OREGON — After a brilliant regular season, the Cheesemakers bowed out of the WIAA Division 2 boy basketball tournament in the opening weekend.

Monroe was unable to overcome the early hot shooting of Oregon in their regional final game March 5, as the visiting Cheesemakers lost 65-56. It is Oregon’s first regional championship in 10 seasons.

The two Badger Conference rivals split the season series, with each team picking up a road win. On Dec. 21, Monroe rallied from an 18-point deficit to win 67-63. Nearly 8 weeks later, the Panthers shelled the Cheesemakers 81-61.

“Hats off to those guys and Coach (Chris) Siebert,” said Monroe coach Brian Bassett. After we beat them the first time, I don’t think they’ve lost.” Mount Horeb edged Oregon by a point on Jan. 11, but the Panthers have strung off 15 wins in a row.

The determining factors were hot 3-point shooting and a large discrepancy in turnovers.

In the rubber match, Monroe needed to limit live-ball turnovers in order to keep Oregon’s fast-break opportunities to a minimum. The Cheesemakers also needed to find a way to disrupt the Panthers’ easy flow of passes and clean shots from the perimeter. 

While Oregon outscored Monroe 8-4 on fast breaks in the game, it was the early shooting from deep that played a key role.

Monroe led 8-7 less than three minutes into the game, but Oregon went on a 14-0 run over the next six minutes. After a pair of Monroe baskets, the Panthers were back at it, scoring 10 more points in a row, putting the Cheesemakers down 19 with 6:50 left in the first half.

Monroe coach Brian Bassett called his second timeout of the game — this time a full timeout — and tried to get his team back into it.

“Our offense looked great. We were getting the shots we wanted, we just weren’t making any. And they were making everything,” Monroe coach Brian Bassett said.

During Oregon’s 24-4 run, Monroe was just 2-for-11 from the field with six turnovers. Meanwhile, the Panthers were  7-for-15 (46.6%) on 3-pointers over the first 15:37 of the game.

“After the 7-minute mark of the first half, we outplayed them; we outscored them,” Bassett said. “The past year and a half, we’ve just had these lulls to start games and we just bury ourselves.”

After the timeout, Monroe’s adjustments seemed to help limit Oregon’s hot shooting. The Panthers made just 2 of 10 3-point tries the rest of the game. Monroe also closed out the half on a modest 12-6 run to cut the deficit to 13 at halftime.

“It’s a game of runs, and Oregon got their early. Hat’s off to them, they were hot and shot it lights out,” Leuzinger said.

Bassett said his plan was to get the deficit back down to single digits by the 9-minute mark of the second half — exactly halfway through. 

JT Seagreaves hit a 3 with 10:10 to play to make it a 9-point game, but Oregon got it back to 11 moments later. The two teams traded shots over the next nine minutes, with the Cheesemakers able to bring it to as close as seven points with 4:04 left on a putback by Tucker Markham, and then again at 2:09 with a transition bucket by Leuzinger.

“We were down 18 the first time we played them — and won. We knew we could do it, it was just a matter of could we get the stops,” Bassett said. “Their offense was just humming a little bit better this time.”

The Panthers scored on back-to-back possession to take it back to a double-digit lead, and Monroe was unable to get it back to a two-possession game the rest of the way.

“You look back and think, ‘What if this happened? What if that happened?’ But at the end of the day, one team has to win and one team has to lose, and unfortunately for us we got the worst end of it,” Leuzinger said.

The game marked the end for two of the program’s brightest players over the last half century. Seagreaves and Leuzinger both finished their high school careers with over 1,000 points and cemented themselves into the Top-10 in school history. Seagreaves is also the school’s all-time leading rebounder, while Leuzinger will have a nameplate in the top 10 in career free throw shooting at the school. Between youth hoops, AAU, summer leagues and high school varsity, the pair played approximately 1,000 games together.

“It’s been an awesome four years of high school. I can’t thank my coaches enough, my teammates enough and this support we’ve gotten from the community of Monroe. I wouldn’t have wanted to play anywhere else,” said Leuzinger, who said he’ll start to return some of those calls and messages he’s received from college coaches during the season and figure out where to play next year. “It’s still up in the air. I’ve got quite a few schools interested, and now that the season’s over I’ll start taking some of those visits and go from there.”

Leuzinger led Monroe with 18 points, while Seagreaves had 17 and Markham nine. The Cheesemakers didn’t attempt a free throw in the second half, but hit six 3s in the frame — three of which from Seagreaves.

March 4, 2022

Regional Semifinal

Monroe 48, Sauk Prairie 35

MONROE — The Cheesemakers reached Oregon by defeating Sauk Prairie after a slow start the night before at home.

The Cheesemakers fell behind the Eagles 12-6 after the first 10 minutes of the game, but Seagreaves lit up the crowd with a thunderous ally-oop dunk from Markham, then he and Leuzinger hit back-to-back 3s to bring the score back to within two points. A late 7-0 run to close out the final 1:44 of the half put Monroe on top 21-17 by the intermission.

“I think we were hyped from the beginning, and we were going all out trying to make plays — and when we do make plays, we just get even more hyped,” Seagreaves said. 

Monroe opened the second half on an 11-2 run to go ahead by 13, and Seagreaves lit up the crowd momentarily with a fast break two-handed uncontested slam — though an awkward slip off the rim and fall to the hardwood deadened the decibel level in a fraction of a second. Seagreaves rose to his feet and jogged back to defense, and the home crowd let out a sigh of relief.

Sauk briefly brought its deficit back to seven points, but Monroe closed it out on a 14-8 run over the final 4:29 of regulation.

Leuzinger led Monroe with 24 points, including a 9-for-10 mark from the free throw line and three 3s. Seagreaves had 12 points. The Eagles didn’t have a player reach double digits in scoring.

The was the last game on the home court for Seagreaves and Leuzinger.

“Last home game, there’s not a better atmosphere you can ask for than this. The place was packed; the student section was packed. Go Cheese!” Leuzinger said.

“It feels great to win, and it’s nice to see all the people in the community who come out to support us,” Seagreaves said.

“What if?”

Seagreaves played his likely last organized basketball game against the Panthers. He is committed to play tight end for the Wisconsin Badgers in football in the fall.

Despite 17 points in his final game, he and his fans were left asking “what if?” questions. Seagreaves was called for four fouls on the night — his most all season — and they came in limited minutes.

He was called for a charge in the first half on a debatable block/charge call high in the lane by the elbow. His second foul came on a clean blocked shot, though teammate Aaron Roidt made contact with the shooter from behind, but the call went against the 6-6 Seagreaves.

In the second half, Seagreaves picked up an early foul along the baseline, as the rebounder tripped on a pivot with Seagreaves defending. Minutes later, Seagreaves received foul No. 4 — this time with George Brukwicki committing the foul and the far side official mis-signaling Seagreaves.

“Considering he never had more than three (fouls) the whole season, it was just hard,” Bassett said. “This is the same officiating crew we had last year in the sectional final. They are good refs, but they ref on the other side of the state — they are not used to the physicality of the Badger. The first half they were calling a lot of fouls on both teams. 

“The difference came down to Oregon was tougher down in the paint. All year, every team played off two feet, under control; and we unfortunately either played off one and tried to hurry it up, or we jumped off two feet off balanced and had to throw something up.”

Not only did the whistles go against Seagreaves, but Leuzinger missed three contested layups with contact on fast breaks — with zero whistles to get him to the line, which is where Leuzinger thrives. One of the program’s top all-time shooters from the stripe, he hit 15 of 17 free throws in the two regional rounds combined.

“The good thing is Carson is going to be around this summer to help us a lot, with Max (Golembiewski). Those two will coach our varsity team in the summer leagues and be great role models, just as they’ve been the last 4 or 5 years,” Bassett said. “These seniors elevated our program back to where we were back in the 2000s. In 2015, the year before I took over, we only won only 6 games and nobody remembers that. 

“JT and Carson  have played a ton of basketball. They’ve put a ton of time into their craft and they showed people how to work. I’m really hoping Carson brings CTG ‘Close the Gate’ from Janesville here, because I think he would have a ton of clients. Carson’s influence in basketball around here, I don’t think he’ll ever know how much he’s done.”