Middleton runs past La Follette
“Slow it down,” yelled Madison La Follette coach Torrance Holmes. “Slow it down.”
If ever there was a moment that summed up the 2025-’26 season for Middleton’s boys basketball team, this was it.
The Lancers, who have played at a breakneck pace for years, were trying to downshift from fifth gear to first in their game against Middleton on Feb. 11. The Cardinals, meanwhile, kept their foot on the peddle throughout.
Middleton put four players in double figures, cleared the 100-point barrier for the second time this season and ran away from La Follette, 102-83. The Cardinals improved to 17-2 overall and 12-1 in the Big Eight, while the Lancers fell to 12-7, 9-5.
“That was amazing,” sophomore forward Carter Parks said.
Senior guard Jackson Guerrero felt the same.
“It’s great,” Guerrero said. “We knew we could hit 100 on that team, because they don't play the best defense. We played great. It's always good to hit 100.”
The Cardinals had several standouts in sweeping the season series from the Lancers.
Guerrero continued his magnificent play of late, pouring in 27 points and notching seven steals, including six in the first half. Guerrero buried 10-of-18 shots from the floor and 5-of-8 3-point attempts.
“Everything with him is just so intentional,” Middleton assistant coach Tom Lesar said of Guerrero.
“That’s a great word for it,” Middleton coach Kevin Bavery said. “Just very intentional.
“Like you can see sometimes when he's coming up in transition, he’s crossed the timeline. You can see he's got the guy right where he wants him. He's got him on his hip, and he just keeps him there all the way to the rim. And people are looking like, how did that just happen?”
Senior guard John Grimes drilled three 3-pointers of his own and had 20 points, five assists and four rebounds. Parks, arguably the conference’s Most Improved Player, had 17 points and nine rebounds.
Emerging freshman forward Parker Klein had 11 points and three rebounds, do-everything senior forward Luke Sheehan had eight points and six rebounds, and scrappy senior guard Andrew Qastin added seven points, four rebounds and three steals in his first game back from a concussion.
Senior forward Dane Krachey then put the exclamation mark on this convincing win when he drilled a 3-pointer with 17 seconds left to help Middleton cross the century mark.
“That was really nice,” Parks said of Krachey’s triple to clear the 100-point mark. “It bounced a couple times, then went in. I loved it.”
The Cardinals also forced 23 turnovers and committed just eight themselves. That helped Middleton put up 75 shots vs. just 55 for La Follette.
“We’re just playing at a different pace right now,” Bavery said. “And the important part of that is the (75) shots. We've been out-shooting teams by a lot and that’s been really big for us.”
La Follette has two of the better players in the league in junior guard Reese Jordan and quick-leaping, 6-foot-5 senior forward Thian Riak, and both excelled. Jordan poured in 35 points on just 19 shots and Riak made 13-of-17 shots on his way to 26 points.
But the Lancers simply couldn't match the Cardinals’ overall depth, talent and pace of play.
“We played confident all night long,” Bavery said. “They were just so jacked all night, on the bench, on the court, anytime they were in there. They played their (tails) off.”
The Lancers — who rely primarily on their starting five — led the majority of the opening nine minutes when they had fresh legs. Then, as legendary Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi once said, “Fatigue makes cowards of us all.”
Middleton, which used 10 players in the first half, smacked the Lancers with a 12-2 run, surged to a 24-18 lead and never trailed again. Guerrero had a nifty step-back 3-pointer in that burst, Carlson drilled a triple of his own, while Grimes, Qastin and junior forward Eli Breunig all scored, as well.
“Our game plan is, like, we have a lot of subs,” Guerrero said. “A lot of people come off the bench to wear the other teams down. So I think that really helps.”
Middleton’s lead was 35-31 late in the half when it embarked on a 9-0 run in just 46 seconds and built its advantage to 44-31.
Parks began that spurt with a nifty 5-foot jump hook, then Guerrero had back-to-back steals. Guerrero’s first theft led to a lay-up from Klein and the second resulted in a technical foul on La Follette’s Origin Prewitt.
Guerrero drilled both free throws after the technical. Then on the ensuing inbounds pass, Guerrero came free and buried a 3-pointer.
By halftime, Guerrero had 13 points, six steals and Middleton led, 48-36.
“So sophomore year, he had a really important role,” Bavery said of Guerrero. “He was all defensive minded, 100%.
“Junior year, all of a sudden you could see that his offense had gotten better. And this year, it's like his offense is going to a totally different level.”
Middleton took things to another level, as well, in the second half.
The Cardinals led, 52-40, just 2 minutes into the half when they blitzed the Lancers with a 17-3 burst that took just 2:10. When it was over, Middleton’s lead had ballooned to an insurmountable 69-43.
Grimes buried three deep 3-pointers and had nine points in that run. Guerrero had another steal, a breakaway lay-up and four points, while Sheehan and Klein also had baskets.
In all, Middleton scored on seven of nine possessions in that stretch, while the Lancers had five turnovers in their eight possessions.
Middleton also kept a breakneck pace during that time, much to the delight of the Cardinals’ coaching staff. Lesar’s nickname is Toby, and Bavery refers to many of his teaching points as ‘Toby-ism’s.’
Throughout this contest, one thing Lesar consistently stresses came to fruition.
“One Toby-ism is who's the best athlete on the floor?” Bavery said. “It's the ball. Nobody can move as fast as the ball. They can't get ahead of the ball if we’re passing it up the sideline.
“Like defensively, we're constantly preaching to our guys to get ahead of the ball. It doesn't matter what your position is, the more guys we can get ahead of the ball the better. That's old school, and we try to do it as best we can and we did it really well.”
The Lancers — one of the more talented teams in the league — did creep back within 78-66 with 8 minutes left. But Middleton quickly extinguished any comeback hopes with a 14-5 run that pushed its lead back to 92-71 and ended things.
Guerrero started that spurt when he banked in a 25-footer, shrugged his shoulders and smiled like the cat who ate the canary. Guerrero later swished a 27-foot 3-pointer and Parks had a traditional 3-point play.
Sheehan and Carlson also had baskets during that run, and La Follette never came closer than 15 in the final four minutes.
“We’re definitely doing better,” Parks said. “Today, especially, we got a lot better at working the ball up the court really quickly. That was probably our biggest improvement.”
Added Bavery: “We answered almost every time they made a run at us. We've done a nice job of that lately.”
Middleton, which pushed its winning streak to a season-high seven games, still believes it hasn’t peaked.
“Nope. Not yet,” Parks said. “I think our best basketball is for the end of the season.”
Which could be scary for the Cardinals’ future foes.
“I feel like we're rolling right now,” Guerrero said. “We've got a few pretty good wins and we’re getting better all the time.
“We have a tough schedule coming up, but that's what you want at the end of the season. It’s going to fun.”
Feb. 7
Middleton 102, Madison La Follette 83
La Follette …………..…. 36 48 – 83
Middleton …...………... 48 54 — 102
MADISON LA FOLLETTE — Terrell Moss 1 1-2 4, Origin Prewitt 0 1-2 1, Reese Jordan 10 11-13 35, CJ Costello 3 1-2 7, Daelin Roberson 1 0-0 2, Vinny Kleinsmith 1 0-0 2, Thian Riak 13 0-0 26, Patrick Toomey 2 0-0 6. Totals: 32 14-19 83. Totals 23 8-12 64.
MIDDLETON – Jackson Guerrero 10 2-4 27, Luke Sheehan 4 0-0 8, Andrew Qastin 3 1-2 7, John Grimes 8 1-2 20, Carter Parks 6 5-6 17, Cormac Carlson 2 0-0 5, Parker Klein 5 1-2 11, Eli Breunig 2 0-0 4, Dane Krachey 1 0-0 3. Totals: 41 10-18 102.
3-point goals — MLF 5 (Jordan 2, Toomey 2, Moss); M 10 (Guerrero 5, Grimes 3, Carlson 1, Krachey 1). Fouls: MLF 17, Mid 19.
