Area Boys Basketball Teams Get Tournament Assignments

The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA) released brackets for all five divisions in boys basketball on Sunday.

Three of the four Waukesha high schools, North, South and West, are in the "Super Tuesday No. 2" Division 1 bracket. Catholic Memorial is in Division 2 in Sectional No. 4.

The Super Tuesday No. 2 lower bracket features nine teams, including the three Waukesha schools. The rankings are as follows.

No. 1 Germantown (19-1 overall, 12-0 North Shore Conference)
No. 2 Arrowhead  (18-2, 13-0 Classic 8 Conference)
No. 3 Waukesha West (15-5, 10-3 Classic 8 Conference)
No. 4 Waukesha South (13-8, 7-6 Classic 8 Conference)
No. 5 Menomonee Falls (10-10, 7-5 Greater Metro Conference)
No. 6 Homestead (12-8, 8-4 North Shore Conference)
No. 7 Sussex Hamilton (7-13, 4-8 Greater Metro Conference)
No. 8 Waukesha North (5-15, 1-12 Classic 8 Conference)
No. 9 Kettle Moraine (3-17, 2-11 Classic 8 Conference)

North will open up play in the bracket on Tuesday, March 1, hosting Kettle Moraine. The teams played twice this year in conference play, with each winning the road game.

The Northstars are led by junior guard Jake Ricciardi averaging 15.4 points per game on the season. Ricciardi scored 25 points in the Northstars victory over Kettle Moraine early in the season.

This game is the only regional semi-final being played in the bottom half of the bracket. The winner will advance to play the No. 1 seed Germantown at Germantown High School.

West, the city's highest-seeded school, will open up play at home on Saturday, March 5, against Homestead in a regional final match-up. The two teams did not meet during the regular season.

The Wolverines feature a very balanced scoring attack with only two players averaging double figures, junior guard Joe Schobert at 10.5 points per game and sophomore forward Dylan Chmura at 10 points per game. Senior forward Dan Cerroni is just below at 9.5 points per game.

The winner of this game will take on the winner of Sussex and Arrowhead on Thursday, March 10 at the Al McGuire Center in Milwaukee.

South will also be hosting their first game of the tournament as the Menomonee Falls Indians come in for a battle. Again, these two teams did not meet during the regular season.

The Blackshirts are led by a trio of seniors. Forward Tim Woodford is the go-to player for the Blackshirts, averaging 16.8 points per game on the year, and guard Sam Domach with 11.2 points per game and 6'11" center Derek Hussinger with 10 points per game also provide a big part of South's offense.

The Blackshirts will have the unenviable task of trying to stop the state's most heavily recruited player, J.P. Tokoto. The junior from Falls is averaging more than 20 points per game on the season.

Division 2 Sectional No. 4
The Division 2 seeds are broken into four regionals for each sectional. In Catholic Memorial's regional, they were seeded fifth, the other seeds are:

No. 1 New Berlin West (18-4, 17-1 Woodland Conference Blue Division)
No. 2 Whitnall (14-7, 12-4 Woodland Conference Black Division)
No. 3 New Berlin Eisenhower (15-6, 12-4 Woodlance Conference Black Division)
No. 4 Pewaukee (13-7, 11-5 Woodlance Conference Blue Division)
No. 5 Catholic Memorial (5-15, 3-10 Classic 8 Conference)

The Crusaders,  Division 2 State Champions from a year ago, will open up the tournament at Pewaukee in the regional quarterfinal. The young team features just two seniors on the roster, Alex Broge and Ryan Connell.

Junior guards Ryan Taugher and Charlie Walsh lead the Crusaders in scoring with Taugher averaging 9.6 and Walsh 8.8 points per game.

The winner of the match-up will move on to face New Berlin West in the regional semi-finals.