MONROE — The Cheesemakers struggled against Fort Atkinson’s constant pressure, and when the Blackhawks started hitting 3s, the game quickly stretched out of reach.
“They did a nice job of continuing to be relentless on their press,” said Monroe coach Patrick Kenny after his team’s 72-38 loss Dec. 10.
Early on, the Cheesemakers were able to beat Fort’s full-court-press often enough to see success. Junior guard Taylor Jacobson added some early buckets to put the team ahead 5-0. Oregon opened with a scoreless drought that lasted more than four minutes. Monroe’s advantage quickly evaporated, as Fort Atkinson’s 3-pointers started to drop and the defensive pressure intensified.
Taylor Marquart and Elly Kohl did the biggest damage, finishing the first half with 13 and 11 points each. The pair helped the Blackhawks go on a 20-2 run that set the standard for the rest of the game. By halftime, Fort Atkinson led 35-20, outpacing the Cheesemakers by 20 points over the final 14 minutes of the period.
Outside of the struggles shooting over the first four minutes of the game, the only other blemish for the Blackhawks was that Payton Neste collected four fouls in 12 minutes trying to guard Jacobson, who in turn picked up a pair of fouls herself in less than six minutes of action. Her brief stint on the bench from the 12:17 mark to 9:57 coincided with a 10-0 Fort Atkinson run. The Blackhawks took full control of the momentum during the 2-minute, 20-second stretch with Jacobson on the bench, holding Monroe to just a single shot attempt and forcing six turnovers.
“We had a couple of players get into foul trouble and a couple of players still learning to play some different positions. We’re mixing up lineups right now, and that’s unfortunately because we have some people banged up,” Kenny said.
Monroe played without a couple of key injured players from the top rotation, including post player Bre Giasson, the team’s top returning scorer from last year. Three more players were dinged up during the loss to Fort.
“We just have to learn to cope, and step up and fill some extra responsibilities. That’s the great thing that sports teach us — you have to learn to work through adversity,” Kenny said. “It’s a dog-eat-dog world. We’re going to continue to face pressure. Teams are going to challenge us and we have to learn to get better. We have to get back to the drawing board and continue to play hard in practice and try to get healthy — taking it one day at a time.”
Fort Atkinson tallied five 3-pointers in the first half, and hit another five in the second half. Monroe had just three in the game.
A positive for the Cheesemakers was finishing 10-for-13 from the free throw line, and many of the young scout team players saw significant court time.
“At the end of the game we’re getting some of the younger girls some playing time. They work with us in practice, and girls like Taylor and Sloan (Ambrose) are trying to help lead them, but there’s only so much they can do as well,” Kenny said. “It’s a team game for a reason, and some of the younger girls are learning. It’s a positive experience for them. We just have to try to learn and grow day-to-day. We saw growth this week, though it didn’t necessarily come up on the scoreboard, but we talked about it in the locker room.”
Jacobson led Monroe in scoring with 13 points. Sloane Ambrose added eight and Sydnee Conway five. Kohl led the Blackhawks with 22 points, while Marquart finished with 21.
“We played hard, we played physical. We had some things not go our way, but I was pleased with our overall intensity and responsiveness to each other and the physicality of the game. But we have to do it more consistently,” Kenney said.
Up next for Monroe (0-4, 0-4 Badger West), is a Dec. 14 road game at Oregon, followed by a Dec. 18 home game against Mount Horeb. The Cheesemakers close off the 2021 portion of the schedule with games at Westosha Central (Dec. 21) and Platteville (Dec. 28), and a home game against Freeport Dec. 31.
