SPRING VALLEY — Spring Valley boys basketball took care of business in the Regional bracket, winning all three games to move on to Sectionals.

“It means a lot,” senior Trevor Forster said. “I saw a picture a couple days ago my mom sent me [of] me and my friends on this team standing up there cheering for the high school kids when we were little. We won our freshman year, and we just always wanted to get back to this moment. Regional champs, but job’s not finished.”

This moment is one that has been on the minds of the team since the offseason, so it was one to savor when they got there.

“It’s one of the kids’ goals, and I was just really proud of them, happy for them to reach it,” Head Coach Rob Bosshart said.

The start of the week was not the perfection that the end of the week was, as the Cardinals’ March 4 game was pushed back due to massive snowstorms that swept the area. Many teams got their games in, but with the long drive South Shore had to make, it was not in the cards. A night later, they failed to get the game in again, moving it to Thursday night. This meant Spring Valley would have to win Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights all in a row to win the Regional.

The No. 2 seed Cardinals had to take it one game at a time though, starting with No. 15 South Shore. This game gave them little to no trouble, winning 86-27. Forster had 20 points on a perfect 9-9 shooting, senior Cade Stasiek had 17 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds, senior Caleb Bartko had 15 and senior Tanner Dicus had 13.

A night later against No. 7 Clayton, Spring Valley actually trailed 25-24 at the half. Stasiek was the hero of the night, posting a whopping 30 points to steer a dominant second half and 62-45 win.

In the finale against No. 11 Frederic, it was 14-14 around the four-minute mark of the first half.

“We always say we want it more and defense wins championships,” Forster said. “Like Coach Bosshart said, if we win on defense, it will translate to offense.”

After the defense held on long enough, the offense eventually broke through like they said it would. This is when the game was turned on its head for Spring Valley, going 38-17 the rest of the way.

“A big part of it was our defense,” Bosshart said. “We tightened up a little bit and got some easy transition points. Got a little momentum, then we hit a couple threes which I thought gave the kids a little more confidence. Once we were able to open it up to double digits, I think they played a little looser, moved the ball better.”

Bartko said while the game changed, it was more of just sticking with what they were doing and wearing down the opponents.

“Not much changed,” Bartko said. “I had faith in us. I knew we would bounce back. We weren’t really phased.”

Just like that, it was three straight days and three straight wins for the Cardinals.

“I asked them yesterday, ‘Would you want to play three days in a row, or would you prefer to move it?’ and they were like nope, we want to play,” Bosshart said. “When they said that, and then when we came in for shootaround this morning, you could tell that it wasn’t going to be a factor. They weren’t going to let that be a factor.”

Why were they so confident they could do it? Well, they had done it before, so why not again.

“Earlier in the season, we had to play four games in like five days or six days, and we just proved over and over we can do this,” senior Elijah Haug said.

The Regional Final featured a packed student section behind the Cardinal bench and a rowdy home crowd overall. This did not go unnoticed by Spring Valley.

“Our home crowds are amazing,” Haug said. “I swear we’ve got the best student section and the best parents in the whole wide world. I’m sure everybody says this, but I really believe that. We can’t do it without them.”

Bosshart said Spring Valley is an extremely supportive community that does not just support basketball, but all sports, academics, arts and the village as a whole.

On the court, the team brings its own energy. Fist pumps, chest bumps and loud roars are hard to miss from the players on and off the court.

“Everybody contributes, and I don’t care if it’s minutes on the court, as a practice player, attitude and energy,” Bosshart said. “Everybody on this team plays a significant role, and they know that, and they all feed off of each other.”

“Once one player just goes off, we all kind of go off,” Haug said. “I bring the energy one night, and then another time it’s Trevor or Wolfy [Masyn Wolf]. Everybody brings the energy on different nights, and that’s what makes us a team.”

Bartko said the energy some players on the team bring to the game is a part of the reason for his individual success.

“It really feeds into me, and it helps me keep pushing and going, even when I’m tired,” Bartko said.

Now the Cardinals will travel to Chetek-Weyerhaeuser for the Sectional semifinals against No. 1 Turtle Lake Thursday night. If they win, they line up against the winner of No. 4 Rib Lake and No. 6 Prentice in Hayward on Saturday.

“We’re going to have to tighten some things up,” Bosshart said. “I thought we got a little loose with the ball at times, and, defensively, maybe we have a few things that we have to correct. But at this point in the season, you kind of do what you do and you hope that that’s good enough to beat the other team.”