MONROE — The Monroe girls basketball team found itself hanging onto a three-point lead, 73-70, with two minutes remaining while hosting Oregon in the Monroe High School gym Saturday night.
The Cheesemakers had watched a 12-point lead disappear throughout the second half as Oregon pressed its way back into the game.
However, just as it had done to maintain the lead, Monroe played solid defense and then on an inbounds play, beat the Panther’s press. This led Cheesemaker Grace Tostrud to be fouled with just 21.6 seconds remaining in the game, sending Tostrud to the line for a one-and-one free-throw opportunity.
“I was feeling the pressure a bit before those shots, but I felt confident,” Tostrud said.
She sank both shots from the line to give Monroe a 75-70 lead and the Cheesemakers pulled out a 77-72 win.
It was a big victory for Monroe, which was hosting the Panthers, a team among those favored to win the Badger South Conference this season, Cheesemaker coach Sam Mathiason said.
“Oregon is going to hustle and scrap,” Mathiason said. “There are times when we got passes with lay-ups against their press. We did that just enough to stay in the lead. There was little margin for error. We knew going in it would take a great game to beat their press. We respect them and it was nice teamwork on our end.”
The game started with Oregon employing a man-to-man, full-court press not long after the opening tip off. The Cheesemakers steadily broke the press with Tostrud often making an inbounds pass to Megan Benzschawel. The Panthers were over-aggressive and sent Benzschawel to the line often in the game. She made them pay dearly, missing only 2 of 23 free throw attempts and finishing with a game-high 35 points.
“I know all week I had struggled with free throws,” Benzschawel said. “I came to the game early just to shoot some extra free throws. It was going to be a close game and every basket was going to count.”
Tostrud’s shooting was key for the Cheesemakers as she buried 5-of-8 three-point attempts and was 5-of-6 at the line for a total of 20 points.
“In order to beat the press, you need a whole team effort and we had that,” Tostrud said. “We had some nice passes, some important rebounds and key shots.”
Cheesemakers scoring points in addition to Benszchawel and Tostrud included Taylor Johnson 6, Grace Mathiason 5, Sydney Updike 4, Emma Towne 3, Kayleigh Nesbitt 2 and Sadie Conway 2. The only Monroe player not to score points led the team in assists, and that was Chloe Bunker, with three. Bunker also had five rebounds.
Tostrud had 11 rebounds and Benszchawel had six assists — both game-high marks. Benszchawel had eight rebounds.
Oregon’s Izzie Peterson had 15 points while teammates Emily Statz and Liz Uhl each had 14. Uhl had 10 rebounds.
Monroe, overall, was 28-for-32 from the free throw line. Oregon put up plenty of three-point attempts, connecting on 11-of-37. Shooting was rough for the Panthers as they were 27-of-70 from the floor. Monroe was 21-of-48 from the floor and 7-of-15 from beyond the arc.
Oregon led the first 4:15 of the game until Benzschawel scored on a fast break giving Monroe a 14-12 lead. The Cheesemakers held the lead the rest of the game, extending it to 12, and sometimes seeing it shrink to two.
Key moments came at the end of the first half as the Panthers got into foul trouble and Monroe broke the man-to-man press. The Cheesemakers went into halftime with a 39-30 lead after Benzschawel hit four-straight free throw chances going into the locker room.
Oregon changed from a man-to-man press to a full-court diamond press in the second half.
“We had to focus on making the pass,” Tostrud said. “We were able to find some open players.”
The Cheesemakers had just a three-point lead 65-62 with less than four minutes in the game when Benzschawel was fouled. Before Benzschawel could go to the line, a technical foul was called on the Oregon bench. Benszchawel drilled four-straight free throws to put Monroe up 69-62.
The Panthers tried to mount a comeback until Tostrud’s rebound and free throws made it a two-possession game with 21 seconds left.
The win improved Monroe to 3-2 overall and 2-0 in the Badger South. Coach Mathiason said the team is still learning about itself after losing two key players to graduation following last season.
“We handled the press better tonight than we have earlier this season,” Coach Mathiason said. “We’ve done more reps in practice … It’s a lot about making the right pass and being at the right spot and we did that more positively than negatively.”
Both Tostrud and Benzschawel said the team understands it needs to get better.
“It’s very early in the season and we have a lot of room to improve,” Benzschawel said.
The Panthers fell to 4-3 overall and suffered their first league loss, dropping to 2-1 in the Badger South.
Monroe hosts Madison Edgewood Thursday, Dec. 19, and plays at Watertown Saturday, Dec. 21.
