Sauk Prairie rallies past Dodgeville

The lead, once as great as 16 points, was gone now. Host Dodgeville had all the momentum. And Sauk Prairie’s boys basketball team was on the ropes last Saturday. That’s when Devin Breunig decided to play hero for the Eagles. Breunig, a senior guard, drove for a go-ahead lay-up with 10 seconds left, and when the host Dodgers missed in the closing seconds, Sauk Prairie escaped with a 43-42 win. Sauk Prairie, which hadn’t played a game since Dec. 22 due to COVID-19 issues, improved to 5-1 on the year. Isaac Breunig led the way with 12 points, Devin Breunig had 11 and Brandt Wilson had 10. “The last-minute took about 10 years off of my life,” Sauk Prairie coach Sean McGann said. “We were without (leading scorer) Brandt Wilson as he fouled out and played limited minutes, so it was great to see our guys step up and have his back.” The Eagles raced to a 29-13 lead with 3 minutes left in the first half. But the Dodgers closed the half on an 11-2 burst and pulled within 31-24 at the break. “We got off to a great start, then hit a wall offensively,” McGann said. “Dodgeville hit some big shots and played much harder than we did. Our guys know that we are much better than what we played, and we were disappointed in our performance.” Dodgeville kept coming, too, outscoring the Eagles, 15-6, to start the second half and surging to a 39-37 lead with 5 minutes left. Sauk Prairie ran a nifty inbounds play to Wilson for a three-pointer with 4:45 left that gave the Eagles a 40-39 lead and helped set up the thrilling ending. Dodgeville took a 42-40 lead with 1:06 left, then Eagles’ sophomore guard Devin Kerska made a free throw with 43.8 seconds left to pull Sauk Prairie within 42-41. Dodgeville ran the clock down to 17.5 seconds and called timeout. On the ensuing inbounds pass, though, the Dodgers were called for a moving screen, giving the Eagles a final chance. After a Sauk Prairie timeout, the Eagles hit Devin Breunig on the right elbow with 13 seconds left. Breunig had his back to the basket, then faked a pass to Kerska — who had looped around Breunig’s frontside. For a brief moment, Devin Breunig’s defender leaned Kerska’s way. That left Breunig with a clear path to the basket, he attacked the rim and scored the eventual game-winner. “It is great to be able to have learning experiences in wins,” McGann said. “We made just enough plays down the stretch to win and we will need to be much better in the upcoming weeks.” The Eagles should be. Sauk Prairie lost valuable practice time — and had a game with McFarland canceled on Dec. 29 — due to COVID-19. So after 18 days off, it’s understandable that the Eagles were rusty against Dodgeville. “Taking that time off obviously killed our conditioning and skills,” McGann said. “We were very rusty, but the beauty of this team is that we lean so heavily on our defense. Defense is primarily dictated by effort and passion and we try to bring those components to everything we do.  “We will need to get back into the swing of things quickly, but overall I couldn’t be more happy to coach this group. Such an awesome group of kids who play for one another.” • On deck: The Eagles hosted Lake Mills Monday, then host Portage Thursday at 7:15 p.m. and host Wisconsin Dells Friday at 7:15 p.m.   Boys basketball Jan. 9  SAUK PRAIRIE 43,  DODGEVILLE 42 Sauk Prairie ……. 31 12 — 43 Dodgeville ………. 24 18 — 42 SAUK PRAIRIE (fg ft-fta pts) — Uselman 2 0-0 5; I. Breunig 5 0-0 12; Wilson 4 0-0 10; D. Breunig 5 0-0 11; Ahmetaj 1 0-0 2; Kerska 1 1-3 3. Totals 18 1-3 43. DODGEVILLE — Walker 1 0-0 2; Garthwaite 4 4-7 12; Weier 2 0-0 5; Busch 3 1-3 9; Pittz 5 0-0 13; Bachelor 0 1-2 1. Totals 15 6-12 42. 3-point goals: SP 6 (I. Breunig 2, Wilson 2, D. Breunig 1, Uselman 1); D 6 (Pittz 3, Busch 2, Weier 1). Total fouls: SP 12; D 6. Fouled out: Wilson.