Falls boys find composure and heart, upset Brookfield East and Central

Menomonee Falls - Belief.

It's got to be more than that, that has allowed the Menomonee Falls boys basketball team to bounce back from a lousy 1-4 start, to overcome a costly suspension that forced it to forfeit a hard-earned win, and to overcome a thin bench and make what was looking like a sad finish to the J.P. Tokoto era turn into something much more interesting.

Much more interesting, especially after the Indians avenged two early season Greater Metro Conference losses with a 57-53 overtime victory over Brookfield East on Jan. 24 and then turn in an impressive 56-43 win over GMC leader Brookfield Central on Friday.

But in first-year coach Dan Leffel's eyes, belief is an integral part of the whole process.

"In a team sport like basketball, that can go a long ways," he said.

The victories, the fifth and sixth wins in the last nine games (not counting the forfeit which would have made it seven of nine) have lifted the Indians to 7-7 overall and 4-5 in the GMC.

That belief and momentum will get stern tests this week, as Falls hosted Wauwatosa East (7-2, 12-3) on Tuesday and then will be at Marquette (3-6, 4-9) on Friday and then host nonconference power Homestead (7-1, 13-2) on Feb. 7.

But in retrospect, those tests look positively easy to ace, as compared to the last few weeks for Falls.

Because you can add tenacity and commitment to the list of factors that have contributed to the Indians' turnaround. That was evident Friday against Central (6-1, 13-3).

Falls fell behind 12-7 at the quarter, but then the Indians tied it at the half (at 21) before going on a 19-7 explosion in the third quarter to take a 40-28 advantage going into the fourth.

Indians keep their cool

It helped that the Lancers did not hit a 3-pointer until the final two minutes, but what was huge in Leffel's eyes was the Indians' rebounding and composure, and not necessarily in that order.

"First of all, we are limiting teams to just one shot," Leffel said, "and it's just not J.P. cleaning up all the boards. We're getting contributions from Ryan Bross, James Ulicki, Kevin Meyers and Devon Nauer (on the glass)."

And as far as character and composure are concerned, checking out the individual scoring column is an eye-opener for this game as guard Brandon Ramey (14 points) not Tokoto (13) was the leading scorer for Falls' this contest.

"It was great to see," Leffel said. "J.P. was content primarily to be a ballhandler tonight. He wasn't really looking to shoot. I think he shot only about 10 times tonight when it's usually about 18 to 25 times. He's become a lot more trusting of his teammates and they're doing the little things to help us all be successful."

Like maintaining composure. In the first Central game, the Indians had an eight-point lead with three minutes to go, but then the Lancers rallied.

Friday, Central called a time out with three minutes to go and the Indians up 12.

"And I just told the guys to be more disciplined, take time off the clock," Leffel said, "and the guys were able to do that. They were so unselfish."

And the result was the biggest win of the season.

"We could have been down 10 or 15 in the first half had they been hitting their shots because we turned the ball over 14 times," Leffel said, "but we stayed with it and in the second half, our offense became a little quicker. It was two, three, four passes and then an inside shot. Zach Weyenberg (11 points) had the best game of his life and Ulicki and Meyers also got a lot of things done down low."

Nauer added eight for the Indians.

Sense of urgency

Against East, during which Falls rallied after an early deficit only to wither late, the Indians held on tight to force overtime and then outscored the Spartans 7-3 in the extra session to pull out the win. Tokoto had a monster game with 20 points, 19 rebounds, four assists and five steals while Jason Precia contributed 13, Ulicki 10 and Ramey eight.

"Our defense was so much better than the first time we played them," Leffel said. "There's a real sense of urgency right now. The guys know that they are being held accountable. They're just playing much, much harder."