Ponies Named Team of the Week by Wisconsin Sports Network
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The Monticello Ponies played at Black Hawk on January 14th. The Ponies led at the half, 26-17, and galloped to a 64-50 win against the Warriors, the first Ponies win at Black Hawk since 2011-2012.
Leading the entire first half, the Ponies began the second half with a 10-0 run and the closest the Warriors could get was 9 points for the rest of the game.
Reece Rufer, who scored the team’s first 16 points in the first half, closed out the game with 31 points and 11 rebounds, along with shooting 9-11 in free throws. Peter Gustafson scored 10 points and had 10 rebounds, Simon Blohowiak scored 8 points, had 7 rebounds, and 6 assists, and was 6-8 from the free throw line. Devin Holtz and Blake Klitzke rounded out the Ponies’ scoring, with 7 and 6 points respectively.
On January 17th, Pecatonica came to Monticello to face the undefeated Ponies. Monticello was up by 11 in the first and the Vikings battled back to get within 2 with just under a minute left in the first half. Reece Rufer hit a 3-pointer and Simon Blohowiak added two free throws to give the Ponies a 25-18 halftime lead.
Monticello started the second half with a 24-9 run to go up by 22 and the Vikings ran out of steam, mustering only 9 points the rest of the way to give the Ponies a 63-36 win.
“I thought we played a very disciplined game against them, and got contributions from a lot of guys,” remarked Coach Mark Olson.
Leading Monticello with 17 points and 12 rebounds was Reece Rufer, while Peter Gustafson scored 14 points, Simon Blohowiak scored 12 points and had 10 rebounds and 11 assists, Owen Ace scored 10 points and Blake Klitzke pulled down 5 rebounds. Monticello hosted Dodgeville on January 21st and will play at Argyle on January 23rd before returning home to face Barneveld on January 28th. The Ponies are now 12-0 overall, 6-0 in conference play and are ranked 3rd in Division 5 as of January 15th putting them one spot above Randolph and up from 5th on January 9th by the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association on http://www.wissports.net, while the Associated Press has them ranked 6th in Division 5 as of January 14th. The Ponies have been named the Team of the Week on Wisconsin Sports Network through January 18th, and are aiming for their first league title since they shared the Six River East with Barneveld in the 2010-2011 season.
