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Verona ends Parker boys' season

VERONA — Janesville Parker High School’s boys basketball season came to an end in a hurry Tuesday night.

Verona raced out to a 20-5 first quarter lead and never looked back en route to the 84-42 victory a WIAA Division 1 regional opener.

The Wildcats (14-7) host Kenosha Bradford (11-10) in the regional finals on Saturday. Bradford defeated Milton, 70-54, and Saturday’s winner plays Elkhorn (18-2) or Burlington (12-9) in the Janesville Craig sectional semifinals.

As for Parker, it ends coach Ryan Masterson’s inaugural season with a 1-20 record.

“I’m proud of our guys,” Masterson said. “All year long, they have given me great effort, and I really feel the future is bright with our program. But we obviously have some work to do.”

Parker struggled to make shots against Verona’s full-court press, making just one of nine first-quarter attempts, while the Wildcats made 14 of 28 first-half shots for a 41-17 lead.

The lead grew to 63-21 after the Wildcats made nine of their 11 third-quarter shots. Meanwhile, Parker made just six baskets through the first three quarters.

Matt Ropel came off the bench and led Verona with 16 points, which included three three-pointers. Jason Ziemer added 13, and Taylor Peterson had 10 as 13 Wildcats scored. Jordan Thompson led Parker with 12 points, with seven in the fourth quarter.

“We couldn’t make shots,” Masterson said after the season’s third decisive loss to Verona. “It makes it very hard to win when you can’t make shots.

“We had hoped to kind of slow the game down and stop their transition game, which I thought we did a pretty good job. But we didn’t do a very good job on the boards, and we didn’t make shots. That was the bottom line.”

VERONA 84, PARKER 42

Parker (42)—Thompson, 4-3-12; Teubert, 2-0-4; Husen, 0-6-6; C. Knutson 0-1-1; J. Knutson, 3-1-7; Fiedler, 1-0-3; Moe, 1-0-3; Bouska, 2-2-6; Totals 13-13-42.

Verona (84)—Platto, 1-0-3; Karls, 3-0-6; Wadzinski, 2-2-6; Schaaf, 1-2-4; Ziemer, 5-3-13; Ropel, 5-3-16; Riebau, 1-1-4; Malofsky, 3-2-8; Peterson, 5-0-10; Banzhaf, 1-3-5; Reinke, 1-1-4; Brandt, 0-3-3; Mason, 1-0-2. Totals 29-20-84.

Janesville Parker 5 12 4 21—42

Verona 20 21 22 21—84

Three-point goals—Parker 3 (Thompson, Moe, Fiedler). Verona 6 (Platto, Roepel 3, Riebau, Reinke). Free throws missed—Parker 2, Verona 11. Total fouls—Parker 17, Verona 15.