SV lands No. 5 seed in the Division 4 bracket

Between the final week of January and the middle of February, the Spring Valley boys’ basketball team rolled off five consecutive wins and completely changed the program’s perspective on the 2022-23 season.

Although all five wins during that stretch were critical to Spring Valley receiving its eventual No. 5 seed in the Division 4 playoff bracket, the back-to-back road wins against tough Eau Claire Immanuel Lutheran and Colfax squads demonstrated growth and maturity that can’t be artificially manufactured.

Spring Valley trailed late in the second half in both instances but found a way to right the ship in hostile road environments and secure victories. For Spring Valley head coach Rob Bosshart, those games within 48 hours of one another told him a lot about his 202223 Cardinals.

“The kids didn’t panic and stayed with it, and we ended up walking out of there with wins,” Bosshart said. “For our young team to do that on the road after trailing late, that was when I knew that we weren’t dealing with a young team anymore. These kids have grown up and they’re ready to compete with everybody we’re going to play.”

In addition to changing Bosshart’s view of this specific iteration of the Cardinals, those two wins helped Spring Valley post a 13-9 overall record and a 9-4 showing in Dunn-St. Croix Conference games going into the bracket seeding process on Saturday, Feb. 19.

While other teams may have had slightly better overall records than Spring Valley, the Cardinals’ resume received a boost – at least from the seeding computer’s perspective – because of the challenging schedule they’ve played this year.

Spring Valley’s tough non-conference schedule included contests against McDonell Central, the No. 1-ranked team in Division 5, the Unity Eagles, currently ranked No. 7 in Division 4, Eau Claire Immanuel Lutheran and Somerset. All rankings come via the weekly Wissports.com weekly coaches’ poll.

“We felt like the schedule that we played warranted a good seed,” Bosshart said. “We opened the season against McDonell Central, who is still ranked number one in Division 5. Somerset is a really talented team and Alma/Pepin has had a good year. It was great preparation for our kids and it gives us the confidence to know we’ve played teams from other conferences competitively and we’ll be as ready as we can be.”

Bosshart’s Cardinals have continually improved throughout the season. There is perhaps no better example of that than the two Dunn-St. Croix Conference games against Mondovi. Spring Valley went on the road to face the Buffaloes in the second week of January and suffered a 74-49 loss.

When Mondovi went to Spring Valley for the second of two annual matchups on Valentine’s Day, there wasn’t any love lost, as the Cardinals rolled the Buffaloes 73-39 and completed a nearly 60-point turnaround compared to their first matchup this season.

“When we played at Mondovi we didn’t shoot well and they did,” Bosshart said. “I think the biggest factor (in the second game) was the way our kids got out and defended. We made them work really hard to score and we didn’t give up second shots either. The kids were motivated to come back and show themselves that the first game at Mondovi wasn’t really who they are.”

Now that Spring Valley is locked into the No. 5 seed in the Division 4 bracket, the Cardinals will host Augusta – the No. 12 seed – on Tuesday, Feb. 28. That program enters the playoffs with a 5-17 overall record and as one of the two lowest seeds in the entire sectional bracket.

While Spring Valley matches up exceptionally well on paper against Augusta, coach Bosshart isn’t going to look ahead. He spoke about what his team needs to do to get a win in what he hopes is the first of several playoff games in the coming weeks.

“We have to shoot well and when we haven’t shot well we’ve struggled,” Bosshart said. “We have some good inside presence people, but we need to shoot at a fairly decent clip. We also need to defend and rebound on the other end. If we do those two things, we’ll be in the game – regardless of who we play.”

Spring Valley sophomore guard Cade Stasiek is going to be critical to both ends of the floor, as he leads the Cardinals in points, rebounds, assists and steals per game. Stasiek has been Spring Valley’s driving force this year with his contributions as a two-way player.

“He just does so many things either defensively, rebounding, help defense, it’s hard to get his full effect unless you see him play in person,” Bosshart said. “The big thing with Cade is his competitiveness. He has a drive and the look in his eye, I think eyes will open when they see him in person.”

Stasiek and the rest of the Cardinals will host Augusta on Tuesday, Feb. 28. Tip-off for that first-round playoff game is slated for 7 p.m. at Spring Valley High School.