MONTICELLO — New Glarus and Monticello athletes share the same locker room in multiple sports, including football. Many of those gridiron warriors go on to play basketball once the fall football season is over.

This year, the former teammates turned into opponents on the hardwood Dec. 2. And for the first time in just over five years, Monticello walked away with a win — 74-63.

“That’s the way it is every year,” Monticello coach Mark Olson said of the physicality that was on display. “Obviously they (NG) have had the upper hand the last couple years because they have such a good program. But even those games we went in hungry to fight — it didn’t go our way, but the records and everything can get thrown out the window. These guys know each other, they work hard and they want to go after each other. It was a good game tonight.”

New Glarus, the defending WIAA Division 4 state champion, opened the game on a 7-0 run over the first 3:30 of the game. The Knights (0-2) used a suffocating press defense that frustrated the Ponies (2-0) into multiple mistakes and turnovers. The lead eventually reached 9-1 before the Ponies began to fight back.

“We went up 9-1 and let them go on a 14, 16-0 run. A lot of credit to Monticello, they handled our pressure and did a great job of finishing around the basket tonight,” New Glarus coach Travis Sysko said.

Reece Rufer hit a 3 and then scored down low with the hoop and the harm, hitting the free throw to make it 9-7. Rufer had 100% of Monticello’s scoring to that point in the game. 

Pete Gustafson hit a pair of free throws to tie the game two minutes later, and Logan Blum scored on a shot in the post a minute later to give the Ponies the lead. Monticello capped a 13-0 run with another Gustafson free throw with 8:54 left in the first half. 

“It took a little bit to settle into it. I think the moment got to us at the start,” Ponies coach Mark Olson said. “I think we knew they would come out and press, come out and pressure. It just took us a little bit to get the feel and handle it. Once we did, I thought we did a really good job as the game progressed taking care of the basketball and getting the coverage where we wanted it.”

The Knights broke out of a 5-minute scoreless drought with a pair of free throws from Nathan Streiff and tied it at 16 on a Carter Siegenthaler 3 at the 7:51 mark. It was the last time the Knights would tie the game.

“I told the guys we needed to just calm down — the game just started. We just need to play our brand of basketball and not get sped up,” said Rufer, a senior forward.

Rufer countered with another 3 and the Ponies sprang off a 12-2 run to go up by 10 over the next 3:30. Both teams struggled with fouls in the first half, which slowed down the pace of the game and turned much of the final five minutes into a free throw contest. The Ponies led 37-28 at the break, hitting 17 of 23 attempts from the line. New Glarus was 11 of 14 from the stripe in the first half.

“We got to the line a lot, and that’s what we want to do. If teams can’t stay in front of us, we have to take advantage of that. We’re going to try to get to the rim, try to get to the foul line. Not only is that points for us, but it puts them at a foul disadvantage, and that worked in our favor tonight,” Olson said.

In the second half, Streiff tried to will his team back into the game, slashing through the lane and hitting a slew of key shots. Twice the Knights got to within six points, but each time the Ponies were able to stifle a big run.

“Nathan kept us in it for sure. He had a great game, and I’m happy for him. But we need to start getting more balanced and getting contributions from everybody on the floor. There are things we need to clean up offensively and defensively,” Sysko said.

Streiff led all scorers with 26 points. Connor Siegenthaler had 12 for New Glarus, while Darris Schuett had nine and Mason Martinson seven. Monticello was led by Rufer’s 23, with Rudy Wicker and Simon Blohowiak each scoring 14 and Gustafson 15.

“We’ve just been working in practice on getting everybody involved. Simon, we’ve been working on getting him to the rim and finish the way he knows how to finish,” said Rufer. “We knew coming into it that it would be a physical game. I’m really proud of these guys. It’s a great win — my first and only against New Glarus in my last game ever playing them.”

Up next, New Glarus plays Lena-Winslow Dec. 7 in a nonconference game at the State Line Shootout in Lena. The Knights then host Barneveld Dec. 16 before a pair of nonconference away games at Darlington (Dec. 20) and Monroe (Dec. 27) to close out 2019.

“We’ve been in foul trouble both games, and that’s got to stop. We can’t continue to have guys sitting on the bench in foul trouble. We’re not able to be as aggressive on defense if they are sitting there with three or four fouls. We have to figure out what’s going on there and start cleaning it up,” Sysko said.

Monticello was scheduled to play at Madison Country Day Dec. 5 and then at Belmont Dec. 7 before hosting Argyle Dec. 10 in the Six Rivers East opener.