Eisenhower gets back on winning track

New Berlin - The New Berlin Classic proved to be just that to the Eisenhower boys basketball team, as they rolled over Brookfield Academy and beat Waukesha North on Dec. 26-27 at New Berlin West.

The victories got the Lions back on track after a loss at Brown Deer on Dec. 21 and improved their overall record to 9-3 going into the New Year. They are back in Woodland Conference action on Friday when they travel to Greendale (4-6, 4-4), as the Lions (6-2) share first place in the West Division with Pewaukee.

The Lions rolled to a 77-57 win over Brookfield Academy on Dec. 26, easily defeating the Blue Knights, who were ranked in the Division 4 standings.

Ike coach Dave Scheidegger is happy with the way his team is playing.

"We're rotating more kids in, they're pretty even, they are doing the team role," Scheidegger said. "The way we're playing, we need the depth, we like the depth.

"We're starting to understand the offensive concepts. We're growing, getting tougher (becoming) more mentally tough, a smarter team, seeing a lot of different things. On offense we try and control our destiny as far as our shots because we do have a perimeter-based team. We're hard to cover or force into a bad shot."

Close at half

The game against the Blue Knights was close at halftime, as the Lions led, 39-32, but then an 18-8 third quarter gave Eisenhower an insurmountable 57-40 lead going into the fourth quarter. Sandro Pesqueira had seven points in the third and Reed Timmer had five to put Brookfield Academy away.

Timmer finished with 33 points and Pesqueira had 21. Brookfield Academy's flashy backcourt of Domonique Criss had 28 and Sean Clarey had 18.

The next night it was a different game, as the Northstars battled the Lions toe-to-toe, trailing 32-28 at intermission. But North came out after intermission and outscored the Lions in the third quarter (14-11) to cut the lead to one (43-42) going into the final period.

Good ending

But Eisenhower came through in the final quarter, outscoring the Northstars, 23-18, to come away with a well-earned 66-60 victory.

Timmer scored 22 points, to give him 55 points in the two-day Classic. Pesqueira finished with 17 points and 38 for the two games.

Scheidegger got balance as Mitch Arman added 12 points and Corbin Messman had nine.