MONROE - On Tuesday, the Cheesemakers boys basketball team played an eerily similar game as they did against Milton Monday.
A strong-enough first quarter, sluggish second and third, and then explode in the fourth offensively. In fact, for the second straight night, Monroe held its opponent - this time DeForest - scoreless for more than seven minutes in the second half to capture a strong lead. That 19-6 run in the fourth by the Cheesemakers sealed a 47-37 win over the Norskies.
"I thought we actually had a little bit more movement tonight offensively," Monroe coach Pat Murphy said. "It's still a work in progress. But I thought it was a good win. And playing back-to-back days, we know that we can win in the same format as the sectional tournament."
Monroe didn't have a lot of time to prepare for its final non-conference game of the regular season. It was the Cheesemakers' third game in four days.
"Given limited opportunity to look at a scouting report, they took it in and we just tried to keep them in front of us (defensively)," Murphy said, adding that DeForest is averaging about 60 points a game this year. "Credit goes to these guys for keeping a talented team away from the paint. You keep a team like that under 40 (points) and you have a great chance at winning."
Adding the late spark for Monroe was senior Michael Barrett, who scored 12 of his game-high 21 points in the fourth quarter. Barrett also had 10 rebounds, seven deflections and three steals, the last of which led to a near-dunk layup that capped a 13-0 run to open the fourth quarter.
"It wasn't my best shooting night, but my teammates gave me confidence. They were picking me up, telling me to keep shooting because they'd start falling," Barrett said. "We were trying to do too much one-on-one early on. Once we got away from that our offense started flowing."
DeForest (10-9) didn't score until the 1 minute, 32 second mark of the fourth quarter on a pair of free throws. It was the Norskies' first points in 7 minutes, 16 seconds.
The Cheesemakers (17-3, 8-2) had entered the fourth quarter down 31-28 and were tied at 17 at halftime. Monroe led 13-7 after the first quarter, but didn't score in the final 7:09 of the second quarter.
"Every team is a championship team and they want to come in here and win," senior Bryan Tordoff said. "I thought we buckled down in the second half, especially in the fourth quarter on defense."
Tordoff had two 3-pointers and eight points total and Andrew Armstrong added six points for the 8th-ranked Cheesemakers.
Alex Barenklau had 10 points filling in for injured senior Damian Penniston, who is recovering from a concussion.
"Trent (Wyssbrod) has done a good job stepping in and other guys too. It's not one guy replacing Penniston, it's multiple guys," Murphy said. "It's unfortunate for Damian and he's going to get back as soon as he possibly can, but we'll just keep moving forward."
Monroe has just two regular season games left - Friday at Fort Atkinson (5-14, 2-7) and next Thursday at home against 10th-ranked Monona Grove (13-5, 6-2).
Should Monroe win out, it would clinch the program's fifth straight Badger South title.
"We can smell it a little bit. We know what's at stake. We just have to prepare and take it one game at a time," Barrett said. "We're confident. We know we can do it and stay consistent for four quarters."
A strong-enough first quarter, sluggish second and third, and then explode in the fourth offensively. In fact, for the second straight night, Monroe held its opponent - this time DeForest - scoreless for more than seven minutes in the second half to capture a strong lead. That 19-6 run in the fourth by the Cheesemakers sealed a 47-37 win over the Norskies.
"I thought we actually had a little bit more movement tonight offensively," Monroe coach Pat Murphy said. "It's still a work in progress. But I thought it was a good win. And playing back-to-back days, we know that we can win in the same format as the sectional tournament."
Monroe didn't have a lot of time to prepare for its final non-conference game of the regular season. It was the Cheesemakers' third game in four days.
"Given limited opportunity to look at a scouting report, they took it in and we just tried to keep them in front of us (defensively)," Murphy said, adding that DeForest is averaging about 60 points a game this year. "Credit goes to these guys for keeping a talented team away from the paint. You keep a team like that under 40 (points) and you have a great chance at winning."
Adding the late spark for Monroe was senior Michael Barrett, who scored 12 of his game-high 21 points in the fourth quarter. Barrett also had 10 rebounds, seven deflections and three steals, the last of which led to a near-dunk layup that capped a 13-0 run to open the fourth quarter.
"It wasn't my best shooting night, but my teammates gave me confidence. They were picking me up, telling me to keep shooting because they'd start falling," Barrett said. "We were trying to do too much one-on-one early on. Once we got away from that our offense started flowing."
DeForest (10-9) didn't score until the 1 minute, 32 second mark of the fourth quarter on a pair of free throws. It was the Norskies' first points in 7 minutes, 16 seconds.
The Cheesemakers (17-3, 8-2) had entered the fourth quarter down 31-28 and were tied at 17 at halftime. Monroe led 13-7 after the first quarter, but didn't score in the final 7:09 of the second quarter.
"Every team is a championship team and they want to come in here and win," senior Bryan Tordoff said. "I thought we buckled down in the second half, especially in the fourth quarter on defense."
Tordoff had two 3-pointers and eight points total and Andrew Armstrong added six points for the 8th-ranked Cheesemakers.
Alex Barenklau had 10 points filling in for injured senior Damian Penniston, who is recovering from a concussion.
"Trent (Wyssbrod) has done a good job stepping in and other guys too. It's not one guy replacing Penniston, it's multiple guys," Murphy said. "It's unfortunate for Damian and he's going to get back as soon as he possibly can, but we'll just keep moving forward."
Monroe has just two regular season games left - Friday at Fort Atkinson (5-14, 2-7) and next Thursday at home against 10th-ranked Monona Grove (13-5, 6-2).
Should Monroe win out, it would clinch the program's fifth straight Badger South title.
"We can smell it a little bit. We know what's at stake. We just have to prepare and take it one game at a time," Barrett said. "We're confident. We know we can do it and stay consistent for four quarters."
