BRODHEAD — Monroe trailed Brodhead 68-61 with 1:17 left in a Rock Valley Conference crossover game Jan. 24, but fans couldn’t count the Cheesemakers out. The visiting team  bounced back for a 73-69 victory going 6-for-8 from the charity stripe with the game-winning free throw from Kamrin Gerber-Reamer. It was the sophomore’s first time in the starting rotation.

“The main focus was just to not do too much,” Gerber-Reamer said of making the starting lineup. “I’m just a sophomore. They told me I’m in there because of the work I’ve put in all season. I just did my job.”

The beginning of the game mirrored the end in terms of ties and lead changes. After Cullen Walker opened the game with a bucket, it was a back-and-forth battle with four ties and three lead changes. Brodhead took the early 11-6 lead, but Peyton Herbst — who normally starts — came off the bench hungry for points. He swished a three and got two assists from Mekhi Brown to put Monroe up 16-13, forcing a Cardinal timeout.

“Hats off to Peyton and Brody (Cornfield),” Monroe head coach Brian Bassett said. “They could have pouted because they both started (before). When they came into the game, it changed the whole game. Peyton scored more points tonight than he scored the whole year, so that was huge.”

By pushing the ball up the floor on offense and trapping ball-handlers in corners on defense, Monroe pushed its lead to double digits. It was a defensive rebound from Marcus Ott, who pushed it up to JT Meyer for a trip to the line, that gave the Cheesemakers a 30-20 lead. 

The advantage held to halftime, where Monroe led Brodhead 39-29. 

But the second period is where Cullen Walker came alive. The senior, who recently broke the school record for most career 3-pointers with 179, was the benefactor of a tailor-made out-of-bounds play. His teammates provided a wall of screens, leaving Walker open at the top of the key for an easy three. He then scored or assisted in the next 11 Cardinal points, including a deep 3-pointer that gave his team a 46-45 lead.

“Whenever you can get momentum in basketball to go your way, you feel like you can do anything on the court,” WisSports.net Triple Threat Athlete of the Week Gabe Bockhop said.

The next 12 possessions went back and forth between the two teams, highlighted by a near dunk from JJ Meyer. Brodhead reached bonus with 7:08 left in the contest. While Walker made the first two, free throws were a problem for the Cardinals down the stretch.

Both Walker and Sam Searls had a chance to extend their team’s 61-56 lead at the charity stripe but missed. Luckily, the Cardinals converted from the floor to lead the Cheesemakers 68-61 with just over a minute left in the game.

“(Assistant Coach Josh) Trame was screaming at Marcus and Mekhi. They had the body language that we had already lost,” Bassett said. “They were both down there pouting and everything else and doing some really silly things that they normally don’t do. But you know what? They made shots when they counted, and they made the plays when they counted.”

Fouling to put the Cardinals to the line paid off for Monroe. Although Brodhead reached double bonus with 1:17 left, the team was just 2-for-8 down the stretch. In the meantime, Monroe was 6-for-10. 

Gerber-Reamer made two free throws to get within a possession, and Brown knotted the game at 69-69 with a three. Although a mental mistake by the Cheesemakers put Bockhop to the line, he came up empty. On the rebound of the second miss, Walker fouled Gerber-Reamer, sending him to the line for what proved to be the game-winning free throw. Brown and JT Meyer’s shots from the charity stripe were just icing on the cake.

“I have a great team,” Gerber-Reamer said, crediting his teammates for his performance. “I don’t know if you saw, but the whole team came up to me (at the free-throw line), saying ‘It’s not a big deal. You got this. You’ve practiced this all season.”

With the victory, Monroe continues its upward trend, having won three of its last four games. For Brodhead, the loss halted the progress the Cardinals seemed to be making with wins against Evansville and Whitewater.

“We’re capable of being just about anybody when we show up like we did tonight,” Brodhead head coach Tommy Meier said. “You just never know what group you’re going to get. When they play hard like that, they’re a tough beat for anybody. It doesn’t matter who you’re playing. They just have to learn that if we play like that all the time, boy, we can win a bunch of games.”