Wauwatosa West rises in area boys basketball rankings with team of the week nod

• Wisconsin Lutheran remains the top-ranked team in the Milwaukee area high school boys basketball rankings.
• Arrowhead, Greendale and Oak Creek joined the top-10 rankings this week.
• Wauwatosa West was named team of the week after securing three wins, including two in conference play.
• Several key matchups are scheduled for the upcoming week, including Brookfield Central at Wauwatosa West.

After some early-season nonconference bouts, Milwaukee area high school boys basketball teams began to get into the meat of their schedules last week with conference contests to establish the early pecking order.

One such battle was in the Southeast Conference between last week’s No. 2 team Racine Park and then unranked Franklin, which went 66-53 to the Sabers. Another notable pair of finals were the top-10 matchups for Wisconsin Lutheran last week, as the Vikings beat Slinger (68-46) and New Berlin West (69-20) to maintain their hold on the top spot while dropping the latter to others considered this week. Arrowhead, Greendale and Oak Creek join the top 10 in place of Greenfield, New Berlin West and Milwaukee Academy of Science.

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Dropped from the others considered this week are Germantown (1-2), Golda Meir (3-2) and Howard Fuller Collegiate (3-2), as Kenosha Indian Trail, Franklin and Whitefish Bay fill up their vacated spots among top-10 considerations.

Here are our full area rankings, others considered, team of the week and matchups to watch this week.

AREA RANKINGS

Team (W-L), last week

1. Wisconsin Lutheran (4-0), 1
2. West Allis Central (4-0), 3
3. Wauwatosa West (5-1), 4
4. Kettle Moraine (5-0), 5
5. Brookfield East (5-0), 7
6. Arrowhead (5-0), –
7. Slinger (3-1), 6
8. Racine Park (3-1), 2
9. Greendale (5-0), –
10. Oak Creek (4-0), –

Others considered: Franklin (2-1), Greenfield (3-2), Hartford (3-1), Homestead (3-1), Lake Country Lutheran (3-0), Kenosha Indian Trail (3-0), Milwaukee Academy of Science (3-2), Milwaukee Lutheran (5-0), New Berlin West (3-1), Whitefish Bay (4-1).

TEAM OF THE WEEK

Wauwatosa West

The Trojans picked up a trio of well-balanced and hard-fought wins last week, including two in conference play to place themselves firmly among the early leaders for the Greater Metro Conference title again. On Dec. 9 in a 75-50 win over Germantown, junior 6-foot-5 forward Jalen Brown flirted with a triple-double with 22 points, 13 rebounds and eight assists to lead a 20-assist night for the team. Senior 6-5 forward Matthew Kloskey added 21 points, three rebounds and three assists, and senior 6-2 guard/forward Messiah Chambers was also in double figures with 11 points. Junior 5-10 guard Max Gogin was lights out from three off the bench, scoring 15 on five-of-five shooting from distance. Kloskey led the way in the Dec. 12 win of 74-63 over crosstown rival Wauwatosa East, scoring a team-best 26 points while hauling in eight boards. Freshman 5-10 guard Logan “Bear” Collins added 20 points, while Brown had 17 to go along with seven boards and five assists. Tosa West got another standout effort off the bench from junior 6-6 forward Kason Mangum in a 73-62 victory over Catholic Memorial to close out the week Dec. 13, as he scored a team-leading 18 points with seven boards. Kloskey and Collins each added a dozen points with the former adding seven rebounds, while senior 5-9 guard DJ Hennings had 10 points as well. Eight different Trojans scored in the last win of the week, which rounded out a sweep for the current GMC co-leaders with Brookfield Central and Brookfield East.

COMING UP

Milwaukee Bradley Tech at Milwaukee Juneau, 7 p.m. Dec. 18: Two of the area’s 25 boys basketball players to watch this season as highlighted by the Journal Sentinel square off, as Bradley Tech’s Jakari Smith visits Gonzaga commit Dooney Johnson and Juneau.

Brookfield East at Germantown, 7 p.m. Dec. 19: The first of two intriguing GMC battles taking place on Friday features two teams that finished within two games of the conference title last season and are looking to take the next step this year.

Brookfield Central at Wauwatosa West, 7 p.m. Dec. 19: The reigning conference co-champions in the GMC have unfinished business in their first meeting of the 2025-26 season, especially on the Lancers’ end. Brookfield Central was knocked off, 63-58, by Wauwatosa West in the Division 2 sectional semifinal last season as the latter would go on to win the state title.

Franklin at Arrowhead, 3 p.m. Dec. 20: The Sabers knocked off one top-10 team last week and could make a strong case for inclusion in our final rankings of the calendar year with another win against the Warhawks.