Spring Valley’s WIAA Division 4 Regional Championship victory over Elmwood/Plum City on Saturday, March 5, advanced the Cardinals to the sectional semi-final game against Durand on Thursday, March 10, which will be played in Menomonie, a neutral site.

The game between Spring Valley and Durand will be the third meeting of the year for the two Dunn-St. Croix Conference foes. The first meeting between the two was on Tuesday, Dec. 7 at Durand. That was Spring Valley’s third game of the season and, most notably, was sans-Connor Ducklow. It ended in a 64-45 drubbing in favor of Durand.

Ducklow, the senior forward, has been the leader of this Spring Valley team since his return just after the change of the calendar. His inside scoring ability paired with his defense and rebounding talent allows Spring Valley to spread the floor and get shooters open because of the attention that Ducklow demands inside the paint.

In their second meeting of the year on Friday, Feb. 11 in Spring Valley, Ducklow played and he played well. It was a 61-39 blowout in favor of Spring Valley to even the season series 1-1 between the two teams.

Ducklow finished the game with 21 points, six rebounds and two assists on 9-17 shooting from the floor. Senior guard Tyler Bowman also had a great game. His stat line included 16 points, 12 rebounds, an assist and five steals.

After the regional final victory against Elmwood/Plum City, the Spring Valley roster and coaching staff found out that they were going to play Durand in the sectional semi-final. Spring Valley head coach Rob Bosshart spoke about seeing Durand in the tournament.

“They have good size and are a big, strong team,” Bosshart said of Durand. “We’re going to have to shoot the ball at a decent clip. Just like every team we play, we’re going to have to defend, but we have to be strong inside. They have some big kids inside. It’s going to be a challenge for us, but I know our kids are looking forward to it.”

In the most recent meeting between the two teams, less than a month ago, Spring Valley was excellent defensively. The Cardinals allowed only 12-51 shooting from the floor, a lowly 23% shooting for the night. While Spring Valley could certainly take confidence from that most recent meeting with Durand, Bosshart said everything changes during the WIAA tournament.

“It’s all new,” Bosshart said of the sectional semi-final match-up. “We split with them and kind of held serve on our home courts and that was about it. When we play Durand, I know our kids are going to go into it with the mindset of ‘Let’s just go play another game.’” The mindset may be that it’s just another game, perhaps that’s what it takes for a small school like Spring Valley to relax before one of its biggest basketball games in the last 18 years. Spring Valley hasn’t had a boys basketball team go to the state tournament since the 2004 season.

Ducklow, Bowman, and the rest of the Spring Valley roster, under the direction of veteran head coach Bosshart, have as good a path as ever to get to the state tournament for the first time in 18 years.

The sectional semi-final game against Durand is on Thursday, March 10, and will be played in Menomonie. That game is slated to tip-off at 7 p.m. The winner will play in the sectional final on Saturday, March 12, at Osseo-Fairchild at 7 p.m.