North Butler’s season stopped in semis

By John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

SHEFFIELD — In the opening moments of their Class 1A District 5 semifinal against North Butler, the Janesville Wildcats were having a little trouble with the Bearcats half-court zone as they turned the ball over twice on their opening possessions.

So they made it disappear — not necessarily the zone, but rather the half-court.

By way of using a 1-3-1 full-court press with three Wildcats positioned like sentinels at the time line, the Wildcats opened up the game with turnovers then ran away with it on way to winning big, 75-34, Tuesday night at West Fork High School.

The Wildcats (20-3) will face the winner of the West Fork-Tripoli semifinal at 7 p.m. Thursday at a neutral site at Aplington-Parkersburg High School.

Janesville senior guard Danny Amlie did much of the damage as he hit six of his seven 3-point field goals in the first half on way to leading all scorers with 25 points.

Amlie was the ball-hawk in the full-court press, using his anticipation, long arms and even feet to pry away possessions from the Bearcats.

Isaiah Carlson added 17 points for the Wildcats, and was a menace on the offensive glass scoring numerous putbacks, some of which came when Amlie had a brief cold stretch of shooting.

After consecutive 3-pointers by Amlie, and then a put-back bucket by Carlson after Amlie missed a “heat check” third attempt, the Wildcats jumped out to an 18-6 lead with 2:36 left in the first quarter.

North Butler senior Jaret Wunsch hit a 3-pointer and then a put-back of his own to make the score 18-12 shortly before the end of the first.

But that’s as close as it got as the Wildcats went on to outscore the Bearcats 30-5 in the second quarter.

Wunsch led the Bearcats (13-8) with 7 points, and Reid Lammers added 6.

The 41-point victory wasn’t an anomaly for the Wildcats who had several 40-, 50- and even 60-point victories during the season.

A likely meeting with the undefeated and Class 1A top-ranked West Fork Warhawks on Thursday may not be so one-sided.