Fox Valley Lutheran Clears First Postseason Hurdle vs. Tomah

<p>I was able to travel to Fox Valley Lutheran to take in a WIAA Regional Semifinal game on Friday night. The Foxes of FVL, hosted the Tomah Timberwolves hailing from the MVC conference and the La Crosse area. Coming into the game, Fox Valley Lutheran was seeded a #3 seed, and Tomah a #6 seed. Tomah defeated #11 seed La Crosse Logan at home on Tuesday night to fight for their right to play another game, making the two and half hour bus ride over to Appleton. Let's dive into a recap of Friday night's game and discuss the key standouts.</p>   <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Recap</h2>   <p>Friday night's game started with what appeared to be a serious ankle injury for highly talented [player_tooltip player_id='2371688' first='Quinn' last='Gerke'] of Tomah. Gerke came off a ball screen and got tangled up with a few players and exited the game in the first minute. The 6-foot-2 junior combo guard did return to the game, but was clearly bothered by the ankle injury as he was held to just four points. Gerke averages over 20 points a game and eclipsed the 1000 point mark very early in his junior season. Fox Valley Lutheran's defense was nearly impossible to score on in the first half. The Foxes are extremely quick, athletic, and physical that forced Tomah in some liveball turnovers and unforced errors on Friday. This strong defensive effort allowed FVL to extend their lead to 16 with 6:40 left in the first half. [player_tooltip player_id='2381574' first='Gabe' last='Heiges'] had a massive first half for Fox Valley Lutheran in the first half guarding [player_tooltip player_id='2371688' first='Quinn' last='Gerke'] and leading all scorers at intermission with 12 points. Things looked like they might get away from Tomah at times in the first half, but the hot shooting of [player_tooltip player_id='2508299' first='Owen' last='Laudon'] allowed them to stay in the game with his 11 points in the first half. Tomah trailed FVL 38-27 at half.</p>   <p>In the second half, things stayed at that 10-11 point mark for the first nine minutes of play with teams trading baskets at the rim and from beyond the arc. At the eight minute mark, Tomah was able to string together a couple of stop and score sequences and cut FVL's lead down to five. The game never got closer than that as [player_tooltip player_id='2381575' first='Braden' last='Heiges'] and [player_tooltip player_id='2672650' first='Caleb' last='Dahlke'] for FVL went off in the second half, sparking a 10-2 run to extend the lead to 13 with 5:03 left. The lead would not get any smaller after that point. Fox Valley Lutheran's overall strength, defensive effort, and Princeton Style offense was too much for Tomah to overcome with a hobbled Gerke as they lost 54-64 in this Semifinal matchup. </p>   <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Key Standouts</h2>    <p class="text-gray-700">[player_tooltip player_id='2381574' first='Gabe' last='Heiges'] was nearly perfect on both sides of the floor on Friday night for the Foxes. The five-foot-nine senior was making plays downhill passing, finishing strong at the rim, and was an absolute menace defensively for FVL. Gabe is an extremely strong and physical two way guard that has led to a lot of wins this season for Fox Valley Lutheran. Heiges runs the point guard spot in their offense, but with how the Princeton offense works, you will see Gabe cutting, coming off screens, and making plays off the ball that are equally impressive as his on ball skills. Gabe was collecting buckets at all three levels on Friday night and finished with 15 points and a handful of assists and steals. Heiges and his squad will trek to La Crosse Central where his matchup with [player_tooltip player_id='2226077' first='Gabe' last='Servais'] may not be the flashiest, but will be worth the price of admission. Heiges was the leading scorer for a very talented FVL team who competes in the Bay Conference, averaging 18.1ppg, 2.6spg, 3.1rpg.</p>     <p class="text-gray-700">This was my first time seeing Laudon who missed essentially his entire sophomore season with a significant knee injury. The five foot-ten combo guard was red hot scoring the basketball in Appleton on Friday night. Laudon had three first half threes including one right at the buzzer to cut the Foxes' lead down to 11. Laudon is left handed and able to create off the bounce getting to his left, outside of his ability to quickly take and make three point baskets. Owen continued his hot shooting canning two more triples in the second half and finishing the game with 21 points. Laudon makes up a talented junior class for Tomah that features [player_tooltip player_id='2830599' first='Silas' last='Cram'] and Owen Gerke. Tomah will bring back their top three scorers next season in a rugged Mississippi Valley Conference, that will allow them to make some noise. </p>     <p class="text-gray-700">Dahlke may be one of the best shooters in the 2026 class, and he showed it on Friday night. The six-foot-five senior is able to knock down threes in waves, due to his very quick release and his length to shoot over opposing defenders. Caleb had 11 second half points canning threes, and getting to the rim to finish through physical and athletic defenders for Tomah. Caleb had an outstanding shooting percentage from three this season shooting 48 percent on 283 attempts. Dahlke is so talented hitting perimeter shots off of zoom actions, screens, and handoffs making him capable to go on personal 6-0, 9-0 runs at any time. Dahlke finished with 17 points on the night and is one of the many scoring options for FVL that very well could beat La Crosse Central on the road tomorrow night.</p>     <p class="text-gray-700">[player_tooltip player_id='2381575' first='Braden' last='Heiges'] may not be the tallest player for Fox Valley Lutheran but he certainly is one of the most physical players capable of making big plays. Braden was a force inside on the defensive and offensive end. Heiges was able to generate second chance points for his team because of his skill and will to grab boards on the offensive glass. Braden is able to score in different ways as well. In the first half Heiges scored getting down hill effectively at the rim and hit an outside jumper as well. He finished the game with 15 points and a bunch of rebounds. Heiges, who is only a junior, will be a major part of the FVL reload as they graduate some key players this off-season. </p>    <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Box Score</h2>   <p><strong>Tomah 54: </strong>Gerke 4, Laudon 21, Hendricks 2, Cram 11, Zastoupil 8, Vandenhoogen 5, Worden 3</p>   <p><strong>Fox Valley Lutheran 64: </strong>G Heiges 15, Erickson 5, Schlueter 12, B Heiges 15, Dahlke 17</p>   <p></p>

I was able to travel to Fox Valley Lutheran to take in a WIAA Regional Semifinal game on Friday night. The Foxes of FVL, hosted the Tomah Timberwolves hailing from the MVC conference and the La Crosse area. Coming into the game, Fox Valley Lutheran was seeded a #3 seed, and Tomah a #6 seed. Tomah defeated #11 seed La Crosse Logan at home on Tuesday night to fight for their right to play another game, making the two and half hour bus ride over to Appleton. Let's dive into a recap of Friday night's game and discuss the key standouts.