NEW GLARUS — The Glarner Knights opened the second half of their game against Monticello on a 12-2 run, and it was that separation that played the largest role in the 68-57 New Glarus win over its Wis. 69 rival.
“The guys are doing a great job right now of finding each other and sharing the ball. Our communication is as good as I’ve seen,” New Glarus coach Travis Sysko said. “I feel like this last week and a half, just camaraderie and in practice the energy is great — you’re seeing that carry over into the games. It’s been fun to watch this team grow and develop together right now.”
The Knights had led by as much as eight in the opening half, but went into the locker room nursing a 28-24 advantage. But the first three minutes of the second half saw New Glarus go ahead by 14 at 40-26, and never look back.
“Guys are trusting each other right now; looking for each other, guys are making cuts and moving off the ball. Those are things that we preach and they’re executing right now. It’s fun to watch,” Sysko said.
The Ponies didn’t give up, and despite spending nearly the entire second half down by double digits. Peter Gustafson scored 16 of his game-high 24 points after halftime, and Rudy Wicker scored eight of his 13 in the same timeframe.
“Once we woke up, I thought we fought with them. I’m certainly proud of our guys, but New Glarus played a really good game today and you’ve got to give them a lot of credit,” Olson said. “They were real clean and how they executed — they didn’t beat themselves and they made the played when they needed to.”
Mason Martinson started the second half run by getting a floater in the paint to fall while getting fouled. He made the free throw for the traditional 3-point play, and moments later Darris Schuett hit a 3 to make it a 6-0 run.
Monticello coach Mark Olson called a timeout to try and gather his group together.
“We clearly didn’t come out ready to play in the second half,” Olson said. “In a tight game like this, a few trips with a lack of focus can make a big difference. They came right out in the second half and we didn’t match their intensity and we had a few trips where we lost our responsibilities and it made the difference in the game.”
Coming out of the timeout, Gustafson hit a fadeaway from the elbow, but the Knights scored six more points on shots in the paint from Schuett, Nathan Streiff and Dain Walter. The lead extended to as much as 16 at 47-31 after Streiff hit Schuett streaking backdoor on a cut.
Martinson led New Glarus with 17 points, while Schuett had 15, Streiff 14, Carter Siegenthaler 9 and Breckin Faber 7. Owen Ace added 8 and Blake Klitzke chipped in 7 for Monticello.
“We thought we had a good matchup there, and Pete was rolling and we wanted to keep it in the hot shooter’s hands. We had some other guys ready to make some plays, too,” Olson said.
Two days later the Knights faced Mineral Point in another nonconference game and lost 79-73. The Pointers led 42-38 at halftime.
Martinson led New Glarus with 26 points, while Walter had 13. Streiff, Schuett and AC Strok each had 9 points in the loss, and Faber added 7. Mineral Point had six players in double figures, led by Liam Stumpf, who had 18.
