SUN PRAIRIE - Tony Cates will haunt East Troy head coach Darin Lottig and the Trojans for the rest of their lives while living on in the Cheesemakers' dreams for eternity.
Monroe's 6-7 senior center grabbed the rebound of Mitch Tordoff's short baseline jumper and put the ball in its home with 2.2 seconds left to lift the Cheesemakers, 54-53, over the Trojans Saturday in the WIAA Division 2 Sectional Final in Sun Prairie and got Monroe to the state tournament for the second straight year.
"That daw-gawn offensive rebound," Lottig said. "That's probably going to haunt me the rest of my life."
Cates - who finished with nine points - became the living embodiment of head coach Pat Murphy's season-long creed of hustle and offensive rebounding, and his years of playing with Tordoff came through at the perfect moment.
"I knew, if he was going to miss, it was going to bounce back to where he shot it from," Cates said. "I just tried to get that position."
Monroe trailed by eight, 47-39, with six-and-a-half minutes to play when Tordoff got open in the right corner and buried his fourth and final 3-pointer before getting fouled by Kyle Jones. Tordoff hit his free throw and finished the game with 20 points.
Seconds later, Murphy was whistled for a technical for arguing and Jones hit both free throws. Murphy's Cheesemakers have been there for one another all season but, at that moment, needed to be there for their leader.
"I told our guys 'you have to do something special to kind of bail me out,'" Murphy said. "If we don't, people are going to remember that as being a huge turning point.
"Nobody feels worse about that stuff than I do."
Monroe (23-2) responded by finishing the game on an 11-4 run over the final six minutes started by a Chase Sellnow turnaround from the free throw line. Junior Mitch McArdle - who wasn't on the state championship team last year - scored all five of his points during the run. At the five minute mark, he drove right and scored with a reverse, flick layup and then buried triple from the right wing with 3:32 left to cut the deficit to one at 51-50.
McArdle's five-point flurry atoned for two fouls that gave the East Troy two three-point plays earlier in the game. The first-year varsity player played all eight minutes of the final quarter and didn't blink when the big shot came his way.
"I didn't think twice about it," McArdle said. "I knew it was going in. I had that feeling and I wanted to take that shot."
The next two minutes went scoreless, and then Cates showed up in a big way scoring an up-and-under glasser to give Monroe the lead at 52-51 with 56 seconds. East Troy (21-3) didn't call timeout, and senior Allen Loth attacked the rim and put away an acrobatic, scoop shot from the right block to give the Trojans the lead for the final time.
The Cheesemakers called timeout with 19.3 seconds after crossing half-court and Murphy drew up the final, state-clinching play. Tordoff had missed a breakaway layup off a steal in the first quarter and was glad that Cates erased any demons that would've stuck with him all summer thanks to his game-winning putback.
"I was thinking about that the whole second half," Tordoff said. "I guess that's why you have teammates. They pick you up and we just prevailed."
Monroe will face New Berlin Eisenhower - who defeated Brown Deer 52-49 - Friday at the Kohl Center in Madison approximately around 3:45 p.m. If the Cheesemakers get past the Lions, they'll face the winner of Adams-Friendship versus Plymouth Saturday afternoon for a second-straight Division 2 title.
While the emotions and thoughts of the two-time state-qualifying Cheesemakers haven't really changed, they know that they'll be remembered for years to come with this one victory.
"They're both really satisfying, but this is definitely one you'll be talking about for a long time," Tordoff said.
Monroe's 6-7 senior center grabbed the rebound of Mitch Tordoff's short baseline jumper and put the ball in its home with 2.2 seconds left to lift the Cheesemakers, 54-53, over the Trojans Saturday in the WIAA Division 2 Sectional Final in Sun Prairie and got Monroe to the state tournament for the second straight year.
"That daw-gawn offensive rebound," Lottig said. "That's probably going to haunt me the rest of my life."
Cates - who finished with nine points - became the living embodiment of head coach Pat Murphy's season-long creed of hustle and offensive rebounding, and his years of playing with Tordoff came through at the perfect moment.
"I knew, if he was going to miss, it was going to bounce back to where he shot it from," Cates said. "I just tried to get that position."
Monroe trailed by eight, 47-39, with six-and-a-half minutes to play when Tordoff got open in the right corner and buried his fourth and final 3-pointer before getting fouled by Kyle Jones. Tordoff hit his free throw and finished the game with 20 points.
Seconds later, Murphy was whistled for a technical for arguing and Jones hit both free throws. Murphy's Cheesemakers have been there for one another all season but, at that moment, needed to be there for their leader.
"I told our guys 'you have to do something special to kind of bail me out,'" Murphy said. "If we don't, people are going to remember that as being a huge turning point.
"Nobody feels worse about that stuff than I do."
Monroe (23-2) responded by finishing the game on an 11-4 run over the final six minutes started by a Chase Sellnow turnaround from the free throw line. Junior Mitch McArdle - who wasn't on the state championship team last year - scored all five of his points during the run. At the five minute mark, he drove right and scored with a reverse, flick layup and then buried triple from the right wing with 3:32 left to cut the deficit to one at 51-50.
McArdle's five-point flurry atoned for two fouls that gave the East Troy two three-point plays earlier in the game. The first-year varsity player played all eight minutes of the final quarter and didn't blink when the big shot came his way.
"I didn't think twice about it," McArdle said. "I knew it was going in. I had that feeling and I wanted to take that shot."
The next two minutes went scoreless, and then Cates showed up in a big way scoring an up-and-under glasser to give Monroe the lead at 52-51 with 56 seconds. East Troy (21-3) didn't call timeout, and senior Allen Loth attacked the rim and put away an acrobatic, scoop shot from the right block to give the Trojans the lead for the final time.
The Cheesemakers called timeout with 19.3 seconds after crossing half-court and Murphy drew up the final, state-clinching play. Tordoff had missed a breakaway layup off a steal in the first quarter and was glad that Cates erased any demons that would've stuck with him all summer thanks to his game-winning putback.
"I was thinking about that the whole second half," Tordoff said. "I guess that's why you have teammates. They pick you up and we just prevailed."
Monroe will face New Berlin Eisenhower - who defeated Brown Deer 52-49 - Friday at the Kohl Center in Madison approximately around 3:45 p.m. If the Cheesemakers get past the Lions, they'll face the winner of Adams-Friendship versus Plymouth Saturday afternoon for a second-straight Division 2 title.
While the emotions and thoughts of the two-time state-qualifying Cheesemakers haven't really changed, they know that they'll be remembered for years to come with this one victory.
"They're both really satisfying, but this is definitely one you'll be talking about for a long time," Tordoff said.
