Post Messenger Recorder -

The New Glarus eighth grade boys basketball team brought home the championship hardware from Stevens Point on Sunday night, as they completed a seven-game sweep of competition in the 26-team Division 4/5 level in the Wisconsin State Invitational Championship Tournament. The young Knights edged three-time winner Howards Grove (at grades 5, 6 and 7) in the semi-final game, 41-35, and then bounced back from a near-disastrous first half to win the championship, 55-50, over Iola-Scandinavia. 

New Glarus opened up the two-day tourney with a 41-30 win over Stevens Point Pacelli, while 76 teams descended on Stevens Point to participate in competition at Divisions 1, 3, and 4/5, while 20 Division 2 teams competed in Waupun. The Knights, coached by Duane Kreklow and Rudi Feller, rolled off wins over Cochrane-Fountain City (46-35), Gibraltar (50-33) and Stratford (53-39) on Saturday before rolling to three more wins Sunday to take the crown. 

Sunday's three-win race to the championship included a win over St. Mary's Springs, 58-43, before the heroics over Howards Grove and the comeback win over Iola-Scandinavia. 

This year's tournament team consisted of Pat Craker, Michael Janssen, Jaden Kreklow, Trevor Gassman, Zach Feller, Jared Martinson, Mitch Schadewalt, Trent Sigafus and Adam Marty. 

Sunday's finale was especially exciting, considering the Knights struggled mightily in the first half and trailed at the break, 34-17.  Jaden Kreklow carried the early scoring load, hitting for 11 points, while Trevor Gassman added five and Zach Feller chipped in a free throw in the opening two frames. 

In the third quarter, Zach Feller got a put-back basket and Kreklow added a hoop, but the lead was still at 38-21 before Feller and Kreklow hit back-to-back three-point shots to narrow the lead to 11 with 3:28 remaining at 38-27. Iola-Scandinavia scored twice more to push the lead back to 44-27 before Feller drained another trey and Kreklow did likewise. Feller split a pair of free throws inside the final minute mark and then got another put back basket on the final possession to cut the lead to eight at 44-36 after three quarters with the momentum noticeably shifting to the Knights. 

In the first minute of the fourth quarter, Feller struck again with a three-point shot and split another pair of free throws to bring the Knights to 44-40 before scoring off a hard drive on the right side to close to 44-42.  The Knights missed on a chance to tie with a subsequent foul, giving the Thunderbirds temporary cover as they hit twin free throws but Trevor Gassman then drained a long three-pointer to cut the lead to 46-45 and continue the comeback. 

I-S hit two more free throws, but Feller answered with another three-point shot to earn the Knights a tie at 48-all with 1:28 remaining in regulation. The Thunderbirds then got their only field goal of the final stanza just inside the one-minute mark to lead 50-48 but Feller had yet another three-point shot in his arsenal, hitting with :46 for the Knights' first lead of the game at 51-50. 

After re-gaining possession, the Knights were guilty of an errant pass on the inbounds, giving Iola-Scandinavia another chance but the Thunderbirds came away empty while Feller was fouled on consecutive possession and sank all four free throws to push the final margin of victory to 55-50.  

For the game (unofficially), Kreklow tallied 19, Gassman 8, and Feller 28, with 27 of them coming in the second half. 

Congratulations to the New Glarus 8th Grade Boys on this great team accomplishment!