Aquinas, Cochrane-Fountain City boys basketball teams coming home as state champions

Both the Aquinas and Cochrane-Fountain City high school boys basketball teams will be coming home with gold.

The Blugolds and the Pirates both won their respective divisions at the WIAA boys state basketball tournament at the Kohl Center in Madison on Saturday.

In Division 5, C-FC beat Sheboygan Lutheran 60-54 in its first state championship berth in school history.

Porter Ehrat had 18 and Cameron Lipinski 17 for the Pirates (28-2).

Lipinski’s 3-pointer at the buzzer gave the Pirates a six point lead at halftime and momentum in the second half.

Up 57-54 with 14 seconds left, Tye Popp’s free throw was the first point scored in nearly two and a half minutes but it gave C-FC a two-possession advantage at 58-54.

The game ended when Andrew Krueger lost the ball, which ended up in the hands of Ehrat, who dashed alone for the basket to end the game.

The other state championship matchup with a team from the Coulee Region wasn’t so close.

Aquinas came away with its fifth WIAA state title, defeating top-seeded Bonduel 74-45 in the Division 4.

Three players scored in double figures for the Blugolds (26-3): Trey Bahr (20), Logan Becker (16) and Calvin Bahr (15).

The Bears got out to an early lead, but Trey Bahr’s basket at 16:00 put Aquinas on top for good.

From there, by halftime, the Blugolds were up 45-27.

Aquinas opened the second half with a 10-0 run, putting things well out of reach for Bonduel (28-2).