BENTON — Albany-Monticello’s (1-0) varsity girls basketball squad kicked off its inaugural co-op season with a road win on Tuesday over Benton, 73-26.
“We feel great, this was a good start,” Comets head coach Derik Doescher said. “This is our first game as Albany-Monticello, so we really tried to focus the first week-and-a-half on building relationships between the two schools.”
The Comets played much like Albany did the majority of last season before the co-op — using harsh, full-court defensive pressure that forces mistakes and opens up scoring opportunity for their offense.
“We started off with one of the toughest teams we’ll probably play all year,” Zephyrs head coach Mitch Brant said of the loss. “They went to state last year, and now they added another school. There were some bright spots — I feel we worked hard, their defense was just tough to score on.”
Albany-Monticello scored its first point one minute into play on a trip to the line. Jasmine Cummins fouled Anna Ellinger (8 pts, 2-for-5 ft) in the middle of her shot, and Ellinger made the second of the two free throws.
Benton’s Halle Stluka (14 pts, 5-for-9 fg, 1-1 3pt) then hit a wide-open 3-pointer from the outside the arc and wide open, giving her team their only lead of the night at 3-1.
“Halle Stluka is a returning player for the Zephyrs and a leading scorer for them,” Doescher said. “However, this early in the season, we need to focus on what we want to do, and that’s getting up and down, getting the press, grabbing rebounds and go.”
Albany-Monticello’s deficit lasted only 20 seconds. Then, for a 13-minute stretch from 16:40 to 3:39 left in the first half, Albany-Monticello scored 33 unanswered points, putting itself in prime position to coast.
Much of that resulted from 28 turnovers against Benton on Tuesday night — both forced and unforced.
When they weren’t forcing turnovers, the Comets were making plenty of shots, and they found success in the first half from a plethora of players that included Molly Olson (19 pts, 7 fg, 3-for-4 ft), Avary Briggs (10 pts, 4 fg, 1-for-4 ft), Abby Hollis (13 pts, 5 fg, 1-for-2 ft), and Alana Durtschi (9 pts, 3 fg, 3-for-6 ft).
The quartet combined for 33 of Albany-Monticello’s 40 first half points.
On the Zephyr side of the court, the offense ran through Halle Stluka for the most part, as she total eight of the team’s 10 first half points, and Ries Stluka (4 pts, 2-for-7 fg) scored the other two.
The final score of the half came as Durtschi took the ball to the free throw line and kicked it out to Olson, who drove to the elbow and posted the half-ending jumper for a 40-10 lead going into the break.
The 10-minute stoppage at the half was beneficial for the Zephyrs, who both scored more points and allowed less in the second half.
Benton’s defense forced Albany-Monticello to take more looks at the start, though Hollis was able to find the open three at the top of the key.
The Zephyrs kept the intensity ramped up, albeit a little too much, as a shooting foul against Santiago sent Ellinger to the line for two. Only her second free throw sailed through the hoop.
Santiago’s (3 pts, 1-for-8 fg) only make of the night came in response, as she was wide open in the corner of the 3-point arc for the score.
The shot put Benton at a 44-13 deficit as the clock crossed the 17-minute mark.
The Comets put up nine points off scores from Briggs in the paint, a fast break basket from Olson, a Durtschi layup along the baseline, and a three from Hollis who wasn’t guarded closely enough from Cummins.
The run gave Albany-Monticello a running clock with 13:57 remaining, but neither squad slowed.
Halle Stluka drove through a Comet to match a made layup along the baseline by Karlee Wilkins (4 pts, 2 fg).
Albany-Monticello continued to nearly double the Zephyr scoring output over the final 12 minutes.
At 2:27, the Lady Comets sent out their backups to close the game.
“It’s been a process — getting the girls to gel on the floor — and will continue to be a process,” Doescher said of the team building for the new co-op. “I’m very confident that this group of athletes that we have will make it all work and that we’ll have a successful season.”
