On Monday, January 11th, the Monticello Ponies hosted the Belleville Wildcats. The Ponies held a slim 2-point lead at halftime, and outscored the Wildcats in the second half to win the evenly matched game. The final score was Monticello 65, Belleville 54.

Neither team had more than a 5-point lead throughout the first half, making for a very close match up. With 14 minutes left in the second half, Monticello was down by 6, however the Ponies went on a 13-3 run to go up by 4 with less than 9 minutes left in the game. With less than 4 minutes left the game was tied at 50 and Monticello was able to outscore Belleville 15-4 to end the game with a victory. Monticello's Peter Gustafson scored 23 of his points in the second half of the game while Belleville's Trevor Syse scored 15 of his points in the second.

With 30 points and 12 rebounds, Peter Gustafson led the Ponies in scoring. Rudy Wicker scored 10 points, Owen Ace scored 9 points, Tristin Flanagan scored 6 points and had 4 rebounds and Blake Klitzke pulled down 9 rebounds.

Photo courtesy of Julie Garrison

Tristin Flanagan in the Ponies win over the Belleville Wildcats.

Trevor Syse scored 23 points and had 14 rebounds to lead the Wildcats. Carson Syse scored 16 points and had 7 rebounds, and Andrew Ace, Sawyer Fahey and Tyler Fahey each scored 4 points with Sawyer Fahey pulling down 7 rebounds.

On January 12th, the Ponies hosted the Pecatonica Vikings. Leading 25-17 at the half, the Ponies outscored Pecatonica by 31 points in the second to secure their victory. The final score was Monticello 64, Pecatonica 25.

The Ponies led the entire game, and outscored the Vikings 28-1 in the first eight minutes of the second half.

Leading Monticello with 24 points and 7 rebounds was Peter Gustafson, while Owen Ace scored 13 points and Rudy Wicker scored 7 points. Tristin Flanagan pulled down 11 rebounds while Lucas Heiser had 4 rebounds.

Monticello played at Albany on January 19th, and will play at Black Hawk on January 22nd and at Dodgeville on January 26th.