Ponies Score First Varsity Win in Three Years

On Tuesday, November 28th, the Monticello girls basketball team played at Benton. The Ponies were only down by 3 points at halftime but despite their efforts, lost to Benton, 40-51.
“It was great to be in the game with a chance to win until the last few minutes of the game.  We started to play with more confidence and were able to shoot the ball with more consistency.  We had a five minute stretch in the 2nd half where we lost a little focus on defense and had some bad turnovers that allowed Benton to generate a 5-6 point lead that they held on to until the end of the game.  Benton did a good job of making their free throws at the end of the game and we were not able to chip into their lead,” said Coach Mark Gustafson. 
Leading the Ponies in scoring was Alyssen Noriega with 9 points, she also had four steals and five assists. Alexa Siegenthaler scored 7 points and Abby Wicker and Mackie Errthum each scored 6 points; Errthum also had 12 rebounds and seven blocked shots.
The Ponies played at Pecatonica on December 1st, beating the home team 56-30, after leading the Vikings by 22 points at the half.
“This is the first Varsity win in almost three years as we have not had a Varsity program for the last two,” said Coach Gustafson. “As a team, we did a nice job of getting opportunities for some good shots.” 
Alyssen Noriega led Monticello with 23 points and had five steals. Scoring 13 points for the Ponies was Miah Brokopp, and Abby Wicker and Lindsey Pence each scored 6 points. Mackie Errthum had eight rebounds.
The Ponies host Black Hawk on December 7th.