Coming into the Class 2A boys’ state tournament, Berean Academy senior Lonnie Penner was averaging a shade close to 11 points per game.
In fact, during the Warriors’ substate tournment, Penner admitted that the basket seemed to “close up” on him.
He can now consider the state tournament as his coming-out party as he dropped in 18 points to lead the Warriors to a 44-32 win over St. Mary’s Colgan in the Class 2A state championship game, earning Berean their first-ever state title in boys’ basketball and a school record 25 wins on the season.
“It’s just the balance of our team,” Penner said. “If they focus on one of us, we always have someone else there.”
The Warriors (25-1) can thank an 11-0 run midway through the fourth quarter that put the game away.
Over a span of six minutes, the Warriors held Colgan (22-4) scoreless, while building up a 10-point lead.
“Sometimes things just have to happen right and the kids just made plays,” said Berean head coach Lewis Wiebe — who won his first state title as a coach.
Throughout the tournament, the Warriors relied on their defense. It was a defense that held opponents to an average of just over 37 percent shooting. On Saturday, Berean Academy held the Panthers to 43 percent from the floor.
Another up-turn for the Warriors was their free-throw shooting. Heading into the state tournament, Berean was shooting around 45 percent. Against Colgan, they were at 63 percent, including an 8-of-12 stretch late in the fourth quarter.
“We haven’t been a really good free-throw shooting team and we were able to do that down the stretch,” Wiebe said.
But, it was their fourth quarter defense that proved to be the final nail in the Panthers’ coffin.
“They just turned it up and pushed us out of our offense,” said Colgan head coach Wayne Cichon.
The fourth quarter started just fine for the Panthers after Chris Smith hit a running lay-up to put Colgan up 27-26.
It was the next five minutes that hurt Colgan the most.
Berean Academy went on a 9-0 run and built up a 35-27 lead — the largest by either team — that put the Panthers in a hole.
Down the stretch, Berean Academy did not have a lot of success penetrating in the paint, however after Colgan post Jesse Watt picked up his fifth foul midway through the fourth, the Warriors were able to exploit the inside and make Colgan pay.
