What was shaping up to be one of the best Spring Valley boys basketball seasons since 2004 – the last time the Cardinals went to state – came to an end Thursday night in Menomonie.

Spring Valley’s Division 4 Sectional Semi-Final game against Durand at the neutral site of Menomonie High School ended in a 77-65 loss for the Cardinals, concluding their season two wins shy of making the state tournament for the first time in nearly two decades.

The Menomonie High School gym holds approximately 3,000 people and it was nearly at capacity for the season rubber match between Spring Valley and Durand. In the two previous meetings this season the teams had split. Each won on their home court.

The third meeting was physical and both coaches played playoff-style sevenman rotations throughout the game. For Spring Valley, that meant relying heavily on the senior-laden roster in Connor Ducklow, Tyler Bowman, Brady Bednarek, Coy Stasiek and Charlie Maier, the Cardinals’ five starters.

Nearly the entire first half of the game, it felt like a true heavyweight fight. Both teams went back and forth with buckets. Durand attacked the paint and tried to get to the free throw line while Spring Valley’s offense relied primarily on three-point shooting.

With 10 minutes left in the first half, Spring Valley sophomore forward Jameson Bauer made a three-pointer to take a 14-11 lead over Durand. However, throughout the next six minutes, the Panthers outscored Spring Valley 18-9 to establish a 29-23 lead with under five minutes to play in the first half.

It was a make-or-break moment for Spring Valley. The Cardinals responded with a corner three-pointer by Bowman to cut Durand’s lead to three points. Spring Valley continued to battle throughout the closing minutes of the half and was able to cut the lead to one point going into the break, 32-31. Spring Valley head coach Rob Bosshart spoke about his team battling back to end the first half.

“In that first half we were down seven or eight points and we came back and were only down one at halftime,” Bosshart said. “I think we felt like we hadn’t played very well and that we dodged some bullets. We felt pretty good going into the second half.”

Durand began the second half with a quick 4-0 run to go up 36-31. That’s when Spring Valley began its biggest run of the game. Ducklow hit a spotup three-pointer which Bowman followed up with a mid-range jumper on the ensuing possession to tie the game 36-36 with 15 minutes to play.

The Cardinals’ scoring barrage wasn’t done. Two minutes later, Bowman hit a deep three-pointer from the left wing to take a 44-39 lead, Spring Valley’s largest of the game. Despite the Cardinals’ best efforts, Durand just wouldn’t fold. The Panthers responded with a 7-0 run to once again regain the lead. This time it was 46-44 in favor of Durand.

While scoring runs were important for both teams, the turning point in the game was when Ducklow picked up his fourth foul with nine minutes to play in regulation. When that happened, Spring Valley trailed by only one point and the game hung in the balance.

Ducklow went to the bench due to foul trouble and Durand immediately took advantage in his absence. Ducklow is Spring Valley’s only interior force and once he wasn’t on the floor, the Panthers attacked the paint and put the game away with an 8-0 scoring run. Durand senior forward Gunnar Hurlburt did most of that interior damage while Ducklow was on the bench.

The aforementioned scoring burst gave Durand a 58-49 lead with six minutes left that was just too much for Spring Valley to overcome. When the final buzzer sounded, Durand had defeated Spring Valley 77-65 to advance to the sectional final.

After the game, Bosshart spoke about how Ducklow’s fourth foul with nine minutes left to play completely changed the game in Durand’s favor.

“When Connor (Ducklow) got his fourth foul it was pretty close at that point,” Bosshart said. “He came out for a few minutes. The kids have found a way all year to play through that situation and we just didn’t have it tonight. We missed some shots we’d like to have back, but Durand played well when they had to.”

The offense firepower that Durand displayed in the sectional semi-final against Spring Valley hadn’t been a given all season. Just five days prior, Durand defeated Fall Creek in the regional championship game in which they only scored 38 total points.

In the first half against Spring Valley, Durand had 32 and was rolling offensively. Bosshart spoke about what led to the Panthers’ offensive productivity in the sectional semifinal.

“I thought they played with great purpose offensively,” Bosshart said of Durand. “That led to some good looks for them and they capitalized by making their shots. I thought we had a couple of things defensively that we needed to tighten up at halftime and in some ways we did. We just couldn’t sustain that in the second half.”

It was a tough way to end what otherwise has been a successful season for Spring Valley by any metrics. The Cardinals finished the year with a 20-6 overall record, including a 12-2 record in the Dunn-St. Croix Conference, which gave them a share of the conference title with Durand.

Spring Valley’s 2021-22 boys basketball roster features seven seniors, including Ducklow, Stasiek, Bowman, Maier, Bednarek, as well as Colin Anderson and Blayne Gregg. Bosshart spoke about his group of seniors.

“Those seniors worked so hard to get us to this point,” Bosshart said after the game. “Not just this year or lately, this has been since those kids started playing. I really wanted them to advance in the tournament because of how hard they’ve worked. I told them selfishly that I wanted to advance because I wanted to have at least another day of practice with them. They’re just so awesome to be around.”

For Bosshart, this 2021-22 iteration of the Spring Valley boys basketball team has been one of his favorite groups in his approximately twodecades- long coaching career. He spoke about what makes this group special.

“They’re fun people and they’re good high character people,” Bosshart said. “It’s unbelievable when you can just coach basketball every day and you’re not putting out little issues. It’s not that way all the time (with other groups). They’re just high character and fun to be around.”

Spring Valley’s special season ends in a sectional-final defeat. The roster was loaded with seniors and moving forward, the team will look completely different once the 2022-23 season begins next winter.

Spring Valley head coach Rob Bosshart speaks to his team during a timeout late in the second half of the sectional semifinal game against Durand. Photo by Reagan Hoverman

The Spring Valley High School students showed up in droves to Menomonie High School in support of the boys basketball team for the Division 4 Sectional Semi-Final game against Durand on Thursday, March 10. Photo by Reagan Hoverman

Spring Valley senior forward Connor Ducklow throws a pass to senior guard Tyler Bowman, who is coming off a screen near the free throw line. Photo by Reagan Hoverman