MONTICELLO - Monticello boys basketball head coach Brad Pickett knew his team had one thing to do on Thursday night - win. The Ponies and Barneveld were tied atop the Six Rivers East.
"To sweep Barneveld is big - they are the class act of our conference," Pickett said.
After trailing by as many as eight points in the fourth quarter, the Ponies clamped down on defense and scored the final nine points to win 43-40 and pull off a rare season sweep of the Golden Eagles.
"This was such a great team win," Pickett said. "We didn't look to just one guy, they all worked to earn it."
Screaming with joy afterwards, Brandon Holz and Tyler Meier showed off their satisfaction after the game.
"This is a big win," Holz said. "We're enjoying this one tonight."
Monticello trailed by eight points with 1 minute, 47 seconds left in the third quarter. The Ponies then got a hoop in the paint from Holz (13 points) to bring the score to 36-30.
After taking time off the clock, Tyler Ritschard drove hard into the lane and was called for a charge with 3 seconds remaining.
The Eagles failed to score by the time the buzzer hit, but took the six-point lead into the fourth quarter.
The Eagles got a pair of free throws from Shawn Monson just 10 seconds into the final frame to take another eight-point lead.
Pickett took a timeout to motivate his team.
"I think we got in too much of a hurry. I told them to slow down and relax and to work hard on the defensive end," Pickett said. "If we did that, we would have a chance to win at the end. The guys bought into it and played great defense until the end."
From there, Monticello took over.
The Ponies outscored Barneveld 13-2 after that, holding the Eagles scoreless for the final 5:25.
"Our 'D' was huge. I can't explain how big that was," Meier said of the fourth quarter.
Holz stole a ball in a Barneveld transition and hit Jacob Marty (10 points) in stride for a layup with 4:31 left to play. Holz stole another pass seconds later and was tripped by the Eagles' Logan Johnson.
After running a tight offense with both student sections cheering at full strength, Parker Havens took an entry pass in the lane and immediately dished the rock out to Corey McGowan (8 points), who knocked down a 3-pointer with 3:53 remaining to draw the score back to 40-39.
Neither team scored for more than three minutes, swapping steals, turnovers, timeouts and rebounds.
Johnson stepped out of bounds with 1:04 left in the game and Pickett called a timeout with 50.5 seconds left.
Then Monticello finished off its run.
Holz took an entry pass in the paint and went up with arms swinging at him. Calm as can be in the air, the senior hit the shot with 27 seconds left to give Monticello its first lead (41-40) since the first minute of the second half.
"I knew I had to finish it. It was a key moment and I did what I needed to do," Holz said.
Barneveld missed a shot with less than 10 seconds left and Ritschard went to the line after getting fouled on the rebound. The sophomore guard calmly drilled both free throws and Johnson's desperation 3 at the buzzer missed everything.
Now holding the slight edge in conference play, the Ponies need to win two of their final three games to win the conference.
"We've got three very tough games left. Pecatonica, at Black Hawk and then at Argyle. Pec beat us earlier in the year, Argyle is playing really well right now, and Black Hawk is always tough," Pickett said.
"But these guys know that they have a lot ahead of them and they will take these games seriously."
Meier scored seven points for Monticello. Most visible of all was the emotion on his face as he strutted off the court.
"It was great," he said. "I was just so relieved to see us come back from that far down. We just played really well as a team and executed so well."
"To sweep Barneveld is big - they are the class act of our conference," Pickett said.
After trailing by as many as eight points in the fourth quarter, the Ponies clamped down on defense and scored the final nine points to win 43-40 and pull off a rare season sweep of the Golden Eagles.
"This was such a great team win," Pickett said. "We didn't look to just one guy, they all worked to earn it."
Screaming with joy afterwards, Brandon Holz and Tyler Meier showed off their satisfaction after the game.
"This is a big win," Holz said. "We're enjoying this one tonight."
Monticello trailed by eight points with 1 minute, 47 seconds left in the third quarter. The Ponies then got a hoop in the paint from Holz (13 points) to bring the score to 36-30.
After taking time off the clock, Tyler Ritschard drove hard into the lane and was called for a charge with 3 seconds remaining.
The Eagles failed to score by the time the buzzer hit, but took the six-point lead into the fourth quarter.
The Eagles got a pair of free throws from Shawn Monson just 10 seconds into the final frame to take another eight-point lead.
Pickett took a timeout to motivate his team.
"I think we got in too much of a hurry. I told them to slow down and relax and to work hard on the defensive end," Pickett said. "If we did that, we would have a chance to win at the end. The guys bought into it and played great defense until the end."
From there, Monticello took over.
The Ponies outscored Barneveld 13-2 after that, holding the Eagles scoreless for the final 5:25.
"Our 'D' was huge. I can't explain how big that was," Meier said of the fourth quarter.
Holz stole a ball in a Barneveld transition and hit Jacob Marty (10 points) in stride for a layup with 4:31 left to play. Holz stole another pass seconds later and was tripped by the Eagles' Logan Johnson.
After running a tight offense with both student sections cheering at full strength, Parker Havens took an entry pass in the lane and immediately dished the rock out to Corey McGowan (8 points), who knocked down a 3-pointer with 3:53 remaining to draw the score back to 40-39.
Neither team scored for more than three minutes, swapping steals, turnovers, timeouts and rebounds.
Johnson stepped out of bounds with 1:04 left in the game and Pickett called a timeout with 50.5 seconds left.
Then Monticello finished off its run.
Holz took an entry pass in the paint and went up with arms swinging at him. Calm as can be in the air, the senior hit the shot with 27 seconds left to give Monticello its first lead (41-40) since the first minute of the second half.
"I knew I had to finish it. It was a key moment and I did what I needed to do," Holz said.
Barneveld missed a shot with less than 10 seconds left and Ritschard went to the line after getting fouled on the rebound. The sophomore guard calmly drilled both free throws and Johnson's desperation 3 at the buzzer missed everything.
Now holding the slight edge in conference play, the Ponies need to win two of their final three games to win the conference.
"We've got three very tough games left. Pecatonica, at Black Hawk and then at Argyle. Pec beat us earlier in the year, Argyle is playing really well right now, and Black Hawk is always tough," Pickett said.
"But these guys know that they have a lot ahead of them and they will take these games seriously."
Meier scored seven points for Monticello. Most visible of all was the emotion on his face as he strutted off the court.
"It was great," he said. "I was just so relieved to see us come back from that far down. We just played really well as a team and executed so well."
