MONTICELLO — While the Ponies defeated Pecatonica 49-39 in girls basketball Jan. 12, it wasn’t pretty.

The Ponies (9-2, 5-2 Six Rivers East) had a chance to put away Pecatonica (1-6, 1-5) early on in their game Jan. 12, but the offense went flat and the defense allowed some easy buckets. Before Monticello knew it, a 10-1 lead after six minutes of action was trimmed to 14-13 less than nine minutes later.

“That’s how we’ve been playing lately: not pretty, but we’ve been winning,” Monticello coach Mark Gustafson said. “Credit to Pec — we played them their first game of the year and they’ve improved a lot since then.”

A burst of energy in the final three minutes of the half led to an 8-0 run and a 22-13 advantage for the Ponies.

In the second half, Monticello could never quite get the lead to stretch to double digits. Ellie Gustafson hit a 3-pointer with 12:48 left to give the Ponies a 9-point lead at 31-22, but then Monticello’s offense went silent over the next four minutes and allowed Pecatonica to rally with an 8-0 run of its own to bring it back to within a point.

Gustafson said the hot-and-cold swings of the game have become almost a staple of his team this year. “It’s a mystery wrapped in an enigma.

“We’re 11 games in and I wish I could tell you the answer. We just go through tough stretches where we physically get tired and lose focus and just kind of go through the motions. We’re not very deep, so we have to do a better job of getting some subs in there and having them be ready to play,” Gustafson said. “We have gone through — all year — stretches where we look really good, and then we’ll let a team back into the game because we take bad shots, etc. And then we’ll get our heads back into the game again and have a good stretch.”

Both teams struggled with turnovers and airballs throughout the contest, but as the clock wound down and the score stayed within a couple of possessions, the tension on the court was palpable across the gym.

Harley Disch hit a free throw with 59.1 seconds left to put the Ponies up 41-36, but Lexi Peterson dropped a pair of free throws 19 second later. On Monticello’s next possession, Disch backed up while dribbling away from the corner, but lost the ball out of bounds unguarded, giving the Vikings possession down by three with just 26.1 seconds left on the clock.

“I think she was kind of embarrassed that she dribbled it out of bounds, but we didn’t dwell on it and told her, ‘hey, get the next one’ and she did. She stepped up and hit two huge free throws,” coach Gustafson said.

Pecatonica freshman hit a free throw later in the possession to bring it to a 2-point game, and both squads swapped possessions over the next 10 seconds, coming up scoreless. Disch was fouled with 6.0 seconds remaining in regulation and then proceeded to hit both ends of a 1-and-1 bonus, effectively sealing the victory for the home team.

“We hit some big free throws down the stretch and played some better defense there in the second half and caused some turnovers,” coach Gustafson said. “We had some bad stretched that we were able to manage well enough to just get the ‘W.’”

The Vikings lost starter Lily Busser to an ankle injury in the first half, and was missing fellow starter Emily Zimmerman due to illness. Hendrickson said that her young bench players filled in nicely, and that while the team did not want to lose, the game showed the Vikings roster that it can compete with other teams in the conference.

“Our freshmen had to step in and play some big minutes. They were in a position they were not used to being in,” Hendrickson said, adding that the concept of fouling late to send the other team to the free throw line can be a strategy to win. 

The Vikings were still in a position in the final minute to tie the game against a team in the top half of the conference, and Hendrickson called that a victory in itself.

“We had what we wanted — we wanted to get the last second shot. We wanted to be in the game at the end, and that’s where we were,” Hendrickson said. 

Ellie Gustafson led all scorers with 18 points and 8 rebounds, while Disch had 8 points, Mackie Errthum 7 and Alexa Siegenthaler 6 for the Ponies. For Pecatonica, Peterson had 14 points, Tisch had 13 and Chloe Schraepfer finished with 9.

“Anna had a really good game for us. She’s a freshman and she’s been doing some really good things for us,” Hendrickson said. “Lexi had a very nice inside post game. Chloe and Tessa (Green), they’ve been mixing it up a little bit — sometimes it’s Tessa on the inside and Chloe on the outside. They’ve played together for years, so they kind of have a rhythm to themselves as to what they’re doing.”

Hendrickson said that her roster has bought into the team’s strategies this season, and so far it’s paid off, despite the wins-loss record. 

“We’ve put in a new offense which has helped the girls a lot. We’ve been putting in some set plays and different types of defenses,” Hendrickson said. “I’m pleased with their effort — how can you not be? Of course you want to win, but sometimes there’s growing that’s more important to do than just getting the win — but I know some people don’t see that.”