FREEPORT — The Cheesemakers battled all game, but a pair of late 3-pointers by Freeport’s Deklyn Rustad caught Monroe by surprise as the host Pretzels won the boys varsity basketball game Jan. 4 to secure the annual Snack Bowl trophy. 

For the past several years, the two schools — located less than 30 minutes from each other on opposite sides of the Illinois-Wisconsin border — have used their geographic location and similarly unique snacking food-related nicknames as a setting for a natural rivalry. The trophy follows whichever school wins the most games between varsity and junior varsity, boys and girls competition, typically held on the same Saturday each winter. This year, Freeport went 4-1 on the day, winning two of the three boys games, and sweeping both girls games.

The boys varsity battle between Monroe and Freeport was very much a back-and-forth affair. The Pretzels took an early lead in the first quarter, but a run  by JJ and JT Meyer put the Cheesemakers ahead 12-8 by the end of the first quarter. 

Freeport answered back with a 9-0 run to open the second stanza. By halftime, the Pretzels led 26-23.

In the third quarter, Marcus Ott began attacking the hoop and finished the frame with 8 of Monroe’s 20 points. The Cheesemakers held a slim 43-40 advantage headed into the fourth. 

The host school kept on swinging and taking advantage of costly Monroe turnovers. The Cheesemakers had four turnovers and zero points in the first four minutes of the quarter. Freeport took a lead at 44-43 and tied it at 45, with Mekhi Brown and JT Meyer coming up clutch with response hoops. In a 50-second stretch during the final 2:23, Rustad hit a pair of 3s from right in front of his bench, bringing his squad back from down three to up three, sending the home crowd into a tizzy. 

Not going down without a fight, after a pair of Pretzel free throws to make it a 5-point game, Brown buried an ice-cold trey of his own to bring the deficit back to a one possession game. Cooper Hathaway hit one of two free throws with 6.8 seconds left, and JT Meyer’s last-second running heave from near half-court missed the mark.

Brown led Monroe with 17 points, while Ott and JT Meyer each had 10 points. Kamrin Gerber-Reamer added eight. Rustad’s 12 points — all from second-half 3-pointers — led Freeport in scoring.

Coming up, the Cheesemakers were scheduled to travel to Sauk Prairie (6-4) Jan. 7, then host East Troy (5-4, 3-0 RVCV) Jan. 10 before back-to-back road games at New Glarus (6-3) Jan. 13 and Edgerton (7-2, 4-0 RVCR) Jan. 16.