ALBANY — In the playoffs, there are only two destinations after each game. One team turns in their jersey, the other throws their uniform into the laundry for the next game.

For Monticello, it was the former, while Albany moves on after a 54-36 win in the opening round of the WIAA Division 5 girls basketball playoffs.

“We’re going to have to play much better in order to contend,” Albany Derik Doescher said. “But that’s what the tournament is about — surviving to the next night; getting another practice in. I’m confident our girls will respond and we’ll have a good showing. But we have to clean some things up.”

The game was sloppy, as the two teams combined for 55 turnovers — Monticello had 34, including 19 in the first half.

“The story of the season is the turnovers,” Monticello coach Mark Gustafson said. “It took so much energy to get the ball past half court that a lot of times we would just relax too much. A lot of bad passes, weak passes.”

While the Ponies (9-14) led 6-2 three minutes into the game, the Comets (17-6) went on a 20-5 run over the next nine minutes to go ahead by double digits. At halftime, sixth-seeded Albany led 27-16.

Gustafson and his players didn’t give up in the locker room at halftime. They came up with a plan to try to wiggle back into the game.

“I thought we were still in it at half — down 11, scored on our first possession, which is what we wanted to do. Then they just went into a stretch where they got some momentum,” Gustafson said.

Doescher was none-too-pleased with his team’s effort to start the second half and quickly called a timeout in the opening minute.

“We talked at halftime about how the first four minutes are the most important — you can really put a team away, especially when they are on the road and you are the better seed. That didn’t happen. I looked at my coaches 50 seconds in and called a timeout,” Doescher said. “The two possessions Monticello had were quality possessions. I felt we needed to re-gather and re-talk about our energy on defense. For the next two and a half minutes, we put a spurt on.”

The Comets responded with an 8-1 run over the next three minutes and pushed the lead to 20 points eight minutes later.

“He really just pumped us up and told us it really could be the last game of the season if we don’t start working harder,” Albany sophomore Brianna Dahl said.

Dahl led all scorers with 16 points for Albany. Kaiya Zurfluh had 12, Payton Wachholz 10 and Kristin O’Bel eight. The Comets shot 20 of 24 from the charity stripe, including 11 of 14 in the second half.

Alexa Siegenthaler paced the 11th-seeded Ponies, finishing with 12 points. Miah Brokopp had 10, which included a pair of 3-pointers in the second half. Brokopp has been the team’s sharpshooter all season, but the Comets were keying on not letting Brokopp get any open looks — especially in the first half.

“They were coming out on us quite a bit. We tried to see the openings on us coming out. We tried to get past them, but it just didn’t work out how we wanted it to,” Brokopp said. “I’m not always going to be on every night, so I have to come out with the attitude to play hard and play to win. Sometimes it just doesn’t go how you want it to.”

Albany now travels to No. 3 seed Shullsburg (19-4) for a second-round game Feb. 28, with a potential regional final game Feb. 29 against either seventh-seeded Rio (10-13) or No. 2 seed Fall River (22-1).

“They are junior strong — they start five juniors. They are a veteran team; those girls have played a lot of varsity basketball. They are athletic. Like I told the girls — there is a reason (Shullsburg) is 19-4. They didn’t get there by chance,” Doescher said.

Monticello, meanwhile, will look to next season.

“We need to work in the offseason so we don’t have 40 turnovers a game. Basketball has become a sport where it’s not just a four-month season. We don’t want to burn them out, but we have to get better at everything. Our juniors have played a lot of varsity basketball, so they’ve got experience,” Gustafson said.