Germantown whips Tosa East in battle of unbeatens

Brookfield Central (6-2) and Wauwatosa East (6-1) are co-leaders in the Greater Metro Conference as the New Year aproaches with 4-0 league records. They have both played Germantown, the state’s top team, and they both were turned away in similar manners.

The Lancers dropped a 73-58 loss in the season opener on Nov. 29 at home and Tuesday night it was the Red Raiders turn. The Warhawks also turned back the Red Raiders, 66-46, in the Wisconsin Yearbook Classic before a packed house at Concordia University in Mequon.

Whereas the Lancers have a team with enough height to battle Germantown, it was a total mismatch with the smaller Red Raiders, who basically start five guards.

Germantown senior Zak Showalter, a 6-3 guard, who will be attending the University of Wisconsin as a preferred walk-on next year, led the way with 19 points, highlighted by a slam dunk late in the game.

Josh Mongan, a 5-10 senior guard, who runs the show for the Warhawks, added 12 points and 6-7 senior Dan Studer added 10. Luke Fischer, a 6-10 junior, had eight points underneath.

But the bottom line was the Red Raiders couldn’t match up and they had to use 6-2 Vinnie Cupertino, 6-1 Anthony Carroll and 6-2 Zak Sylvester on the big men.

On offense, the Red Raiders couldn’t hit their outside shots and when they missed offensive rebounds were few and far between.

They cut the lead to 22-19 with 4 minutes, 18 seconds in the half, but Germantown went on an 11-0 run to eventually roll into half-time with a 36-26 lead.

Germantown coach Steve Showalter talked about his team holding off the Red Raiders.

“They are not undefeated for no reason,” he said. “That’s a pretty good team over there. We’d like to think we’re a pretty good team and we can withstand some runs.

“We usually can handle things on the court. I don’t have to take a lot of timeouts. I don’t have to tell them what to do, they know how to handle things and that is a sign of getting your program where you want it.”

“Their size, they were tough down low,” Tosa East coach Tim Arndorfer said. “It’s hard to score inside. When we’re not making shots from outside they are a hard to team compete against.”

Arndorfer was asked about the lack of offensive boards.

“That was the focus all week, but we’re limited in our size,” he said. “I thought our guys battled; I’ll give them credit for that. That’s the sign of a good team.

“We make some shots it’s a different ballgame. We got good looks, but didn’t hit the shot. Other games we make those shots. When the shots are open, we’ve got to make them, we didn’t make them tonight.”

Carroll led Tosa East with 13 points.