CEDARBURG – John Diener couldn’t have written a better ending.
The senior guard from Cedarburg not only scored his 2,000th point Friday night, he scored the winning bucket to lift his team to a 57-55 victory over Nicolet that allowed the Bulldogs to complete the first half of the North Shore Conference season with a 9-0 record. Cedarburg, which is ranked eighth in the area by the Journal Sentinel, fifth in the Associated Press and wissports.net coaches Division 2 state polls, lead second-place Homestead by two games. Nicolet (7-6, 6-3) dropped to three games back.
Diener, a DePaul recruit, finished with 22 points and left the gym with 2,005 points. Entering the season only 32 players in state history had reached the milestone.
Junior forward Victory Novy added 15 points for Cedarburg, including a run of eight straight during the final 4 minutes when it appeared the team had the game in hand. Senior guard Chuck Willer added 10 points.
Jamari Sibley, a 6-9 sophomore forward, finished with 13 for Nicolet, which rallied from a six-point deficit in the final 90 seconds to tie the game before falling to a drive and floater from Diener.
“I’ve always like the pressure,” he said. “This is my fourth year now. I’ve been up against a lot of pressure since my freshman year, so I’m kind of used to it.”
BOX SCORE:Cedarburg 57, Nicolet 55
AREA RESULTS: Friday's box scores
RELATED: Five takeaways: Mukwonago 71, Waukesha West 57
Here are five takeaways from the game:
Business as usual: Diener needed 17 points to reach 2,000, and he achieved the mark in his typical efficient fashion. He probably doesn’t get enough credit for being able to put the ball on the floor and make plays, but on this night that is how he score the majority of his points.
He didn’t hit a three-pointer, the first time that has happened in five games.
“Rarely does he take a shot that isn’t a real high-quality shot,” Diener’s father and coach, Tom, said. “He shoots a high percentage from three and from inside (the arc) and from the free throw line. So all those points he scored were good shots. They weren’t garbage baskets or any of that stuff.”
The winner: Speaking of shot selection, what Tom Diener liked about the final play is that his son recognized how Nicolet was defending him and made the right reaction to that read.
“We thought they’d come and trap him but they didn’t, and then he recognized it was a one-on-one and he got a good shot,” Tom Diener said. “He didn’t settle for a deep three. He really got into the lane and took the ball into the rim.”
Providing a spark: The 6-2 Willer, who entered play averaging 6.9 points per game, is a program guy and based on the reaction the crowd had to some of his buckets, possibly a crowd favorite. His is an athlete for all season whose play has been key to helping Cedarburg replace a senior class that was so important to the basketball program’s resurgence.
“He’s been in the program for four years, really didn’t get any minutes last year and really came into his own this year,” Tom Diener said. “He’s an all-around sports guy. He plays football and tennis and basketball and he excels at all those sports. Really smart. Really skilled.”
In the zone: Tom Diener is a man-to-man defense guys to his core, but he played zone for much of the first half and Nicolet made the Bulldogs pay by hitting 6 three-pointers. The buckets allowed the Knights to trail, 29-24, at the half.
“We have really been struggling with foul trouble,” Tom Diener said. “Diener and (senior Matt) Barber have been in foul trouble, so the strategy tonight was to get into the second half with Diener and Barber having one foul, two at the most, so that is why we went with the zone.
Tough loss: Diener praised the work second-year coach Al Hanson is doing with Nicolet’s team. The Knights entered play having won four straight conference games and five of six overall.
The Knights have nice size and athleticism with Sibley and 6-4 forward Jack Brahm. And if Friday is an indication, there are plenty of shooters. Nicolet finished the day 11 three-pointers.
Last year Nicolet finished strong after a slow start and the team appears to have the talent to follow that same pattern this year.
"We've got a good group and we've been playing some good basketball,"Hanson said. "I'm excited about the guys coming together and starting to understand how to play. But what we need to learn from tonight is how precious the game, how precious every possession is, just doing the little things is something I think tonight we need to learn."