The Stevens Point Area Senior High School (SPASH) boys
basketball team rolled past Hartland Arrowhead to win its third consecutive
WIAA Division 1 State Championship at the Kohl Center in Madison Saturday, March 18.

The sixth-ranked Panthers (24-4) stormed out to a 13-0 lead
to start the State Championship Game, while All-State 6-8 junior forward Joey
Hauser scored 19 of the team’s first 24 points and senior guard Beau Rosenthal
and junior forward Andrew Erdman each hit a trio of three-pointers in the first
half to send the team into halftime with a 48-20 lead.

SPASH went on to an 85-56 victory to match the largest
margin of victory in a WIAA Division 1 State Championship Game, as it became
the fourth program in the 102-year history of the WIAA to win three consecutive
State Titles in the top division.

“The feeling never gets old for me,” said Rosenthal, a
member of each of the three State Championship teams. “This one I’m going to
cherish the most though, because I was a starter for this one.

“And it’s always good to end your senior year on a victory,
especially in Madison,” he said. “It’s a moment I’ll never forget.”

“Our kids know how hard they worked out on the practice
floor, and they know how much goes into it,” said SPASH
boys basketball head coach Scott Anderson. “And I tell them all of the time,
‘not everybody practices and works like they do.’ I coach them hard and we’re
very demanding of them every day.

“Sometimes it’s hard, and sometimes they don’t always like
it, but I think they appreciate it,” he said. “And when it comes to the end of
the season and they played the way they played here, I think they understand
the culture that we built here and the work and just all of the different
things that go into being a champion.

“They were willing to do it and they were willing to put
that work in,” he said. “And it paid off for them.”

See this week’s Gazette for complete coverage.