DUKES ARE KINGS: BAY BEATS MERRILL FOR SCHOOL'S 3RD STATE CROWN

Kevin Lazovik had a little case of déjà vu Saturday evening.

Lazovik helped bring Whitefish Bay its first WIAA boys basketball title in 1996 as a player. Now, 15 years later, he helped the Dukes to their third state title, this time as a head coach, as Bay knocked off Merrill in the Division 2 state title game, 65-49 (boxscore).

“It’s just as sweet now as it was then,” Lazovik said. “There’s not often that you can call yourselves state champions and we can do that. I couldn’t be prouder of these guys or this coaching staff. I can’t say enough.

“It’s great to have coach (Jim) Smallins on the bench. He coached some great Lincoln teams and for him to be a big part of another state championship was just a phenomenal thing and it was just a sweet, sweet run.”

The Dukes used two huge second-half runs that were the real difference maker; the first opened up what was a close game and the second emphatically ended it.

The first run started with 3:44 left in the third quarter. A pair of free throws by Merrill's all-everything guard Paul Jesperson tied the game at 29.

Bay sophomore Kelin Johnson hit a jumper from the elbow and then teammate Ron Patten took over.

The 6-foot-5 senior drained a pair of 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions to ignite the Kohl Center and stretch the lead to eight.

“It seems like in every game this year, there’s always that one shot that gets me going,” Patten said. “My coaches and my teammates just tell me ‘let the shots come to you and you’ll hit them,' and that’s what I did. I just waited patiently and let them come to me.

“I saw Jesperson was kind of over-playing me, so I did a couple back-cuts and left him off of me a little bit and that’s what opened up the gap for me and I hit some big shots.”

Merrill head coach Kurt Soderberg said he thought Patten’s play in the second half was the difference.

“I thought Whitefish Bay played well, and they made more plays than us obviously,” Soderberg said. “The fact that Patten was able to get off some (3-pointers) with that little turnaround jumper hurt us, but give them credit. They went toe-to-toe with us and they beat us.”

After the lead hovered around eight points for a while, the Dukes again turned up the tempo to end any hopes of a Bluejays comeback. The lead was nine points with 5 minutes left when Schneck converted a 3-point play, then followed with another bucket. He added another layup and two free throws in an 13-2 run that pushed the lead to 20 points, 59-39.

“In the first half, it was a tough, tough fight,” Lazovik said. “(Merrill) came out and were playing hard defense and they also were making some big shots.

“Then, in the second half, we again, kind of like yesterday we picked up our intensity on the defensive end, put more pressure on the ball and then we were able to push tempo on the offensive end as well. We thought if we played faster that would be to our advantage and we were able to do that in the second half and come up with a big victory.”

Quite a bit of that speed came from Johnson, the sophomore who has started every game for the Dukes this season.

Johnson said he tried to be more aggressive and found an early “groove.” That mentality led to 17 huge points in 28 minutes of action.

Johnson’s offense was much needed Saturday night as senior center Jamie Schneck again battled early foul trouble and only played six minutes in the first half.

“Kelin really stepped up for us tonight,” Schneck said.

Despite Johnson’s big performance, the game’s unsung hero award easily goes to Bay senior Cal Ehrke.

The 6-foot-4 guard had the unenviable task of guarding Paul Jesperson, who averages 21.7 points per game and will play at the University of Virginia next year.

“It’s tough to (guard someone) when he’s a D-I player,” Ehrke said. “He’s going to get his points obviously but we had a good game plan, (coach Lazovik) schemed pretty well for him. We knew they ran almost everything for him and he liked to shoot deep and often. I had great help on picks and stuff but when a player is that good you kind of try to contain him as much as possible. He’s still going to be able to do a lot but obviously we did enough to win the game tonight.”

Jesperson finished with 22 points, but he was only 6 of 26 from the field, including 4 of 13 from behind the arc.

In the end, it was all more than enough as Lazovik emptied his bench and all 15 members of the Dukes team were able to get on the court before the madness ensued.

“For me, being a senior, my last season … words can’t even explain how I’ve felt the last 10, 15 minutes, from the last timeout to hugging my teammates,” Patten said. “It’s just a great feeling. Words can’t explain how I feel, I feel so great.”

Added Johnson, “I just feel speechless right now. Me being a sophomore and experiencing this stuff at a young age, it’s just speechless. I can’t really explain it right now.”