BARABOO — The #1-ranked Platteville girls basketball team toppled its nemesis at long last, pounding two-time defending Division 3 state champion and #5-ranked Marshall 50–34 in the WIAA Division 3 Baraboo Sectional final Saturday afternoon. The victory clinched the program’s first trip to the state tournament since the Hillmen won the Class B state title in 1984.
The Cardinals ended Platteville’s season two years ago in the D3 sectional semifinals. Marshall also defeated the Hillmen 78–61 in a sectional final game at Stoughton one year ago. This year, Platteville’s senior class, which also played for a sectional title — and lost to Madison Edgewood — three years ago as freshmen, would not be denied in its fourth and final attempt to reach the state tournament.
To be fair, this was a different Marshall team than the one that ended Platteville’s season each of the last two years after junior all-state point guard Mia Morel transferred to Madison Memorial, and former coach Alex Koeller left to become an assistant coach at Edgewood College.
But that takes nothing away from Platteville’s dominating performance on Saturday or the fact that coach Mike Foley’s Hillmen will face Arcadia (23–3) in a D3 state semifinal at the Resch Center in Green Bay at 1:35 p.m.
“After the sectional final game at Stoughton last year we had a heart-to-heart talk in the locker room,” said Foley, who took over as Platteville’s head coach prior to last season. “We wanted to remember what it sounded like and felt like seeing Marshall getting the sectional trophy and their players and fans celebrating the win and their trip to state. We set goals right there. We talked about being stronger defensively and setting the goal for us going to Green Bay and playing for a championship next season."
(For complete coverage of Platteville's sectional final victory over Marshall, get your copy of the March 11, 2020 issue of The Platteville Journal)
WIAA Division 3 final
Platteville 50, Marshall 34
(from Saturday, March 7 @ Baraboo)
Marshall......16 18 — 34
Platteville....25 25 — 50
Marshall (21–5) — Anna Lutz 14, Mya Andrews 2, Halle Weisensel 2, Sandra Assaba 2, Laura Nickel 12, Abby Ward 2. Totals — 12 6-8 34.
Platteville (25–0) — Camryn Nies 2, Becca Hoyer 9, Courtney Budden 2, Josie Nies 11, Sami Martin 19, Izzy Carroll 7. Totals — 14-32 10-16 50.
3-point goals — M: 4 (Lutz 2, Nickel 2), P: 4-6 (J. Nies 3, Martin 1). Team fouls — M: 17, P: 12. Fouled out — none.