St. Thomas More captures first WIAA boys basketball state title with big second-half push

MADISON – Lakeside Lutheran coach Todd Jahns had a simple potential solution to combat St. Thomas More's offensive rebounding advantage in the first half of the teams' Division 3 state championship matchup Saturday at the Kohl Center.

"The only adjustment I probably could've made was to go out in the crowd and see if I could find a 6-foot-9 guy that could jump," Jahns said with a smile.

Led by a 20-point, 14-rebound double-double from Sekou Konneh, 19 points from Kyle Alivo, and an 18-3 second-half run, St. Thomas More (29-1) won its first WIAA boys basketball title with a 65-54 victory over the Warriors.

Box score:St. Thomas More 65, Lakeside Lutheran 54

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"Pure joy," Cavaliers coach Tony Mane Jr. said with the gold ball sitting to his right at the post-game news conference.

"It's not for me. Obviously, I'm excited for it, but when you have 16 young men that we have that you see day in and day out, whether it's the conditioning drills, whether it's the rebounding drills, the weight room sessions ... I'm so proud of them to see what hard work to do."

Saturday brought a hard challenge for the Cavaliers in the form of a crisp and ready Warriors (27-3) bunch that raced out to a 24-16 advantage with 4:17 to play in the opening half. The Cavaliers made five of their first eight shots but closed the first half missing 16 of their final 24 shots to trail 32-29 at the break.

The optimism for St. Thomas More stemmed from Konneh registering his double-double in the first half to keep the top-seeded Cavaliers in the game despite a 1-for-10 shooting start from deep and nothing falling around the rim.

"We made some adjustments at half," Mane said. "That's a very, very good Lakeside Lutheran team. That No. 5, the point guard (Kaycee Guzman) is fantastic. The big man (Wes Rahn) is fantastic. No. 15 (Kooper Mlsna) can shoot it. The game plan going in wasn't working, so we made some adjustments at half. We have some guys that can put the ball in the hoop, so offensively, it wasn't something I was worried about."

After a steal-and-slam sequence by Rahn gave Lakeside a 45-41 lead with 9:46 to play, the Cavaliers made their move.

Over the next five minutes, St. Thomas More went on an 18-3 run to take a 59-48 advantage with 4:45 to play. Four Cavaliers scored, including Amari McCottry, who shot just 4-of-15 from the field but pestered Warriors ball-handlers defensively. The NCAA Division I prospect finished two assists shy of a triple-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds.

Alivo hit two big triples with a third coming from Konneh’s cousin Omar Fofana on the left wing to help spark the Cavaliers. Konneh slammed one home off a baseline drive in front of STM’s student section with 8:38 to go that also helped build the title-sealing run down the stretch.

"If you don't know about Kyle, one thing about Kyle is if he's not going offensively, he's doing other things on the floor," Konneh said. "All the big games we've played, he had over 12 rebounds. He always does the things we need him to do whether he's hitting shots or not. He's always that factor we need. Anything we need him to do, he does."

For Konneh, it was a personal mission to leave Madison with a gold ball after coming one game short of Madison last season. He was the one who walked out of STM's news conference after the game back to the locker room with the trophy in hand.

"After that loss to MAS (Milwaukee Academy of Science, in last year's sectional final), I couldn't go to sleep," Konneh said. "It was on my mind constantly, like, every day. I literally visualize myself playing against those teams every time I work out. It was with everything I did. Just getting here, I was visualizing myself getting that gold ball. Finally seeing it and winning it, I couldn't believe it. Once I touched it, my hands didn't wanna let it go."

Thomas More won a WISAA title (1988) and reached two other championship games before Wisconsin public and private schools came together under one athletic association.

Alivo and Konneh are two of St. Thomas More's nine departing seniors. There's still one more trophy to get for the future Iowa baseball player this spring, but Saturday was a dream come true for the future Hawkeye.

"It's great," Alivo said. "I felt the other side of this one time last year (in the D2 state baseball title game) and it's not fun. I'm grateful for that experience and this is just awesome. Going into that arena you watched when you were a little kid, seeing the Badgers playing all those big teams, it's just something you dream of."