MCDONALD'S SWNEWS4U.COM GAME OF THE WEEK (March 18–25)
WIAA DIVISION 5 BOYS BASKETBALL: Reedsville 56, Southwestern 48
By A.J. Gates, Herald Independent / Tri-County Press
Wildcats finish second at state in Division 5
MADISON — For the past 38 years, the main attraction sitting front and center within the trophy cabinet at Southwestern High School has been a lone silver basketball won by coach Jim Nedelcoff’s 1988 boys’ basketball team.
That glimmering sphere of pride now has company, as coach Clint Nemitz’ 2026 Wildcats brought home the latest version of the silver ball by claiming the Division 5 state runner-up title last Saturday morning at the Kohl Center.
Concluding the 2025-26 boys’ basketball season with a record of 24-7 and a trip to the WIAA State Tournament, coach Nemitz’ Wildcats defeated Prentice, 69-65, in Fridays state semifinal game, then were defeated by No. 1 seed Reedsville, 56-48, in Saturday’s state championship.
For Southwestern seniors Remi Lawrence, Aiden Keleher, Cayden DeMuth and Drew Martin, the historical significance of this year’s state tournament run was certainly not lost on them, having seen the Wildcats lose regional final games as freshmen and sophomores, and just last year bowing out in the sectional semifinals.
“It feels amazing,” said Aiden Keleher of the state run. “I was once a kid in the same situation, watching these games, and just getting so close to where we've been. It really inspired me to put in the work to get to this point, and hopefully other people, younger than me, sees what we did, and continues to do what I did.”
“If you had asked anyone three weeks ago and said we would be here, they would have all laughed at us,” Keleher added. “We didn't get what we wanted today, but just getting second really shows us that what we've done over the last four years, has really paid off.”
For DeMuth, the support of Southwestern’s fans and the following by the entire community gave him extra motivation to make this season and playoff run last as long as possible.
“With this team, we've come so close to state so many times, and being in the crowd or stands for those games and watching them fall short, it makes you want to do it for your community,” said DeMuth. “It makes you want to go out there and perform for your family, your friends and people at school.”
“It’s just so surreal, that it’s the first time in 38 years that we got here, and we're going to have a chance to play for a gold ball,” DeMuth added. “It was just a really big moment, and it's really important to me to play for my community.”
“Just seeing them get excited for it, and seeing them come up here, it's a huge sigh of relief running out of the tunnel with all your nerves and everything before the game, and having hundreds of fans that are supporting you and having your back, no matter what,” DeMuth concluded.
For Lawrence, the support he saw from the community during this run will be something he remembers for the rest of his life.
“It felt great. They were there for every single game, always cheering us on, always posting on social media,” Lawrence said. “I don't know if I’ve ever gone on Facebook and not seen something about us. So, yeah, I just enjoy all the support and love that our community gave us.”
Wildcat fans were no doubt on the edge of their seats for the final few minutes of Friday’s state semifinal, where an 18-point lead over Prentice suddenly became a nail biter in the end.
While the Wildcats never trailed throughout the entire contest, and the only tie was at 2-2 early in the first half, things certainly got interesting down the stretch with a spot in the state finals on the line.
After taking their largest leads of 24-13 and 26-15 late in the first half, coach Nemitz’ Wildcats took a 26-19 lead into the locker room at intermission.
The Wildcats extended their lead to 18 points at 43-25 and then again at 47-29 on a bucket by Keleher with 11:42 to play in the contest.
The Buccaneers didn’t go away though, as they implemented a 1-2-2 full-court press that slowly allowed them to cut into their deficit and pull within 62-61 with 1:27 to play.
In the final 1:13, the Wildcats were equally aggressive on the defensive end, where they came away with three steals, and then knocked down 7-of-10 foul shots to pull out a 69-65 victory.
“We didn't keep our composure at all,” said coach Nemitz of the final few minutes. “I yelled a lot and the guys got scared.”
“I was really happy with how our guys came out and executed some of the sets that we had in the first half,” said Nemitz. “We saw what we wanted to do offensively on film, and we wanted to go at their main two guys, and we did a great job with that. They attacked and moved and they didn't settle for threes. So we kept the game pretty simple early on, and it helped us build the lead.”
“We are an inexperienced team, and we got some guys in foul trouble, and we're putting sophomores and juniors into the game that haven't really been in that spot yet, which made it much more entertaining than it had to be, I think,” Nemitz concluded.
Going 6-of-11 from the free throw line and finishing with a team-high 22 points was Aiden Keleher, who also dished out a team-high four assists to go along with eight rebounds.
DeMuth was close behind with 16 points, followed by junior Carsen Splinter, who chipped in 11 points and a team-high nine rebounds. Lawrence and junior Lucas Foley each finished with eight points, while freshman Sam Martin pulled down eight boards in the win.
“We had to play smart basketball in the last three minutes. We shot a couple of threes that we probably should have held on to, and on defense we were also fouling, but there's a lot of learning opportunities we have for tomorrow,” said Keleher after Friday’s victory.
Waiting for the No. 3 seed Wildcats in Saturday’s championship game was No. 1 seed Reedsville (27-3), who slipped by No. 4 seed Sheboygan Lutheran, 75-72, in their state semifinal contest early that morning.
The Panthers were led by senior Ben Prochnow, who poured in 26 points and dished out nine assists in Reedsville’s state semifinal victory, while also scoring his team’s last seven points in a three-point victory.
Offensively for the Wildcats, Saturday’s state title game against the Panthers was a tale of two halves, but defensively, the effort was steady throughout the entire contest for the Wildcats.
Trailing the Panthers 35-33 at halftime, the Wildcats made 14-of-28 (50%) shot attempts, including 5-of-12 (41.7%) from 3-point range in the opening half.
In the second half though, coach Nemitz’ squad went cold on the offensive end, making just 7-of-27 (26%) shot attempts, including 0-of-12 from downtown.
There were 10 lead changes and eight ties throughout the 36-minute contest, with Southwestern holding their largest lead of 23-17 with 5:41 to play in the opening half.
Throughout the first 13 minutes of the second half, the two teams were tied three different times, with the largest lead for Prentice being 46-42 with 5:28 to play in the contest.
The Panthers would extend their lead to as many as seven points, with 59 seconds to play, while a basket by DeMuth pulled the Wildcats to within 53-48, 20 seconds later.
On the inbounds play, a steal by Splinter gave one final breath of hope to the Southwestern faithful, but a 3-point attempt by Keleher bounced off the rim and into the hands of Reedsville’s Arden Strenn, who followed with two clinching free throws at the other end.
A balanced scoring attack for the Wildcats saw Lawrence, Keleher and DeMuth each score 13 points in their final high school basketball contest, while Splinter chipped in seven.
Splinter led his team on the glass with eight rebounds, while Keleher dished out a team-high three assists and Lawrence came away with a team-high two steals.
“I’m really proud of the kids on the way they've battled today,” Nemitz said following the state title game. “I thought they did a great job of settling in like they did yesterday, and not getting caught up in the moment.”
“We had a spurt in the first half there, where we were going off really well, and then, made a couple subs, and they started to get transition points, which was a point of emphasis for us to take that away,” Nemitz added. “Credit to Reedsville though, they just kept pushing and pushing and pushing, much like they did yesterday against Sheboygan.
“They got those transition points, and then I thought in the second half, they did an outstanding job of keeping us off the boards,” Nemitz said. “That was probably the first time all year, we've lost the rebounding battle.”
“They did a great job of keeping us off the boards, and we couldn't get any second-chance opportunities, but the kids played a tremendous game, and I couldn't be prouder.”
While the magnitude of this year’s tournament run was something new to coach Nemitz, the 13-year head coach of the Wildcats has certainly had his fair share of postseason success over the years.
During his 13 years at the helm, the Wildcats have now claimed five regional titles, while this year’s squad took it two steps further by giving him his first sectional title in five sectional finals appearance, as well as his first state trophy in his first state tournament appearance.
He and his division 5 Wildcats have had an abundance of tournament success despite having never won a conference title in the Southwest Wisconsin Activities League, which has been dominated by top-tier division 4 opponents.
While accumulating a respectable 13-year conference record of 93-89 in the SWAL, coach Nemitz has a much more impressive 29-13 record in division 5 playoff action. In some respects, winning a conference title for the Wildcats has become a much harder task than winning regional or sectional titles.
“Our conference helps us mentally prepare for games and situations like this,” said coach Nemitz. “We just grew with confidence with each of the wins that we probably shouldn't have had, starting with Darlington towards the end of the year, and then when that Kickapoo win happened at regional finals, I think our guys and myself, kind of had, an ah-ha moment that we can do this, but at the same time, we still had a lot of learning opportunities.”
“It’s those learning opportunities that we stress a lot on, that they're not losses, they're learning opportunities,” Nemitz added. “So, it's just learning from those opportunities, those losses, and then staying confident with each other.”
“This team has grown a lot together,” said Nemitz. “I'll be quite candid and say that they were selfish. They were a selfish team in November, December, and early parts of January, but boy, have they come together!”
Though the Wildcats have taken their lumps as one of the smaller schools in the SWAL, Southwestern players like Cayden DeMuth wouldn’t want it any other way.
“Like coach has said, we use them as learning opportunities,” DeMuth said of their conference losses. “We’re playing good teams throughout our conference in Darlington, Mineral Point and Cuba City and playing them twice a year. It’s just growing off that and if it comes with a win or a loss, we keep our composure, we take it to practice the next day and we learn from it. That's what I think got us here today.”
Nemitz, who is a graduate of Cassville High School, where he helped the Comets to a division 4 state runner-up title in 1999 and a D4 state championship in 2000, knows all-too-well the historic significance and legacy that comes with a state tournament run in a small town.
“I haven't been able to process or reflect on anything for three or four months, because I have two young boys, and I'm their coach as well,” said an emotionally drained coach Nemitz. “When you go from winning a big game against Lancaster or Darlington, and then you have to go coach a bunch of fourth graders, and then you have to go coach a bunch of seventh graders, there's no time to reflect, there's no time to enjoy it. It’s just seven days of basketball, and I feel sorry for all the coaches out there that have to do that kind of thing.”
“But, there will probably be a time in the next 30 to 40 minutes where I break down and tears come out,” Nemitz added. “I don't know if you can put into words what these guys have done as a team, you know, coming from that small town.”
“I know that the Sheboygan coach didn't think we should be here today. He had a problem with the seeding, but hopefully he was entertained,” said Nemitz. “I thought our kids came out and battled as hard as they could, and they played for their community, and their community is damn proud of them.”
“I think it'll take some time to settle in, but I know these guys are resilient. They're a very resilient bunch. They move on from things quickly. I really do hope that they got to enjoy as much of this as they could, because it is such a special tournament,” Nemitz added. “It brought back a lot of memories for me as a player, and what that felt like. You don't get to enjoy as much of it as a coach, but I know that these guys had a blast, riding around in the vans with the assistant coaches, who were phenomenal this week. The state tournament is so special, and I'm glad I got to be a part of it again.”
There’s nothing quite like a state tournament run to bring a small town community closer together, making memories that will last a lifetime for everyone involved.
And for coach Nemitz and his Southwestern boys’ basketball program, there’s nothing like a state tournament run to reignite that flame that burns inside every young athlete out their watching this year’s team.
“We've put a lot of time and effort into our youth basketball program, and it's really turned the tide for us. So the little kids that have been able to be a part of our journey here, and the parents seeing all this hard work payoff, I, as the head coach, am just elated to see what this is going to do for the future of our program, and the energy it's going to continue to fuse in.
