Pewaukee, Whitefish Bay with big wins; conference title races in area girls hoops takeaways

Posted by author February 15, 2025 Basketball

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Despite Mother Nature’s best efforts Friday night, there was some basketball being played around the Milwaukee area.

The time draws near for the tournament brackets to be revealed Sunday morning, but there was still important business to handle near the top of some conferences as the final week of the regular season approaches.

Let’s dive into Friday’s takeaways along with a few notes from the week, starting with a pair of potential title-contending teams notching crucial wins.

Pewaukee, Whitefish Bay pick up huge victories

Two of the area’s elite programs this season picked up massive victories Friday.

Defending Division 2 state champion Pewaukee dispatched Pius XI in a comfortable 26-point victory, 58-32. Not only did the victory claim a fifth straight Woodland West title for the Pirates, it marked the 41st straight conference victory for the champions dating back to a Jan. 21, 2022, defeat at the hands of the Lady Popes. The Pirates will certainly be in line for a No. 1 seed come Sunday morning during the tournament bracket reveal, which is pretty impressive considering one of their most important pieces in Wisconsin recruit Giselle Janowski hasn’t played since the holiday portion of the season because of a knee injury.

Out north, Whitefish Bay moved to 20-0 against teams not named Hartford this season. The Orioles remain the only team to defeat the Blue Dukes after the latter completed a season sweep of Homestead at home, 59-56. Homestead jumped out to a 32-21 halftime lead, but the Blue Dukes got 36 points combined from Sage Miskel and Rowan Counsell to climb all the way back. The Blue Dukes outscored the Highlanders 38-24 in the final 18 minutes to at least give themselves an outside chance at a split of the North Shore Conference title next week. If the Orioles defeat West Bend East and Slinger, they’ll be the outright NSC champions.

Tracking conference championship winners and what’s left for others

There’s still some things to be decided in conference title races but for some, the hardware already has a home this season. Let’s take a look at the conferences around the area that have already been clinched or a team has at least clinched a share, starting in the East Central Conference.

East Central: Kettle Moraine Lutheran (11-0), clinched share of title; Lake City: Salam (18-3, 15-0), outright champion; Metro Classic: The Prairie School (20-2, 14-0), outright champion; Milwaukee City (Blue): Milwaukee Bradley Tech/Arts (19-1, 13-0), outright champion; Milwaukee City (Gold): Milwaukee Golda Meir (15-5, 13-0), outright champion; Southeast: Oak Creek (15-7, 13-0), clinched share of title; Southern Lakes: Union Grove (20-2, 12-0), outright champion; Woodland (East): Whitnall (19-2, 12-0), outright champion; Woodland (West): Pewaukee (20-2, 12-0), outright champion.

Here’s a look at the area conferences that haven’t been fully decided yet, starting with the Classic 8 Conference.

Classic 8: Arrowhead finished 12-2 with no games left. Muskego (11-1) can win the outright title with wins over Catholic Memorial and Mukwonago next week.

East Central: Kettle Moraine Lutheran (11-0) can win outright title with a win over Winneconne (10-1) on Thursday at home.

Greater Metro: If Brookfield East (14-1) beats Germantown on Friday, it clinches no less than a share of the title. Wauwatosa East (13-1) can clinch no less than a share of the title with wins over West Allis Hale and DSHA next week.

Midwest Classic: Watertown Luther Prep (13-1) beat Lake Country Lutheran (12-1) on Friday, 60-42. If WLP defeats Catholic Central and Heritage Christian next week, it clinches no less than a share of the title. LCL can clinch its own share of the title with wins against Living Word Lutheran and Kenosha Christian Life.

North Shore: Hartford (15-1) controls its own destiny. If it beats West Bend East and Slinger next week, the Orioles are the outright conference champions. If they lose one of those final two games, it opens the door for a shared title with Whitefish Bay (14-2). The Blue Dukes play Nicolet and West Bend West next week.

Southeast: Oak Creek (13-0) has clinched a share of the title. It can win it outright with a victory over Kenosha Bradford (11-1) on Tuesday. The Red Devils would have to defeat Oak Creek and Racine Case to clinch a split title.

Some fun nonconference matchups to watch as regular season winds down

With the brackets coming Sunday and the regular season in the rearview mirror for some, let’s take a look at a couple potentially fun nonconference games before the tournament starts Feb. 25.

Beaver Dam at Brookfield East, Tuesday: The Golden Beavers will be a tough out in the Division 2 bracket and have challenged themselves against solid competition, including from the area. They own victories over Milwaukee Academy of Science, Union Grove and Kenosha Bradford, but also got stomped out by Wauwatosa East and have lost three straight coming into this one against the Spartans. This should provide a good pre-Germantown test for Brookfield East to close the season.

Arrowhead at Notre Dame, Thursday: The Tritons aren’t as dominant as they’ve been the last handful of seasons, but any Sara Rohde-coached team will be a challenge for any program. Not only will the defending Division 1 champion Warhawks face Notre Dame, they’ll take on Hortonville two days later. They’re not shying away from any potential threats to the title before the postseason.

Other happenings around the Milwaukee area

Not only did Whitnall capture an outright Woodland East Conference title Friday with a 69-21 blowout of South Milwaukee, it marked the first time since 1995 the Falcons finished their conference slate unbeaten.
With 27 more points Thursday, Brown Deer’s Ameerah Grant sits at 2,631 career points and 839 points this season. She’s 188 points from equaling current Connecticut guard and 2024 Ms. Basketball winner Allie Ziebell’s mark of 2,819 points for fourth on the all-time leaderboard. The 839 points moves her into seventh on the all-time single season leaderboard. She should pass Ziebell’s sophomore season total (845) in her next game for sixth all time in the annual Woodland crossover games.

Behind a game-high 20 points from Shannon Maher and 18 points from Deriya Wilson, Milwaukee Reagan ended Milwaukee Bradley Tech/Arts’ bid for an undefeated regular season Tuesday, 54-47. The 47 points was the lowest point total for the Trojans since a 46-43 win over St. Joan Antida’s co-op Dec. 17. With the loss, there’s no more undefeated teams in the area. The only unbeaten team in the state is Division 3 Wittenberg-Birnamwood at 21-0.