DARLINGTON - Defense wins championships, but a hot hand can help.
Monroe held Darlington to just 10 points in the first half of Monday's non-conference game and held on to win 52-42.
"We were pretty happy with the defensive effort more than anything else," Monroe senior Bryan Tordoff said. "Against a really good team like Darlington, to hold them to 10 points in the first half is huge for us."
Tordoff scored nine of his 21 points in the first half on three, 3-pointers and the Cheesemakers led 31-10 at the break. Monroe had 10 players score in the game, and eight in the first half.
"At halftime, my message was that we were going to get their best shot in the second half, which we did," Monroe head coach Pat Murphy said. "Right away, first two possessions, the balls took some funny hops and they get the rebound, and that set the tone."
Darlington got on the board first when Bryan Reichling hit a jumper with 5 minutes, 57 seconds into the game. The Cheesemakers then went on a 12-0 run and led 16-4 after the first quarter.
"I told our guys that, quite frankly, I was embarrassed and I hoped they were embarrassed," Darlington head coach Mike Hopkins said. "I hoped they would show some pride. Monroe is a great defensive team and we weren't playing together. We were out of sync. We didn't have the intensity on defense and were giving them second and third opportunities rebounding-wise."
Leading 21-8 midway through the second, Monroe continued to move the ball around and scored 10 of the final 12 points in the half. Tordoff hit a 3, Michael Turek had a hoop in the paint off a pass from Tyler Barta, Evan Brady hit a shot from distance; and Barta found Alex Dahlk in the post with 1:11 left to quiet the rambunctious Redbird crowd.
"We knew we couldn't play like that against a team like Monroe. They are too disciplined, too well coached," Darlington senior Alex Erickson said of the first half. "They came out and played hard and hats off to them. We know that we can't come out flat. But we did and good teams will do what they did and that's take it to us."
Erickson, who averaged 21.2 points per game a year ago, was one player that had a hard time finding the hoop. Erickson had just four at halftime Monday, but managed to score 16 more in the second half.
"We gave them that three minute stand (to open the second half) and when Erickson gets rolling, he's hard to stop. He's going to get 20 no matter what you seem to do to him," Murphy said.
When the Redbirds came out in the second half, they found the hoop early and often, bringing the score to within 13 points with 1:37 left when Reichling got the hoop and harm on a baseline drive.
"We could never give up. We came out in the second half with some more intensity that we could be proud of," Erickson said.
Darlington (4-1) continued to put the pressure on Monroe in the fourth quarter, slowly climbing back into the game behind Erickson, who took a pass from Tucker Wiegel to the basket to cut the score to 50-42 with 58 seconds left.
"I'm proud of the way we came back. It wasn't a foregone conclusion that Monroe was going to win there in the second half," Hopkins said. "We made a game of it."
But that would be as close as the Redbirds would get. However, Hopkins believes that a game against a team like Monroe can help his team.
"Losing to the No. 2-ranked team in Division 2 - we're ranked sixth in Division 4 - but losing to a Division 2 team, we shouldn't be embarrassed," Hopkins said. "The second half was certainly something intensity-wise that you would see in a playoff game. It's going to benefit us because we're certainly going to have other contests that are going to go down to the wire."
Monroe (5-0) hosts Oregon Thursday. Darlington will play Iowa-Grant at UW-Platteville Saturday at 3:15 p.m.
Monroe held Darlington to just 10 points in the first half of Monday's non-conference game and held on to win 52-42.
"We were pretty happy with the defensive effort more than anything else," Monroe senior Bryan Tordoff said. "Against a really good team like Darlington, to hold them to 10 points in the first half is huge for us."
Tordoff scored nine of his 21 points in the first half on three, 3-pointers and the Cheesemakers led 31-10 at the break. Monroe had 10 players score in the game, and eight in the first half.
"At halftime, my message was that we were going to get their best shot in the second half, which we did," Monroe head coach Pat Murphy said. "Right away, first two possessions, the balls took some funny hops and they get the rebound, and that set the tone."
Darlington got on the board first when Bryan Reichling hit a jumper with 5 minutes, 57 seconds into the game. The Cheesemakers then went on a 12-0 run and led 16-4 after the first quarter.
"I told our guys that, quite frankly, I was embarrassed and I hoped they were embarrassed," Darlington head coach Mike Hopkins said. "I hoped they would show some pride. Monroe is a great defensive team and we weren't playing together. We were out of sync. We didn't have the intensity on defense and were giving them second and third opportunities rebounding-wise."
Leading 21-8 midway through the second, Monroe continued to move the ball around and scored 10 of the final 12 points in the half. Tordoff hit a 3, Michael Turek had a hoop in the paint off a pass from Tyler Barta, Evan Brady hit a shot from distance; and Barta found Alex Dahlk in the post with 1:11 left to quiet the rambunctious Redbird crowd.
"We knew we couldn't play like that against a team like Monroe. They are too disciplined, too well coached," Darlington senior Alex Erickson said of the first half. "They came out and played hard and hats off to them. We know that we can't come out flat. But we did and good teams will do what they did and that's take it to us."
Erickson, who averaged 21.2 points per game a year ago, was one player that had a hard time finding the hoop. Erickson had just four at halftime Monday, but managed to score 16 more in the second half.
"We gave them that three minute stand (to open the second half) and when Erickson gets rolling, he's hard to stop. He's going to get 20 no matter what you seem to do to him," Murphy said.
When the Redbirds came out in the second half, they found the hoop early and often, bringing the score to within 13 points with 1:37 left when Reichling got the hoop and harm on a baseline drive.
"We could never give up. We came out in the second half with some more intensity that we could be proud of," Erickson said.
Darlington (4-1) continued to put the pressure on Monroe in the fourth quarter, slowly climbing back into the game behind Erickson, who took a pass from Tucker Wiegel to the basket to cut the score to 50-42 with 58 seconds left.
"I'm proud of the way we came back. It wasn't a foregone conclusion that Monroe was going to win there in the second half," Hopkins said. "We made a game of it."
But that would be as close as the Redbirds would get. However, Hopkins believes that a game against a team like Monroe can help his team.
"Losing to the No. 2-ranked team in Division 2 - we're ranked sixth in Division 4 - but losing to a Division 2 team, we shouldn't be embarrassed," Hopkins said. "The second half was certainly something intensity-wise that you would see in a playoff game. It's going to benefit us because we're certainly going to have other contests that are going to go down to the wire."
Monroe (5-0) hosts Oregon Thursday. Darlington will play Iowa-Grant at UW-Platteville Saturday at 3:15 p.m.
