MONTICELLO — Foul trouble can turn an otherwise close matchup into a lopsided affair. Such was the case on Dec. 8, as Monticello took advantage of Black Hawk’s miscues en route to a 71-47 win.
Early on, the contest had the makings of a close game. The Ponies graduated three starters from an unbeaten conference championship squad last winter. Black Hawk, meanwhile, finished tied for second in the Six Rivers East at 8-4.
Through the first four minutes of their game Tuesday, Black Hawk held a 9-5 advantage. Then the fouls accumulated, and the Ponies found a groove on offense.
“We worked hard to get the ball inside to the rim a little bit and some of the foul calls made it a little tougher for them because it got some of their guys in foul trouble, and that helped us out,” said Mark Olson, Monticello’s coach. “I think they wanted to be aggressive, and that’s typical. We’re going to see a lot of that in conference play. Teams in our conference want to get after each other.”
A drive to the hole by Peter Gustafson and a hoop and the harm bucket by Tristin Flanagan put Monticello ahead 10-9 briefly. Black Hawk would get a short-corner bucket from Lucas Milz and a 3-pointer from Clayton Stietz to take a 15-11 advantage at the 9:26 mark in the half, but by that point in time starting forward Thatcher Schliem was already on the bench with three fouls, and guard Elijah Shelton had picked up two fouls of his own.
After the Stietz 3, Monticello tore off a 9-0 run, which was halted briefly by Milz, who hit a 3 and a deep jumper to pull his squad even. It was the last time the game was tied.
“We struggled there in the first half,” Black Hawk coach Trent Wyssbrod said. “We had our five starters and two guys that we can really count on, and they all got in foul trouble. We had three guys in the first half pick up three fouls. It’s tough when three starters are in foul trouble like that in the first half.”
Evan Guenther hit a 3 off a pass from Kade Ace to spark a 13-0 Monticello run. The Ponies closed out the half with a 39-23 advantage. Black Hawk was called for 17 fouls in the frame, with four players picking up three fouls. Monticello attempted 19 free throws in the first half, making 14. The Ponies were whistled for seven fouls, with Black Hawk making 6 of 8 shots from the stripe.
“We had a little bit of foul difference there in that first half; I don’t know how that works. The same things were happening at the other end of the court in my view, but it is what it is, I guess,” Wyssbrod said.
Black Hawk pulled the score to within 13 points in the second half at 45-32 with 13:05 to play, but the Ponies went on another big run (17-3) over the next seven minutes to ruin any hopes the Warriors had of a comeback.
“We went a few trips and settled for some outside shots maybe earlier in the possession than we wanted to, and we didn’t hit them. That gave them (Black Hawk) a chance to cut into the lead back down. Once we kind of reset I thought we had better possessions that helped us stretch the lead back out,” Olson said.
Milz led Black Hawk with 20 points, including an 11-for-15 mark from the line.
“I knew coming into the season that Lucas was going to be one of our top scorers. He knows how to get to the hoop really well. He just needs to be a little more patient earlier in the game,” Wyssbrod said.
Jexen Stietz added 7 points, while Schliem added six, all of which coming in the first half.
“We’ve got to work on our offense. I didn’t think we ran through our offense maybe twice and got open looks, otherwise we just kind of threw the ball off our own feet. A little bit of first-game jitters — got it out of us now,” Wyssbrod said.
Gustafson led Monticello with 29 points, including 11-for-15 from the line. Flanagan added 13 points, while Owen Ace had 9 and Rudy Wicker 6.
“We’re still working to find out who we are and what our roles are, and I was really happy with a lot of the guys out there tonight,” Olson said.
Monticello finished 17 of 28 from the line and hit three 3s and 26 total field goals. Black Hawk was 15 of 21 from the line with four 3s and 14 field goals.
“The big thing I have seen is improvement from game to game. I see that we’re going to compete against everybody. I’ve got a bunch of guys on my bench who are all winning to get in and get their nose dirty and get scrappy and work hard, and I love that,” Olson said. “We’re going to continue to work on being great as a defensive team. We’re going to work on having good offensive possessions and finishing when we get our opportunities.”
Monticello’s next game is a nonconference affair at home against Belmont Dec. 15. Black Hawk was set to host Juda Dec. 11 before traveling to Shullsburg Dec. 14.
