Lions, Panthers win regional titles at home

By David Nordby

The Brillion News

No. 1 Brillion never trailed against a feisty No. 4 Little Chute team in a 62-53 win on Saturday night to clinch a Division 3 regional championship.

Connor Holly scored a game-high 21 points for Brillion. Colton Larsen added 20. Cooper Effa scored 14 for Little Chute.

It is the first regional title for the Lions since 2023, when the team eventually won a state championship.

On Saturday, the Lions went on an 8-0 run to start the game and held the Mustangs scoreless for the first six minutes.

Little Chute never went away fully though and cut what had been a double-digit deficit to five points with 1:45 left. Free throws from Brillion helped seal the win.

A celebration followed for the Lions.

“It’s incredible,” Holly said. “We had this as a plan when we started the season, and it just took a lot of hard work as a team.”

Brillion’s offense was able to break through Little Chute’s 2-3 zone defense, which helped make the difference.

“We knew we were going to have to shoot and attack them, and our main strength is defense, so we had to lockdown on that, too,” Holly said.

Holly made five 3-pointers in the game. Larsen scored 11 of his points in the second half including a tough turnaround jumper after Little Chute cut the lead to 34-32. He scored three points moments later with an and-1 after Little Chute cut the lead to one. Brillion led by more than one possession the rest of the game.

“Basketball is a game of runs so you’re going to have good ones, you’re going to have bad ones. You’ve just gotta keep going,” Larsen said.

Next up: Brillion will play No. 3 Xavier on Thursday, March 12, in the sectional semifinal at a location TBD. The meeting with Xavier will be the first playoff matchup between the two since two years ago, when Xavier beat the Liosn 76-63 in a regional final on March 2, 2024.

Panthers Dominate Regional Round

No. 1 Reedsville had three decisive victories this week to clinch the program's fourth regional championship in the last five seasons.

The Panthers dominated all three of their games this week, including a 71-29 win over No. 12 Gibraltar in the regional title game on Saturday night.

The Panthers will play No. 2 Elkhart Lake-Glenbeulah on Thursday in the Division 5 sectional semifinal. The Pointers beat Green Bay NEW Lutheran 56-54 to win their regional.

It will be the third meeting between the two conference opponents this season. Reedsville won the first two – 89-51 on Dec. 12 at home and 58-44 on Jan. 29 on the road.

This is Reedsville’s fourth regional title in the last five seasons.

Complete coverage of the regional playoff games will be featured in the March 12, 2026, print edition of The Brillion News.