'Right away we were playing with a deficit and it's hard to come back on teams that have a lot of seniors and obviously they have a lot of great chemistry.

'Defensively we tried to pick our poison on who we were going to stop and they had a lot of guys hitting shots,' McDonell coach Adam Schilling said. Huss led McDonell with 28 points and 11 rebounds with Mittermeyer adding 17 points. Seidel also had 15 points and eight rebounds for the Cardinals. Krach finished with 21 points and also had eight rebounds, with Prey adding 18 points and eight rebounds.

And that's why we're here and got the victory.' And he was an important part of doing that. One of our strategies was to take away (Mittermeyer) and contest Canan (Huss). but he’s so physical and we can put him on anybody. 'Bates started half the year, but we see the importance of him coming off the bench,' Waldvogel said.

Newman doesn't go deep into its bench, so the play of Bates was key throughout the second half of the season, according to Newman Catholic coach Jeff Waldvogel. A steal from reserve Thomas Bates that led to a bucket in transition in the final minutes from Krach punctuated the win. Newman Catholic held firm and 3-pointers from Isaac Seidel and Jackson Pfender and free throws from Prey extended the lead back near double digits. Newman Catholic's Conner Krach, left, and Mason Prey celebrate near the end of their team’s victory over McDonell Central Catholic during the WIAA Division 5 state championship boys basketball game Saturday at the Kohl Center in Madison.

Cardinals magic number 2015