MONTICELLO — For the second year in a row, the Albany-Monticello Space Stallions are WIAA Division 5 Regional Champions in girls basketball. For Albany and coach Derik Doescher, it’s the fifth straight season they will play in the sectional semifinals.
No. 1 seed Albany-Monticello dominated from start to finish in an 85-14 win on March 1 over the No. 4 seed Palmyra-Eagle Panthers in a regional championship. The win came one day after a 71-36 thrashing of Ozaukee.
In the victory over PE, AM senior Karlee Wilkins gave Albany-Monticello their first double-digit lead at 20-9 with a basket with 10 minutes to play in the first half. Senior Dalana Trumpy, who led all scorers with 15 points, made two free throws with 5:19 left in the first half to push the lead to 35-10. Senior Abby Hollis drained a three-pointer just before the buzzer to give the Space Stallions a 49-13 lead at halftime.
In the second half, the Space Stallions nearly shut out Palmyra-Eagle. AM out-scored PE 45-1 from late in the first half until the end. Albany-Monticello held the Panthers scoreless for nearly 12 minutes to begin the second half and gave up a lone free throw. Senior Sadie Wilkins connected on a three-pointer from the corner with 13:40 left in the game to give the Space Stallions a 62-13 lead. A putback by Karlee Wilkins and a three-pointer by sophomore Reegan Schmidt made it 84-14 with just over three minutes left in the game.
Four players scored in double figures for Albany-Monticello. Freshman Heidi Olson scored 14 points. Karlee Wilkins and Hollis each added 12 points.
“I’ve got a hungry group of kids and they take everybody, every opponent very serious. They wanted it,” said Albany-Monticello coach Derik Doescher.
The 71-point margin of victory was the Space Stallions’ largest this season.
“We know we can’t take our foot off the gas. We have to continue to play through everything because you never know when a team might go on a run and we need to keep going because that’s how we play,” said Molly Olson.
Against Ozaukee, AM went up 33-16 by halftime thanks to the hot outside shooting of Hollis and Heidi Olson, and the overall presence of Trumpy. Molly Olson scored a game-high 20 points, while Hollis finished the night with 18 points, Heidi Olson 12 and Trumpy eight. The Space Stallions hit 10 three-pointers that evening.
Defending D5 champion Albany-Monticello (25-1) will face No. 10 seed Madison Country Day (9-12) in a sectional semifinal at 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 6 at Clinton.
Country Day had never won a playoff game before this season in program history, but has now pulled off three straight upsets. County Day beat 7-seed Kenosha Christian Life (54-46), 2-seed Chesterton Academy (50-43) and 6-seed Williams Bay (47-37) to win its first regional championship.
