MONROE — Sydney Hilliard has already etched her name into the Monroe history books, but she was an eyelash away from another major mark. Hilliard, the school’s all-time leading scorer who is committed to play for the Badgers next season, finished a rebound shy of a triple-double during a 71-46 win over Milton Jan. 4.
“I felt really relaxed. People were hitting their shots; they were ready to shoot; I was ready to shoot. Everything just kind of clicked,” Hilliard said.
Hilliard finished the game with 16 points, 10 assists, nine rebounds, five steals and a block — and her impact was felt immediately after the opening tip.
Milton held the first possession of the game but Hilliard took a steal coast to coast just 20 seconds into the game to give Monroe the lead. There we no more lead changes the rest of the game.
“She is a team player that really plays with no ego and just wants to go out there and play ball,” Monroe coach Sam Mathiason said of Hilliard. “She’s going to play hard; compete; help her teammates do the best that they can do; she’s going to go for loose balls and battle the whole time. That just rubs off on everyone else as far as how we are going to compete.”
Hilliard had a part in seven of Monroe’s first eight field goals — scoring thrice and dishing out four assists. The Cheesemakers led 13-2 less than five minutes into the game, but Milton switched to a zone defense and went on an 8-0 before Hilliard found Kayleigh Nesbitt for a triple. Moments later Hilliard fed Grace Tostrud one of her four 3s in the first half that made it 19-15.
“They switched to the 1-3-1, and we’ve seen that multiple times, and the 1-3-1 is going to take away the center of the floor,” Mathiason said. “I thought that after that first initial run we did a better job of finding those opportunities and taking advantage.”
The Red Hawks, which trailed 42-23 with 3:03 left in the first half, had one final short run in them before the break, closing on another 8-0 run.
The Cheesemakers came out halftime inspired and wasted no time getting to work. Monroe (9-4, 5-2 Badger South) opened the second on a 16-3 run in the first four and a half minutes to stifle any remaining hopes that Milton (5-7, 2-5) had of pulling off an upset.
“In the second half I was really proud of our effort that we put in, holding them to 15 points. I felt that our help defense was much better — there were times where they were trying to get to the basket and we did a better job of getting help,” Mathiason said.
Tostrud added seven rebounds to her 12 points — all scored on 3s in the first half.
“It feels good. It obviously gives me confidence,” Tostrud said of her hot hand. “There was a lot of good movement and we were passing well to give each other open looks.”
Megan Benzschawel had 10 points, five boards, two steals and two assists for Monroe, Emily Benzschawel had 11 points, Grace Mathiason had seven points and Chloe Bunker had six points and five rebounds.
The Cheesemakers hit 26 of 57 shots from the field, including 10 of 25 from deep. Those shots weren’t falling in the first half of the season, but coach Mathiason knows his players shouldn’t let that get them down.
“I think that if you look at our percentage, by the law of averages we’re going to start to have some of those 3-pointers start to go our way during the second half (of the season),” coach Mathiason said.
Milton was led in scoring by Shelby Mack-Honold, who had 14 points, and Chloe Buescher, who finished with 10.
Monroe now waits until the weekend, where they will play Reedsburg (9-2) in the Badger Challenge at Madison Edgewood Jan. 12.
