MADISON — West Salem knew it was going to be a tall task to try and limit Pewaukee senior guard Nick Janowski, one of the top prep players in all of Wisconsin who is going to play Division I college basketball next season for the Nebraska Cornhuskers.
But add into the mix a teammate who was also on fire from the offensive end for the Pirates? That proved to be a mountain too difficult to climb for the underdog Panthers in their third consecutive state tournament appearance.
No. 2 seed Pewaukee (25-4) led wire to wire en route to an 89-69 victory over No. 3 seed West Salem (25-4) in the Division 2 semifinals at the 2024 WIAA State Boys Basketball Tournament on Friday, March 15 at the Kohl Center in Madison.
Janowski recorded a triple-double with 31 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists and Luka Momcilovic added a double-double with 20 points on 7-of-10 shooting (including going 4 of 5 from deep) and 13 rebounds to set the pace in the victory.
The Pirates entered this year's state tourney as the three-time defending champions in Division 2 and were aiming to become just the third program ever to win four state championships in a row. The excellence that has made them into a Wisconsin powerhouse was on full display against the Panthers.
Janowski, who scored the first 10 points of the game for Pewaukee, came out of the gates strong and helped lead his team to an early 7-2 advantage. A 3-pointer by senior guard Joe Sullivan and a layup courtesy of fellow senior guard Tamarrein Henderson allowed West Salem to level the score at 7-7, but a quick 5-0 spurt from the Pirates put them back ahead.
The Panthers kept hanging around not too far behind — trailing 19-16 with a little under 10:30 left in the opening half and 26-20 with 6:30 until halftime — but eventually Pewaukee created some separation with a 23-11 run to end the first half to hold a 49-31 lead at the intermission.
West Salem was unable to make any kind of major charge in the second half as the Pirates consistently kept the pressure on with their scoring. The Panthers' smallest deficit in the second half was 16 (in the early minutes after halftime) and they fell behind by as much as 30 with about five minutes left.
"Pewaukee was awfully good today. They shot the ball really well," said West Salem head coach Mark Wagner. "Our game plan going in maybe wasn't as good as it had to be. We obviously wanted to try to keep the ball out of Janowski's hands and we struggled to do that. Then we got a little bit late on rotations when we went to double him. He hurt us early and then we tried to get it out of his hands with doubles, and he just did a great job of picking us apart."
The Panthers, who finished as Division 3 state runner-up in both 2022 and 2023, were led in the loss by junior guard Kyle Hehli with 17 points, six rebounds and six assists, Joe Sullivan with 13 points, Tamarrein Henderson with 12 points, sophomore forward Landon Michlig with 10 points, senior forward Sam Stenberg with six points, sophomore guard Nathan Dillaber with five points and eight rebounds and junior forward Carter Pontius with seven rebounds.
In addition to Janowski and Momcilovic, senior guard Owen Hake and sophomore wing Tyler Tiutczenko each tallied 11 points for the Pirates.
Wisconsin Lutheran claims Division 2 state title
In the final chapter of one of the great four-year rivalry stretches in the history of Wisconsin high school boys basketball, it was Wisconsin Lutheran that finally exorcised its Pewaukee postseason demons.
No. 1 seed Wisconsin Lutheran (30-0) completed a perfect season and earned some revenge by toppling No. 2 seed Pewaukee (25-5) 83-63 in the Division 2 state championship game on Saturday, March 16 at the Kohl Center in Madison.
The two Woodland West rivals have met in the playoffs in each of the last four years. The first three times, the Pirates emerged victorious in the sectional finals (76-63 in 2021, 82-65 in 2022 and 64-50 in 2023) on their way to winning a state championship.
This year's state championship showdown also marked the end of the great individual rivalry between Wisconsin Lutheran's Kon Knueppel (a Duke commit and Wisconsin's 2024 Mr. Basketball) and Pewaukee's Nick Janowski (a Nebraska commit).
The highly-anticipated rematch was nearly derailed in the semifinals, where the Vikings needed a buzzer-beating bucket by junior forward/guard Alex Greene on a broken play to scrape past No. 4 seed Nicolet (24-5) for a 56-54 win.
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