MONROE - Inside out looked awfully good on the Cheesemakers Monday night.
Monroe locked down its second straight outright Badger South title with a 62-54 victory over Verona by reversing the tendency that led to a jarring 47-44 loss at Freeport (Ill.) Saturday.
"We're always going good when we go inside-out with it," Monroe coach Pat Murphy said. "In the Freeport game, we started outside and tried to go in. When Tony (Cates) gets touches one on one in the post, he can make some plays and kicks it out when he has to."
Cates touched the ball and drew attention to the painted area on six of Monroe's first seven possessions and the Tordoff brothers scorched the twine from the outside in sheer appreciation.
"Tony got hot and everything fed off that," Mitch Tordoff said.
"He's just a great player and bounced back in a big way," Bryan Tordoff added. "He was a man in there and definitely was the best big man on the floor tonight."
Junior point guard Mitch Tordoff hit the first of his four 3-pointers off a Chase Sellnow screen right of the circle and, mere seconds later, the call of "Downtown Tordoff" tickled the rafters again, this time because freshman Bryan Tordoff splashed the first of his three 3s from the top of the key over Connor Valentyn's reach to take an 8-3 lead.
Verona (15-4, 10-2 Badger South) junior Jason Ziemer traded hoops with Cates and scored six straight points for the Wildcats to single-handedly keep his club close. Monroe led just 15-14 through one before its phenomenal frosh delivered a highlight reel sequence with staying power.
Tordoff thanked Sellnow for a timely kickout by draining a triple from just left of the circle and then volleyball-spiked a Valentyn layup attempt out of bounds to send the capacity crowd into frenzy.
"Bryan's got pretty darn good timing and long arms and usually Tony's the one getting the deflections," Murphy said. "The crowd loves that stuff and I think you can equate it to Tony making a dunk."
"Murphy tells us not to block shots," Bryan said with a grin, "but I just had to go get that one ... it was just right there and I had to swat it."
Monroe took a 29-21 lead into the locker room before what Murphy called the best third quarter he's seen from his club all season. Mitch Tordoff put up seven of his 21 points, which tied for a game-high with Ziemer, and Cates just kept stepping farther toward the perimeter. The 6-6 post cleaned up with a hoop on a weak-side offensive board before scoring off a steal by Mitch Tordoff. Then he hit a 17-footer from the left angle to take a 35-25 lead.
"I was pretty angry about losing Saturday night so I tried to be aggressive the entire game," Cates said.
The Cheesemakers used a 17-5 run altogether to take a 48-30 lead and put the Wildcats against the ropes at 48-32 entering the fourth.
"It's tough to play a team like this on their home floor, especially when they're knocking down as many shots as they did," Verona head coach Alan Buss said. "Our kids didn't quit; we just needed to find that switch a little earlier."
Whereas bad free throw shooting condemned the 'Cats last time around, this time they hit 17 of their 24 tries and went 10-for-13 in the last quarter.
The Cheesemakers have leaned a little to the left of the spotlight when possible, ducking repeat Division 2 state title talk and insisting that their top priority was to achieve what took place Monday night as they knocked off their storied Division 1 rival.
But after cutting down the nets afterward, the jovial Cheesemakers could finally reflect on some personal achievement.
"It's a grueling season, and for us to come out on top in a mission in itself," Mitch Tordoff said.
"It's a great feeling to know that we've worked so long and so hard for this," Cates said.
BONUS: After Monday's re-evaluation, Brett Stangel's best possible timetable would be a return to the lineup next Thursday. Barring future regular-season, non-conference games, Monday's game marked the final Monroe-Verona contest, as the Wildcats will move to the Big Eight Conference next season.
Monroe locked down its second straight outright Badger South title with a 62-54 victory over Verona by reversing the tendency that led to a jarring 47-44 loss at Freeport (Ill.) Saturday.
"We're always going good when we go inside-out with it," Monroe coach Pat Murphy said. "In the Freeport game, we started outside and tried to go in. When Tony (Cates) gets touches one on one in the post, he can make some plays and kicks it out when he has to."
Cates touched the ball and drew attention to the painted area on six of Monroe's first seven possessions and the Tordoff brothers scorched the twine from the outside in sheer appreciation.
"Tony got hot and everything fed off that," Mitch Tordoff said.
"He's just a great player and bounced back in a big way," Bryan Tordoff added. "He was a man in there and definitely was the best big man on the floor tonight."
Junior point guard Mitch Tordoff hit the first of his four 3-pointers off a Chase Sellnow screen right of the circle and, mere seconds later, the call of "Downtown Tordoff" tickled the rafters again, this time because freshman Bryan Tordoff splashed the first of his three 3s from the top of the key over Connor Valentyn's reach to take an 8-3 lead.
Verona (15-4, 10-2 Badger South) junior Jason Ziemer traded hoops with Cates and scored six straight points for the Wildcats to single-handedly keep his club close. Monroe led just 15-14 through one before its phenomenal frosh delivered a highlight reel sequence with staying power.
Tordoff thanked Sellnow for a timely kickout by draining a triple from just left of the circle and then volleyball-spiked a Valentyn layup attempt out of bounds to send the capacity crowd into frenzy.
"Bryan's got pretty darn good timing and long arms and usually Tony's the one getting the deflections," Murphy said. "The crowd loves that stuff and I think you can equate it to Tony making a dunk."
"Murphy tells us not to block shots," Bryan said with a grin, "but I just had to go get that one ... it was just right there and I had to swat it."
Monroe took a 29-21 lead into the locker room before what Murphy called the best third quarter he's seen from his club all season. Mitch Tordoff put up seven of his 21 points, which tied for a game-high with Ziemer, and Cates just kept stepping farther toward the perimeter. The 6-6 post cleaned up with a hoop on a weak-side offensive board before scoring off a steal by Mitch Tordoff. Then he hit a 17-footer from the left angle to take a 35-25 lead.
"I was pretty angry about losing Saturday night so I tried to be aggressive the entire game," Cates said.
The Cheesemakers used a 17-5 run altogether to take a 48-30 lead and put the Wildcats against the ropes at 48-32 entering the fourth.
"It's tough to play a team like this on their home floor, especially when they're knocking down as many shots as they did," Verona head coach Alan Buss said. "Our kids didn't quit; we just needed to find that switch a little earlier."
Whereas bad free throw shooting condemned the 'Cats last time around, this time they hit 17 of their 24 tries and went 10-for-13 in the last quarter.
The Cheesemakers have leaned a little to the left of the spotlight when possible, ducking repeat Division 2 state title talk and insisting that their top priority was to achieve what took place Monday night as they knocked off their storied Division 1 rival.
But after cutting down the nets afterward, the jovial Cheesemakers could finally reflect on some personal achievement.
"It's a grueling season, and for us to come out on top in a mission in itself," Mitch Tordoff said.
"It's a great feeling to know that we've worked so long and so hard for this," Cates said.
BONUS: After Monday's re-evaluation, Brett Stangel's best possible timetable would be a return to the lineup next Thursday. Barring future regular-season, non-conference games, Monday's game marked the final Monroe-Verona contest, as the Wildcats will move to the Big Eight Conference next season.
