Memorial wins outright Classic 8 title

The spectators were packed shoulder-to-shoulder in a sold-out Catholic Memorial gymnasium on Friday, anticipating the Classic 8 Conference boys basketball game of the year.

By the start of the fourth quarter, there was a bit of a respite when some of those packed into the bleachers began to trickle out.

Memorial scored 13 of the game's first 15 points and Arrowhead never had a chance, falling to the Crusaders in a battle for the league title, 65-41. The Crusaders moved to 19-2 overall and 13-0 in conference play, clinching an outright C8 championship.

Memorial's guard TJ Bray all but sewed up the league Player of the Year honor by flirting with a triple-double and sending short-handed Arrowhead hope unhappy.

"My teammates did a great job of knocking down shots, and that made things easier for me," Bray said. "Our team's been on fire lately."

Bray finished with 24 points, 10 rebounds, 8 assists, 6 steals and even swatted Arrowhead 7-foot-1 big man Ben Mills for his lone block of the day. Mills performed well anyway, finishing with 18 points and 13 rebounds.

"They're a very good team," said Arrowhead coach Craig Haase added of CMH. "We're a good team. We didn't have it going tonight, and that's going to happen sometimes. We've played well of late and tonight, we didn't."

The Warhawks were without starting junior guard Charlie Fischer, who wasn't with the team while battling a case of mono. Senior guard Russ Finco suited up but did not play (coach's decision).

"When you don't have everybody, it makes a difference, but you can't make any excuses," Haase said. "You have to play with who you've got and you've got to get after it. Losing Charlie Fischer hurts a little bit. He started 42 games in a row for me, and when you take out a kid that's started 42 games in a row and put in a kid that's never started, it makes a difference."

Junior Ryan May made his first career start in Fischer's stead.

The Crusaders forced 17 AHS turnovers, and the Warhawks struggled to 34 percent shooting, while the Crusaders finished at 48 percent from the field.

"It's hard to believe what the score was; it certainly was not indicative of the intensity on the floor," said Catholic Memorial coach Dean Bellanti. "There were a couple possessions there that really took the life out of them where they were really coming hard at us, and we made a couple extra passes and got a great shot."

Bellanti praised Bray as "the consummate team player."

"He does whatever we need him to do," Bellanti said. "He certainly did a number rebounding the basketball and leading the break, too. When we were really making it difficult for them to score, we hit those rebounds and just pushed it up the court. Not that we always had the best shot, but we wanted possessions going up and down the floor tonight."

Derek Schell finished with 15 points of his own and tied the CMH career record for 3-pointers made. Austin Pucylowski brought in seven rebounds.

Box score

Catholic Memorial 65, Arrowhead 41

Classic 8 boys

Playoff time

Local teams learned their seeds for the WIAA playoffs, beginning Tuesday.

Division 1

Sectional No. 5 - games at 7 p.m. Tuesday

• (1) Arrowhead, first round bye

• (9) Cedarburg at (8) Homestead

• (12) Wauk. South at (5) Milw. Vincent

• (13) Kettle Moraine at (4) Wauk. West

• (11) Oconomowoc at (6) Hamilton

• (14) Milw. Madison at (3) Germantown

• (10) Mukwonago at (7) Wauk. North

• (2) Menomonee Falls, first round bye

Division 2

Sectional No. 5 - Waukesha South regional

• (8) Fort Atkinson at (1) CMH

• (5) Lakeside Lutheran at (4) St. John's

• (6) Whitewater at (3) Pewaukee

• (7) Jefferson at (2) East Troy

* Second-round games in Division 2 on Thursday. Regional finals in both divisions Saturday.