Ben Prochnow’s twisting layup with 12 seconds left gave the top-seeded Panthers a 73-72 lead, starting a frenetic sequence that moved the Panthers to the Division 5 championship game.

Prochnow, who finished with 26 points along with nine assists, has been the leader of the Panthers (27-3) all season. He simply knew he had to get to the hoop with 12 seconds left to return the momentum back to his team in the high-tempo contest.

“I was a little bit surprised at the difficulty of the shot,” he said of the off-balance, 360-degree spin toward the basket. “We had a play called where I would attack the rim because our shots from deep weren’t falling. I saw the rim and I wanted to just get downhill to finish any way possible.”

The next play was just as important, though, as Jack Schwahn drew a charge on Oliver Leibham’s drive by the Crusaders to hand the ball back to the Panthers. That was followed by a Sheboygan Lutheran foul that put Prochnow back at the free throw line, where he hit two shots for the final margin.

“If you paid $12.50 to watch that game, you got your money’s worth already,” Reedsville coach Ron Prochnow said.

It was the most exciting game out of the first half-dozen contests at this year’s state tournament and defined the coaching cliché that basketball is a game of runs. Reedsville had a 16-4 run early in the second half to go up 51-42 with 12:07 left, only to see the Crusaders respond with a 17-2 spurt that put them up 59-53 with 7:08 remaining.

“When you’ve got two really good teams, you’re just going to get a battle with that,” Sheboygan Lutheran coach Nick Verhagen said. “You know, point guard, role guys, shooters, coaching staff on their side, they’re not going away. And they run some really good stuff. But to credit us, we were able to get back on our toes a little bit and fight back, and that’s exactly what we did.”

The semifinal loss somewhat overshadowed a superb 32-point, 11-rebound effort by Crusaders senior Brennen Hackbarth. The 32 points by Hackbarth ranks sixth all-time among Division 5 single-game scoring performances. Interestingly, three of the five performances above that were also by Sheboygan Lutheran players: Sam Dekker with 40- and 35-point games in 2012, and Jacob Ognacevic against Columbus Catholic in 2019.

Leibham added 23 points for the Crusaders. The Panthers also got 15 points from Schwahn and Zach Prochnow and 10 by Arden Strenn.

Reedsville returns to the championship game for the first time since its only other state appearance, when it won the single-division title in 1946. Ben Prochnow’s great-grandfather Hank Behnke, who died last year, was believed to be the last surviving player from that team.

What seemed to be a comfortable day against a cold shooting Prentice team that was further hurt by injury in Friday’s second semifinal, suddenly became worrisome in about 12 different directions. Time to keep composure, right?

“We didn’t keep our composure at all,” Wildcats coach Clinton Nemitz said afterward. “I yelled a lot and our guys got scared, I think. But they’re just playmakers.”

Southwestern led by as many as 18 points midway through the second half, but when the Buccaneers applied full-court pressure, the unraveling began. Prentice got it to a two-possession game at 59-53 with 3:15 left and things began to get interesting after that.

Even with 26 seconds remaining when it seemed the Wildcats had regained control with a 69-63 advantage, Prentice senior Evan Lord was fouled on a made 3-pointer and his free throw brought the Buccaneers back to 67-65.

Southwestern managed to make enough free throws in the final seconds, however, to preserve the win and advance to a state championship game for the first time since its Class C title game appearance in 1988.

“We didn’t play real smart basketball over the last three minutes and shot a couple of dumber threes that we probably shouldn’t have,” said Wildcats senior Aiden Keleher, who led his team with 22 points.

Prentice came out ice cold in the first half, at one point hitting just two of its first 16 shots and finishing the first half at just 21 percent from the field, including only one-of-10 on three-pointers. The Buccaneers were further hit by the loss of 6-foot-4 senior Aidan Hause, who was lost for the game with a head injury midway through the first half.

“Aidan facilitates a lot of the stuff that happens in our offense,” Prentice coach Adam Blomberg said of losing one of his all-conference players. “We had prepared for him not being in there, but it’s really hard. Aiden has dealt with concussions for a long time, probably since his freshman year playing football. It was a (clean) play, but he got hit in the head.”

Lord picked up the slack, finishing with 33 points – the fifth-highest single-game total in Division 5 history. That included 12-of-12 shooting at the free throw line and eight of his team’s final 10 points.

Hardy Hueckman added 22 points for the Buccaneers before fouling out late in the second half.

Southwestern, winners of six straight heading into the championship game, also got 16 points from Cayden DeMuth and 11 by Carsen Splinter.