MONROE — Coming off a couple forgettable performances, the Cheesemakers boys basketball team felt they had something to prove against hot shooting Oregon Dec. 7. For the first 10 minutes, Monroe did just that, jumping out to a 27-7 lead as the Panthers’ shooting was colder than the temperatures in the parking lot.

“We came out here and knew what we had to do,” Monroe senior center Kade King said. “In warm ups we got fired up. 

“But no lead in this conference can keep you up.”

That’s when the wheels began to start falling off. Oregon (3-2, 2-0 Badger South) slowly worked its way back into the game as shots from the arc started to fall. The Cheesemakers (2-4, 1-1) attempted to go shot-for-shot like a game of horse, but all of a sudden, the deep ball stopped falling. By halftime Monroe’s lead was trimmed to 37-30, and Oregon went on a 15-2 in the final 3:16 of the game to win 72-62.

“We stopped moving because we fell in love with the 3-point shot and we just kind of stood still. That’s kind of been our M.O. on the season,” Monroe head coach Brian Bassett said. “I thought in the second half we were just standing around way too much. We weren’t swinging the ball and it was getting stuck in certain places. And when it gets stuck, then it doesn’t work for the swing.”

The loss shocked the Monroe players, who went from playing with ball movement and loose tension in the first half, to being rigid and timid as the minutes ticked away and the lead shrunk.

“We became kind of stagnant on offense,” Monroe senior Nick Schumacher said. “We can only move forward from here after that second half. We have a lot of young kids on the team, so they are going to learn from it. We are all going to learn from it.”

King, a 6-6 center, had a night to remember, scoring 16 points and pulling down 23 rebounds. 

“They seemed to be coming to me,” King said of the rebounds. “It doesn’t help when I’m missing every single layup I get. It’s hurting my percentage, but I’m getting the boards. It’s a plus-and-minus there.”

It was the kind of performance the Cheesemakers needed — someone to step up their level of play and all but completely take over the game.

“He is a force — a complete force,” Bassett said of King in the paint.

The second half started poorly for Monroe, which had seven turnovers in its first nine possessions and saw Oregon take a 43-41 lead — its first lead since 2-0. The Cheesemakers battled back, with King scoring off a rebound with 12:44 left in the half, then sophomore Cade Meyer throwing down a two-handed dunk off the baseline and freshman JT Seagreaves going coast-to-coast for a lay-in. King added another putback score with 10:40 left in the half to put Monroe ahead 49-43 and forcing Oregon to call a timeout.

“We had our opportunities and made some bad turnovers late that really cost us,” Bassett said.

But the Panthers didn’t quit and tied the game two minutes later at 51. Monroe later re-took the lead 55-53 after a pump fake 3-pointer from sophomore Max Golembiewski with 6:40 to go and a King free throw with 5:13 left. The offense slowed down from there, trying to burn clock while holding the lead.

Down three with just over 3 minutes to play, Oregon senior Ethan Victorson scored down in the post and then moments later in transition off of a Monroe turnover to put the Panthers up 61-60. The Cheesemakers turned the ball over again on its next possession, but instead of winding clock, Oregon center Adam Yates drained a 3 from the top of the key to make it a 4-point game.

“Give 44 (Yates) credit for making that shot. That was huge. It surprised me. I knew he could shoot it, but I didn’t think he would shoot it in that situation,” Bassett said.

From there it was all about hitting free throws, and that’s exactly what the Panthers did — going 8 of 10 from the stripe in the final 1:01 to seal the “W.” 

Ethan Victorson had 23 points to lead Oregon, followed by sophomore brother Erik Victorson, who had 20. Yates finished with 10.

 “The Victorsons are great, and they proved it again. They can shoot lights out,” Bassett said. “You have to give it to them, they were down 20 and they kept chugging away.”

Monroe was led by King’s 16 and Michael Lange’s 12. Meyer and Schumacher each had nine.

“It’s got to be consistency. I know what this team can be, we’ve shown what this team can be, and at this point it’s doing that for an entire game and not an eight-point period. We’re a great team, we just have to do it for an entire game,” King said.

Monroe’s schedule doesn’t get any easier in the near future. The Cheesemakers were scheduled to travel to Monona Grove (5-0, 2-0) Dec. 11 and hosts Stoughton (6-0, 2-0) Dec. 15. 

“I think we just need to practice and work on our game. Our offense isn’t even near where we can be. We’ve been doing a lot of swing right now, but eventually we’ll go to the 4-out-1-in like we did last year, we just have to get everybody up to speed on the swing, just so we always have that late game situation offense. We’ll get it,” Bassett said.