APPLETON - One of the hallmarks of Xavier boys basketball teams under head coach Matt Klarner has been an ability to go on game-changing runs in the blink of an eye.
On Friday, the Hawks scored 23 unanswered points in the second half to pull away and record a 92-50 victory over Seymour in a Bay Conference showdown at Torchy Clark Gymnasium.
The win improved first-place Xavier to 14-4 overall and 10-1 in the Bay, a game ahead of second-place Seymour (13-5, 9-2).
Nick Otto scored 22 points and had 15 rebounds to lead a Xavier offense that also got a big night from John Bunks, who added 21 points and seven rebounds.
Here are my takeaways from that game as well as a few thoughts on Kimberly's big win over Hortonville in Fox Valley Association girls basketball action Tuesday.
Xavier took command of Friday's game in the second half, burying five consecutive 3-pointers and six total in a 23-0 run that turned a close 39-35 game into a 62-35 advantage within a span of a few minutes.
Otto had a pair of 3-pointers in the run for the Hawks, who have averaged 11 3-pointers per game this season.
"It's just so fun to play basketball when everybody is moving around," Otto said. "Everybody just wants to play and move the ball. Nobody cares about who's taking the shots. It's just so fun to play like that."
Seymour coach Jon Murphy said the Hawks' ability to dial it up from long distance was the difference in the game.
"When we were down 27-8, I think we exerted a lot of effort to get back into the game and we got it down to (39-35) and then they went off again," Murphy said. "We just didn't have an answer for it. We had to do some things that we didn't want to do once it got to 15 or 20 points. We had to extend, then things got out of hand.
"The had a lot of different kids hitting shots tonight. That's tough to contend with. And vice versa. We only shot 8-of-38 on 3-pointers. They couldn't miss and we couldn't hit. And their shots were off a lot better looks than ours were."
Xavier is without one of its top players, Henry Egan, for the remainder of the season due to a torn MCL, but the Hawks have quality depth to minimize the loss of the team's second-leading scorer.
The Hawks rotated several players including Charlie Pfefferle, Trent Twombly and Jason Blaine.
"We're not a team that's built around one guy," Klarner said. "Obviously, when Henry's not out there that makes our team worse and we wish he was out there, but it's not something where we have to redesign our game plan and change what we're doing. We do nothing different than what we've done the last eight years really.
"We miss him a ton, but we knew the other guys would make plays. And we hoped that it would be enough to win, but certainly didn't expect an outcome like this."
Friday's loss to Xavier was a bit of a shock in terms of the point differential, especially after Seymour had defeated the Hawks 76-73 on Jan. 3 to end Xavier's 34-game Bay Conference win streak.
Murphy plans on taking away lessons from the defeat, however, as well as an earlier loss to New London and a close win over Shawano this past week.
"When you lose, sometimes you learn things about yourself," Murphy said. "We were on a 10-game win streak and really rolling. And we were shooting well and shots were dropping, then we hit New London and we couldn't hit a shot and we scraped past Shawano and then we came here. And I think you learn a little about yourself. Maybe we have to trust our teammates a little more and do a better job of getting our scorers open and they have to do a better job of being patient and trusting their teammates and getting better looks."
One of the more surprising scores to come across the Twitter feed this past Tuesday was the Kimberly girls basketball team's 72-48 victory over Hortonville.
The Polar Bears had been playing well all season and were competing for the top spot in the Fox Valley Association. Kimberly and Appleton North are currently tied atop the FVA with 13-2 marks.
Kimberly plays Appleton North on Monday in a game with FVA title implications.
Kimberly guards Bryn Sikora and Shea Dechant both pointed to the Papermakers' depth as a reason for the victory during their appearance on the Varsity Roundtable this past Wednesday on postcrescent.com.
"I think that we have so many people stepping up and coming off the bench and we have so much depth on our team and it really helps with that because we know we can trust anyone coming into the game," Sikora said.
Said Dechant: "(Hortonville's) a really good team and we came out and shot the ball really well and we had a lot of people step up in ways that they might not have in the beginning of the season. So having the depth we have and like making the big plays and building off each other is what helped us win."