ALBANY — With a 73-36 win over Monticello on Friday, Feb. 10, the Albany comets ended the conference season undefeated at 12-0.

“Every game and every practice, these ladies answer the bell,” Albany head coach Derik Doescher said. “It’s a testament to who they are, our two seniors and their leadership. Tonight was no different. That’s a really good team on the other side that we played really well against — and we knew we had to. I’m super proud of the girls. Last year we shared it — 11-1 in conference — and it was their mission that we wanted to win this thing by ourselves this year.”

Although the game started close, the Comets went on a 7-0 run to take a 17-6 lead. After picking up her first foul, Avary Briggs scored. Gracie Freitag followed with her own 2-pointer, and Alana Durtschi capped the run with a three.

Ellie Gustafson scored on back-to-back possessions for Monticello to keep the deficit at nine, but Albany went on another run, outscoring the Ponies 10-1 this time.

Myah Johnson scored through contact and finished the 3-point play at the free-throw line. Out of a Comet timeout, Briggs drained a 3-pointer. After a free throw from Molly Olson, Abby Hollis swung the momentum back in Albany’s favor, taking a charge from Dalana Trumpy. Freitag was physical in the post, fighting her way to the hoop for two, while Hollis turned a steal into two points on the offensive end.

As the half wound down, Trumpy went off for Monticello. She scored on an offensive put-back then fought through contact to score. Although she had an opportunity for a 3-point play at the charity stripe, her teammates grabbed the rebound and fed it to her again. This time, Trumpy went to the line where she made one of two free throws.

Alana Durtschi was the Albany’s spark late in the half, as she grabbed the rebound from Anna Ellinger’s missed free throw and put it back in for two. After a bucket from Gustafson, Durtschi grabbed Hollis’s 3-point miss and scored at the buzzer. The Comets took a 39-18 lead into halftime.

Avenging her missed shot from beyond the arc at the end of the first half, Hollis opened the second half with a made 3-pointer, thanks to a kickout from Freitag. 

“It makes you feel like you are a part of the team and helping out more,” Freitag said of her options in the post. “Even if you can’t score that night, you can kick out to your teammates and keep them in the game. If someone isn’t feeling it, you can get the ball to them a bit more and get them more in the game. It’s special to be in that spot.”

Hollis the went to the line with a fast-break foul from Olson, where Hollis made one free throw. Gustafson tallied the first two scores for Monticello out of the half, and, after an Olson free throw, scored the next two buckets.  

After a Durtschi three, it was Karlee Wilkins’s turn to score. Wilkins scored all six of her points in the second half, including an offensive put-back. 

The Comets crashed the boards hard, too, though as Durtschi and Freitag responded with offensive rebounds and buckets of their own.

“It was very crucial because, coming into the game, we knew we had to stop boards,” Freitag said. “Ellie Gustafson has that vertical we had to stop. It’s something we worked on and have always worked on. We made sure to close out.”

Although Gustafson drew Freitag’s third foul on a charge, Albany ended the game on a 12-0 run for the 73-36 win. Freitag responded to the foul by grabbing an rebound and fighting through contact to score. She completed the 3-point play at the free-throw line.

Fellow senior McKenna Broughton converted from beyond the arc for her only points of the game. Hollis, Durtschi and Freitag followed with a basket each. 

“You almost have to play perfect against them,” Monticello head coach Mark Gustafson said. “If you get out of position once on defense, they hit a three. If you don’t get a rebound, they get an offensive board and score. They are one of the best teams in the state, no question about it. I was hoping the deficit would be half of what it was.”

Freitag led the Comets with a double-double, recording 19 points with 11 rebounds. Durtschi paced Albany offensively with 26 points, going 6-for-7 from beyond the arc. She also grabbed eight rebounds. The third player in double figures for the Comets was Hollis with 11 points, including a pair of 3-pointers. She led Albany in assists with five. On the boards, Broughton was second-best with nine rebounds, while Briggs tallied seven.

Ellie Gustafson was the only player to score in double figures for the Ponies, tallying 21 points and 11 rebounds for a double-double. On the boards, Olson and Wilkins supported Ellie Gustafson with five rebounds, each. 

Despite the loss, Monticello is looking forward to the postseason.

“We did much better than the first time we played them. We are getting better and better every week,” Mark Gustafson said. “Hopefully we can keep that going. You never know what happens come tournament time.”

Albany, too, has its sights set high.

“We’ve made it to the sectional final the last two years, so our expectation is to get there and get further,” Doescher said. “Our motto has always been for each senior group to take one step further than the last senior group. These two seniors are on a mission. Can we get there [sectional final], I don’t know. There are a lot of good teams out there, but I’d be lying if I said that wasn’t at least our goal.”