Newman boys basketball defeats Royall 52-42, advances to state championship

MADISON, Wis. (WSAW) - Win and advance is the name of the game in March, #1 Newman played far from their best game, but they got the job done over #4 Royall, 52-42, in the Division 5 Semifinals.

“When we stay together, we play tremendous,” says Eli Gustafson, Newman senior. “I think we can tell. There’s certain times when we’re all locked in. There’s certain times when one person’s off and that sort of messes with the whole group.”

Newman started with a 17-3 lead, then proceeded to go nine minutes without a shot made from the floor.

“I thought we went out of what we like to do,” says Jeff Waldvogel, head coach. “We started to force the ball a little bit, we didn’t make the extra pass.”

“Royall did a great job of slowing us down after we got off to that lead, and they were the ones hitting that shot,” says Isaac Seidel, Newman senior.

But through the final buzzer, the Cardinals held on to defeat the Panthers by 10.

“Then we just kind of went back to what we were doing, pushed the ball and then we started to knock down some shots,” says Seidel.

Seidel finished with 25 points and Newman earns a chance to play for a gold ball.

”It’s a huge confidence boost to win today knowing we didn’t play our best, especially when a guy like Mason is phenomenal,” says Seidel. “He scores around 25 a game and we were able to come out with a game when he scores around 25 a game and we were able to come out with a win when he only scores 8.”

”And it’s great to have these two guys, and the rest of the senior class for one more game so we can get our goal of reaching and get the gold ball,” says Waldvogel.

Newman will face #2 McDonnell Catholic on Saturday, March 18th, at 11:05 a.m. to play for their first Gold Ball in program history.

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