MONROE — Cheesemakers boys basketball coach Brian Bassett thought senior guard Carson Leuzinger outshined himself once again.
“He got on fire there, and it was fun to watch. That’s the hottest I’ve seen him get,” said Bassett after his team’s 68-60 victory over Fort Atkinson Dec. 16. “But he puts the work in. Every morning at 6:45 he’s here on the gun. He’s put a lot of work into the game. I can’t try to tell kids enough that that’s what you have to do to be good. He was a good player to start with, but he’d turned into a great player with the work he’s put in. He’s done everything that you could ask of a kid in high school, and he continues to do it.”
Leuzinger scored 20 of his 28 points before fouling out late in the second half.
The win completed Monroe’s sweep of the Badger East-South division.
“With the realignment and the shift in the Badger Conference, having the opportunity to only play these teams once shows how important it is to beat these teams,” Monroe assistant coach Josh Trame said.
Neither team found much success in the opening half of play. Monroe led 8-4 nearly five minutes into the game, but a 3-pointer by Kroix Kucken at the 13:01 mark sparked an 11-0 run by the Blackhawks. Kucken scored nine of his 11 points in the first half.
Monroe rallied late and held Fort scoreless over a five-minute stretch late in the half, rallying to an 18-16 lead on a 3 by George Brukwicki with 1:02 left, only for Logan Kees to even it up with a basket in the lane moments before halftime.
“We were happy with how we played the first half,” Trame said of the defensive effort. “We were pretty good defensively for a lot of the game — just a couple of breakdowns at the end. We were happy with how we defended, especially in the first half and most of the second half.”
Monroe opened the second half with added energy, out-scoring the Blackhawks 18-5 over the first six minutes. Leading the charge was Leuzinger, who had eight points and an assist on a 3-pointer by Charlie Wiegel. JT Seagreaves also threw down a two-handed slam in traffic during the stretch, and Aaron Roidt buried a corner 3.
“We shared the ball a lot better in the second half. We were really getting some good ball movement and some wide-open shots. I want to watch it on film again,” Bassett said.
Every time Fort tried to bring the game back with a short run, Leuzinger was there to hit a jump shot or key free throws down the stretch. Monroe’s lead reach as high as 18 in the game with less than four minutes to play. The advantage was at 17 points with 1:46 to play after Leuzinger made a pair of free throws, but the Blackhawks went on a late run of dribble drives and jumpers to close out the game. Kees hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to bring the score back to within double digits.
Carson Baker led Fort Atkinson with 16 points, while Kees had 15. Scott Buchta also had 11 points, all of which coming in the second half.
Seagreaves had 13 points and eight rebounds for Monroe, while Tucker Markham added 10. The junior forward recently hit the court again after suffering a hand injury during the football season.
“I’m trying to find my shot, and I really think I made some big steps tonight, making some big shots,” Markham said. “I had a lot of conversations — especially with Coach Trame — about my confidence in my shooting. I tried to go into tonight with a different mentality in my shot, and I think it really worked out for me.”
“I thought (Markham) was really good this summer and I was very excited to see what he could do for us,” Bassett said.
Monroe, ranked No. 5 in Division 2 in the latest Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association poll, is 5-1 on the season and 4-0 in conference play, with the lone blemish a nonconference loss to third-ranked DeForest. The Cheesemakers were set to play at Oregon Dec. 21, then face Brodhead and either Deerfield or New Glarus at the New Glarus Tournament Dec. 27-28.
