Posted: Jan. 22, 2010 |(0) Comments

This physical, intense 64-57 win for the Homestead boys basketball team Friday night in their old gym over archrival Germantown was more than three years in the making.

The Highlanders (4-3 in North Shore play and 6-6 overall) had watched as their neighbors down Mequon Road had strode to the top of the league standings and had come to dominate them in recent years with physical and attacking play.

But Friday night it was the turn of Homestead to be physical and on the attack. The Highlanders shook off an 8-4 run by the youthful Warhawks (four sophomore starters) to start the game and fought through their screens, denied them good looks and gave them themselves many second and third opportunities.

The result was a 17-2 run that ended early in the second quarter with Homestead firmly in command at 21-10.

No wonder Highlander coach Ray Curry and his players felt that this was a signature win.

"They've been talented for a long time, and they're still talented even though they're so young," Curry said. "Their freshmen and sophomore classes are amazing, so they'll be good for a long time to come. And it's always good to play them. We're friends and rivals and everyone always comes out fighting in this one."

Yes, indeed, as Warhawk coach Steve Showalter noted that his squad looked a bit tired and overmatched at times as its six-game winning streak came to an end.

"We couldn't get a stop and we didn't have a good match-up for Laihinen (Highlander senior center John Laihinen)," Showalter said. "We also couldn't protect the basket and then on the other end (offensively) they turned us over. Those are the kinds of things that lead to runs."

And Laihinen, who had a game-high 22 points, including 10 in a row for the Highlanders at a pivotal time in the fourth quarter, said the team wanted to make sure the run wasn't wasted as it had been in other games this season.

"We knew we had to come back here and make a statement," he said. "We were not going to go down again. We were going to get back up."

Which is what the upperclassmen-dominated Highlanders did as every time the Warhawks pushed back, they had a response.

Case in point, late in the third quarter. After building a 32-19 halftime lead, Homestead saw Germantown (4-3, 10-5) battle back on a Zak Showalter (20 points) three-pointer to close the gap to 38-32.

No matter, as junior guard Dominic Wilder stole the ball, raced in and took a tremendous hit on the lay-up attempt. He not only made the shot, but the subsequent free throw as well. Then seconds later, with the Highlanders inbounding the ball on their offensive end with but a second to play in the stanza, Nick Pitner tossed the ball to fellow senior Coy Smith (15 points), who calmly turned and drained a killer of a three-pointer at the buzzer that made it 44-32.

"It's a shot I fool around with in practice," Smith said. "I wasn't sure if it was going to go in when I let it go, but it felt pretty good. ...This was a big win. These are our most intense rivals in every sport. Anytime we can beat them in anything, we feel good about ourselves."

But the Highlanders couldn't feel good about themselves just yet, as despite Laihinen, Wilder and Smith's best efforts, the Warhawks were not done yet. They started finding the range in the fourth quarter, and when Josh Mongan (17 points) led a 9-2 run with less than three minutes remaining, the score was as close as it was since the first quarter at 58-55 with 1:11 remaining.

However, Homestead stealed itself one more time, as Lamonte Moore (10) and Smith combined to cash six of eight free throws in the last minute and the Warhawks missed out on three straight opportunities to close the gap.

"I think by that point, my guys were out of gas," Coach Showalter said. "They had to fight and fight to get back into the game, but give credit to Homestead, they fought through our screens. The kind of ball I've been teaching for 10 years involves everyone helping each other get open, but they went through our screens and we couldn't get open."

Homestead wants to build on this effort.

'We made plays consistently down the stretch tonight," Curry said. "We have to prove that we can do that again."

"This is just one game," Smith said. "We want to use it as a stepping stone."