The top-ranked and defending State Champion Stevens Point
Area Senior High School (SPASH) boys basketball team remained unbeaten on the
season after it went 2-0 at the 44th annual Sentry Classic at Bennett Court at
Quandt Fieldhouse Sunday and Monday, Dec. 27 and 28.

In their closest game so far this season, the Panthers held
off Sauk Prairie Sunday night, and then overcame an early deficit to roll past
eighth-ranked Muskego
Monday night.

SPASH was scheduled to be back in action with one game at
the 11th annual Rick Majerus Wisconsin Basketball Yearbook Shootout at Concordia University
in Mequon
Wednesday, Dec. 30, where it was set to face second-ranked Germantown (7-1) at 7:30 p.m. in a rematch of last season’s WIAA
Division 1 State Championship Game.

“It’s a great community event, and we enjoy being here at
the university,” said SPASH boys basketball head coach Scott Anderson. “Pacelli
is here and our girls are here and Amherst
is here, and it’s really a neat deal to have all of those teams under one roof
and playing basketball all day long.

“We love being a part of this, and we’re always happy to
come out of here with a couple of wins,” he said.

“It’s always a good crowd, good atmosphere, and we just try
to play our best,” said senior point guard Trev Anderson. “(Sunday) didn’t go
so well and we just had to bounce back.

“It was very good to have back-to-back games so we could
just regroup like that, and I thought we played well,” he said. “That was a
very good Muskego
team and I thought our defense was phenomenal for most of the game, so that was
a step in the right direction heading into Germantown on Wednesday.”

Following a 6-0 start to the season, during which they
outscored their opponents by an average of 36 points per game, the Panthers
opened play in the Boys National Division of the Sentry Classic against Sauk
Prairie (3-3) Sunday night.

SPASH got out to a 9-0 lead to start the game but was unable
to pull away in the first half, as it went into halftime with a 30-21
advantage.

The Panthers built a double-digit lead early in the second
half and maintained control, while Sauk Prairie pulled to within seven with
less than two minutes to play, before SPASH went on to secure a 61-52 victory.

Trev Anderson had 22 points and five assists, sophomore
forward Joey Hauser finished with 19 points and seven rebounds, and senior
forward Sam Hauser added 13 points and seven rebounds to lead the Panthers.

“Give Sauk Prairie a lot of credit, we weren’t in our ‘A’
game, but some of that was due to their efforts and how they played,” said
coach Anderson. “We didn’t play great basketball by any stretch, but we played
well enough to kind of get it done in the end of the night.”

SPASH played in the marquee game again Monday night against
eighth-ranked Muskego,
which came in averaging 74.9 points per game after it lost 78-66 to Division 2
third-ranked New Berlin Eisenhower (7-0) Dec. 22 in its final game before the
Sentry Classic.

Muskego
hit back-to-back three-pointers to start the game Monday with a 6-0 lead and
held a 14-10 advantage with 11:58
to play in the first half.

SPASH answered with a 10-2 run to take a 20-16 lead with
just over eight minutes left in the first half when Sam Hauser went out with
his second foul, but the Panthers extended the run to 20-2 to push their lead
to 30-16 with 3:54 left, as sophomore guard Drew Blair came off the bench to
score six of the team’s final eight points of the run.

“We all just work well as a team, and we have confidence in
everybody,” said Joey Hauser. “We know everybody can make plays, and we just
moved the ball around well.”

“Drew Blair played very good in that stretch and made a
couple shots,” said coach Anderson. “Evan Mallek was really good off the bench
in that stretch, and Joe and Trev, and we found a good rhythm with that group.

“And sometimes that’s the way it works, sometimes you try to
find that right five that kind of gets it going together,” he said. “They went
on a really nice run at that stretch, and that kind’ve changed the game.”

SPASH went into halftime with a 36-21 lead and outscored
Muskego 9-2 to start the second half and go up 47-23 with 15:01 to play, while
the Panthers led by at least 21 the rest of the way and went on to win 81-56 to
finish unbeaten at the Sentry Classic for the sixth year in a row.

“It’s good to go out with a bang,” said Sam Hauser. “We
played a little bit sluggish the first night, but we responded tonight with a
big win.”

“We played pretty good basketball, and I was happy with our
defense, especially in the first half,” said coach Anderson. “They’re a
high-scoring team, and to hold them to 21 at halftime was really good.

“Our defense wasn’t quite as good in the second half, but
overall it was a good team win, and I’m very pleased with how we played,” he
said.

Trev Anderson finished with 21 points and four assists, Joey
Hauser had 20 points, Sam Hauser totaled 15 points and 13
rebounds, and Blair added eight points.

Sam Hauser and Joey Hauser were both named to the
All-Classic Team for the Boys National Division along with Trev Anderson, who
also received the Don Friday Leading Scorer Award (43 points) and the Warren P.
Choudoir Outstanding Player Award for the Boys National Division.

Next up, the Panthers are set to face Germantown Wednesday
night in Mequon, after SPASH beat the then-three-time defending State Champions
67-51 in the WIAA Division 1 State Championship Game March 21.

After guiding Germantown to a state-record 69-game winning
streak and three consecutive WIAA Division 1 State Titles from 2012 to 2014,
Steve Showalter resigned as the Germantown head coach after last season to
become an assistant coach for the men’s basketball team at NCAA Division II
Lindenwood College (Mo.), where former University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
(UWSP) assistant coach Lance Randall was named the head coach in the
off-season.

Germantown is coming off an 87-79 loss at ninth-ranked
Hartland Arrowhead (5-2) Tuesday, Dec. 22, and is led this season by 6-0 senior
point guard and NCAA Division 1 Northern Iowa recruit Juwan McCloud (24.9
points per game), 6-6 senior forward and NCAA Division II Concordia-St. Paul
recruit Max Keefe (15.1 points), 6-5 senior forward Conner Edmonds (9.5 points),
5-10 senior guard Tyler Behrendt (9.4 points) and 6-4 junior guard Kyle Clow
(6.6 points).

“Obviously everyone knows Germantown, that’s a very well-respected
program in the state,” said Trev Anderson. “Playing them last year at the State
Tournament, and to get them again in a regular-season game down in Mequon, that’s going to be
a really fun atmosphere and it should be a packed gym.

“We’ve just got to continue to play defense, and shots are
going to start falling,” he said. “I didn’t think we shot it overly great these
last two games, but they’re going to start falling, and away we’re going to go
again.”

“We knew this part of the schedule was going to be
interesting, with three good teams in four days,” said coach Anderson. “So now
we get Germantown
on Wednesday, and obviously being kind of a rematch of the State Championship
Game last year puts a little extra to it for people.

“I know I like the opportunity it presents for us to have to
go against a really good team with good players, and they’re well-coached,” he
said. “And putting us in those kinds of atmospheres and those kinds of games
helps get us better.”