MILWAUKEE — Getting a chance to play on an NBA court doesn’t come for every basketball player. Monroe and Darlington took vantage of the rare opportunity and opened the new year by playing in the home of the Milwaukee Bucks, the Fiserv Forum. Down early, the Cheesemakers rallied to come out on top 57-51.

“(Coach Josh) Trame sets all of this up — he’s the God of organization. Hats off to him for everything he does for this program,” Monroe coach Brian Bassett said. “He brought his youth team here two years ago and said it was super easy, let’s do it.”

A year ago, Monroe faced former conference rival Monona Grove on the same court, only to lose a tightly fought game. Bassett wanted to give each of his players an opportunity to get a few minutes of gameplay on the court, which is larger than a regulation high school court and needed a prep-level three-point line taped down. Against MG, the tight score kept him from putting in some of his reserves late in the second half. He came up with a different game plan this time around.

“This year we made sure we got everybody in. Last year we tried to spread them out, so this year we focused on getting them all in during the first half,” Bassett said.

Also this season, Monroe took advantage of an opening in the Fiserv Forum’s Prep Series. They invited Darlington to rearrange its schedule for the nonconference game, which was originally scheduled to be played later this month in Monroe.

Redbirds coach Tom Uppena briefly thought about it before quickly agreeing to the opportunity. The schools then successfully altered their calendars in order to play a game in one of the premier world-class basketball facilities across the world.

“I think it’s a cool thing. I think it was a cool thing for our fans, and for these guys to play out there,” Uppena said.

Darlington junior Zeke Zuberbuhler opened up the scoring in a big way, connecting on his first three shots and scoring the first 10 points of the game for the Redbirds. 

Three times in the first half Darlington (4-2) held a seven-point lead. Monroe (6-3) kept finding a way to grab the extra loose ball or rebound and claw back on the scoreboard. A three-pointer by Miles Versnik with 48 seconds left before halftime brought the deficit to just three points at 26-23.

“We weathered the storm. We know they’re good. They are an outstanding team,” Bassett said of Darlington. “We knew they were physical, so we had to be prepared for that. We’ve got to be tougher. This is what we’re going to see in the playoffs. This is why we play Darlington.”

The Redbirds opened the second half on a 13-9 run to briefly bring the advantage back to seven points following a third three-pointer from Zuberbuhler. 

Marcus Ott put the Cheesemakers on his back at that point, knocking down a three of his own, scoring off of a putback and then laying in another in transition. In just two minutes, the score was tied at 39, and Uppena called a timeout.

Zuberbuhler gave his team a brief lead with a drive to the hole with 8:57 remaining. Monroe then scored six straight points, including two fast breaks from senior guard Mekhi Brown. Darlington would never regain the lead over the final six minutes.

In fact, Monroe out-paced Darlington 25-10 over the game’s final 11:59.

“Offensively we have been in a funk the past two nights,” Uppena said, as his team had lost its previous game to Lodi 64-54 on Dec. 30, subsequently dropping in the Division 4 rankings from No. 1 to No. 4. “Zeke did a good job scoring, but we’re not getting much out of some guys that we need to get a lot more out of, unfortunately. We’re not showing the team that we can be right now, unfortunately. 

“We’re not playing up to our abilities and we’ve got guys that aren’t locked in right now and that needs to change. That’s my job as a coach to find ways to motivate them, which I will do.”

Logan Taylor led the Cheesemakers with 10 points and added seven rebounds. Kamrin Gerber-Reamer had 10 points, seven rebounds and three steals. Versnik and Brown each had nine points, with Versnik adding nine rebounds. Ott finished with seven points and added three steals and five rebounds.

“If you look at our games, when our seniors play like seniors and just take care of themselves and take care of the ball and have that maturity, we’re pretty dang good,” Bassett said. “Sometimes they get a little loose with the ball, but tonight we had our seniors show up, and that was good.”

Monroe shot just 37.3% from the field, including just 5 of 23 from three. However, the Cheesemakers out-scored the Redbirds inside 34-28, and finished 8 of 13 from the free throw line. Darlington was just 2 of 8 from the line and 7 of 23 from deep. Overall, the Redbirds shot 41.2% from the field. Monroe also won the rebounding advantage, 35-32 — including grabbing 10 offensive rebounds — and had just 13 turnovers to Darlington’s 17.

Zuberbuhler’s 17 points paced the Redbirds, while Ryder Fitzsimons and Broker Buschor each had 10 points. Fitzsimons led DHS with six rebounds.

Darlington would win the following night 82-36 against Highland in the Aaron Lancaster Memorial Cancer Awareness doubleheader with the girls teams. The Redbirds out-paced Highland 48-10 in the first half to blow the game wide open. Darlington was scheduled to play at Mineral Point on Tuesday, Jan. 6, then host Iowa-Grant on Jan. 9.

Monroe hosts Whitewater on Jan. 9.