BLANCHARDVILLE — For Monticello, senior guard Miah Brokopp had a night to remember — let alone a first half. Unfortunately for the Ponies, it was the host Vikings that walked away with the 47-42 Six Rivers East win Jan. 27 at Pecatonica High School.
“I was on tonight,” said Brokopp, a senior. “It felt good.”
Brokopp connected on seven 3-pointers in the first half to keep her team in the game. Pecatonica led 32-25 at halftime.
“We could have used four or five more in the second half from her — but we’ll take seven in the first half; that’s pretty good,” Monticello coach Mark Gustafson said, joking. “Her dad told me she always plays good here. She’s a good shooter and she’s been asked to do a lot for us this year, like being the primary ball handler.”
Brokopp didn’t score in the second half, as the Vikings adjusted their defense. However, with more attention being paid to Brokopp, other Monticello players were left open, and Pecatonica players struggled to fill in the space, often committing fouls.
“(Brokopp) got hot in that first half with the threes, so we tried to clean that up a bit with the higher close out and getting out there a little bit quicker,” Pecatonica coach Linda Hendrickson said.
Mackie Errthum scored seven points in the second half for Monticello (7-9, 1-6 Six Rivers East), while Alexa Siegenthaler added five. Seven of those 12 points came on free throws. In fact, Monticello was 10 of 13 from the charity stripe in the second half.
The Ponies connected on just three shots from inside the arc in the contest. But with an 11-minute stretch where Pecatonica didn’t make a field goal, Monticello was able to tie the game at 35, causing the Vikings to sweat even more.
“Ever since I’ve been coaching — for like, 20 years — it seems like if you get down like we did, it’s tough to get over the hump. Maybe you get there, or maybe you tie the game, but you just can’t get over the hump. We got there, then they made some nice plays and went on an 8-0 run,” Gustafson said. “We had some bad possessions, made some poor choices and turned the ball over, and took some bad shots. They hit free throws down the stretch.”
It wasn’t just field goals that weren’t going in for either squad, let alone the Vikings. Pecatonica (5-10, 2-5) missed eight free throws in the second half. However, in the final minute, Lexi Peterson and freshman Chloe Schraepfer combined to go 5 for 6 from the line to close it out.
“We’ve struggled all year having periods of non-scoring. But they turned it around,” Hendrickson said.
Pecatonica was playing short handed as well. An earlier scheduled game between the two teams had to be postponed because more than have of the team’s nine players fell ill at the same time. During Monday’s game, two more Viking players were sick and had to miss out, leaving Hendrickson with just two bench players until Peterson fouled out with 7:53 to play.
“Both Emily (Zimmerman) and Lily (Busser) put quality minutes in for us — then Lexi fouled out and Niveah got close. We were happy to walk away with the ‘W,’” Hendrickson said. “We have an overall young team — three juniors, three sophomores and three freshmen. They are learning. Every game we walk away learning something. We just try to take away the positives from each night and try to get ready for the next game.”
Schraepfer finished with 21 points, which included 15 in the first half. Peterson had nine.
“Chloe has stepped up for us almost every game and has played some big minutes for us. She’s got the length, she can move the ball, she can post up — she can do a little bit of everything,” Hendrickson said. Juda was scheduled to come to Blanchardville Jan. 30, with Benton coming into town Feb. 1 for a nonconference game.
Errthum finished with 12 for Monticello, which was set to host Argyle Jan. 30 and then plays at Barneveld Feb. 4 before a Feb. 7 rematch against Pecatonica.
“I think in the first half we started off kind of slower. I think it if we played a little bit strong defense like we did in the second half it would have been closer,” Brokopp said.
