Pirates get the gold

The Cochrane-Fountain City boys basketball team didn’t allow a point for more than three minutes to close out the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association Division Five State Championship game with a 60-54 win at the Kohl Center in Madison on Saturday.

The Pirates were ahead of Sheboygan Lutheran for most of the second half, but a 12-3 run made the game interesting late. A three-pointer made the score 55-54 with 3:21 remaining in the game, but C-FC wouldn’t allow another point.

Two Porter Ehrat free throws put C-FC ahead by three before the team got a stop and the ball back.

Two missed free throws kept Sheboygan alive, but the team missed a three-pointer and Tye Popp made a free-throw to make it a two-possession game with 14 seconds remaining. Ehrat got a steal and a layup at the buzzer to clinch the win. 

Ehrat had a team-high 18 points for C-FC while Cameron Lipinski scored 17. 

C-FC advanced to the championship with a convincing, 66-54, win over Turtle Lake on Friday. 

The win gave C-FC the first boys basketball title by a Dairyland Conference school since Eleva-Strum claimed the 2008 championship. C-FC finished the season with a 27-2 record, losing to a pair of local Division Three schools, Arcadia and Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau