East to its lowest point total of the season and limited a team that shot 53 percent from the floor in its semifinal win to just 38 percent shooting on Saturday.

The changing zones helped Oshkosh North neutralize East’s talented post player Patrick Cartier and forced the team’s perimeter shooters to just a 6-of-21 performance from behind the arc.

“Defense is an emphasis we have every day in practice and it’s what I learned from Frank Schade,” North head coach Brad Weber said. “One thing that is going to be consistent day-in, day-out if you put the time into it is your defense. We’ve hung our hat on defense all year long.”

North’s defense didn’t generate a large total of live-ball turnovers – Brookfield had just 15 turnovers in the game – but it certainly forced East to be very patient on offense and kept Cartier in check.

“We talk about controlling what we can control and on the defensive end, we feel like we can control our effort, attitude and toughness,” Anderson said. “I thought we were all on the same page and had great chemistry on defense.”

Cartier finished with a team-high 15 points but nearly half of those came with Oshkosh North already leading by double digits.

“He's a load down there and he’s had a great tournament,” Weber said. “We just made a few more enhancements to our defense as far as shading our coverage his way and made sure we kept pressure on their guards so it wasn’t easy to get him the ball where he wanted it.”

With Brookfield East held in check, Haliburton finally got going and it started just before North headed into the locker room at halftime.

After forcing a turnover with three seconds left in the first half, Haliburton took the inbounds pass and drained a 28-footer as the half ended. It gave North a 26-20 lead at intermission but it also helped turn things around after a sluggish first half.

“I hit that shot before halftime and that kind of got me going,” Haliburton said. “I feel like I’m the leader of this team. I feed off these guys and they feed off me. I just took over down the stretch and got the win.”

Haliburton scored 13 straight points at one point in the second half, capped by a 3-pointer that gave North a 48-34 lead with 6:56 remaining.

He capped the night with a steady stream of free throws, finishing 18-of-18 for the game.

“He’s a really crafty guard who is good at initiating contact and getting himself to the free-throw line,” Brookfield East coach Joe Rux said. “We also had to scramble quite a bit at the end and he was getting to the free-throw line. We sent him to the line quite a bit but we didn’t really have a choice either.”

Haliburton certainly enjoyed all of the trips to the foul line.

“I couldn’t believe they kept fouling me – that’s what was going through my mind,” Haliburton said. “That’s the confidence I have in myself and the way I play. Just taking advantage of hitting free throws down the stretch.

“I’m so happy I could help do this for the city and it’s just a blessing. I have no words how to explain how I feel right now.”

Oshkosh North 26 35 – 61

Brookfield East 20 24 – 44

OSHKOSH NORTH – Matt Hickey 3, Gout Deng 4, Wes Schiek 6, Quincy Anderson 15, Tyrese Haliburton 30, Abe Schiek 2, Dylan Krumrei 1. 3-pointers: 6 (Anderson 3, Haliburton 2, W. Schiek). FTs: 23-28. Fouls: 14.

BROOKFIELD EAST – Peyton Simon 10, Patrick Cartier 15, Michael Poker 3, Sam McGath 5, Thomas Francken 8, Hayden Doyle 2, Riley LeTourneau 1. 3-pointers: 6 (Simon 2, Francken 2, Poker, McGath). FTs: 8-11. Fouls: 21. Fouled out: McGath.