Waunakee outlasts Monroe

In a Badger Challenge match up between the top teams from the North and the South in Waunakee and Monroe. Waunakee controlled most of this game but, Monroe's great three point shooting brought them back into the game before Waunakee squeaked out the win. Final score was 63-60 Waunakee.

Waunakee started the game out looking to use their depth advantage and trying to tire out Monroe by putting on a full court press. The press worked very good early on as Waunakee forced Monroe into numerous turnovers whether it was Monroe just throwing the ball away or Waunakee just simply stealing the ball. Waunakee was able to completely control the boards both on the offensive and defensive side which led to a 28-22 half time lead. Offensively Waunakee was led by their senior point guard 6'0 Mitch Roelke who hit a couple floaters on the base line and knocked down a pair of three point shots. Roelke really stepped up big as he has all year long when their big man 6'8 Zach Ripley is struggling. Ripley ended up finishing the game with only one point. On the defensive side Waunakee was able to hold Monroe's star 6'0 senior Mitch Tordoff to only two first half points. Brother 6'0 sophomore Bryan Tordoff did his best to keep Monroe in striking distance by knocking down a pair of three point shots.

In the second half the older Tordoff finally got things going and finished with 21 points for the game. The three point shots allowed Monroe to close the gap to 41-38 after three. Late in the game Monroe was fouling and shooting threes and they were able to come back due to the fact that Waunakee was missing their free throws. With time running down Monroe was able to force Waunakee into a turnover and then get an easy lay up which gave them a 60-59 lead. For whatever reason a Monroe player was not paying attention to the score and appeared to intentionally foul Roelke with five seconds remaining in the game and calming knocked down both free throws to give Waunakee the one point lead and then stole the ball from Mitch Tordoff and get a lay up to seal the game at 63-60.

Top Players
Mitch Roelke 6'0 senior Waunakee- All year long this kids been stepping up big and this game was no difference. Roelke was knocking down the threes, scoring in the lane, and had numerous steals, not to mention he was running the offense.
Jeff Tagarelli 6'0 senior Waunakee- Came off the bench looking to score and no one on Monroe could stay in front of him.
Bryan Tordoff 6'0 sophomore Monroe- Kept Monroe in the game early with his outside shooting then in the second half did a great job of moving without the ball and scoring in the post.
Mitch Tordoff 6'0 senior Monroe- Had a slow first half but, came out gunning in the second half knocking down threes and was the games leading scorer with 21 points.

Box Score
Waunakee 63- Roelke 19 Ryan Gilles 9 Eric Helt 9 Jason Paulson 7 Austin Goetsch 7 Jeff Tagarelli 7 Beau Murray 4 Ripley 1 Matt Gorman 0 Jared Stege 0 Cole Cefalu 0
Monroe 60- M. Tordoff 21 B. Tordoff 17 Mitch McArdle 8 Michael Barret 6 Kevin Frint 4 Cullen Sampson 2 Zach Rast 2 John Buol 0

Waunakee reminds me a lot of Beloit in that they are always looking to push the tempo and can go very deep on their bench without losing a thing. The other thing that I like and reminds me of Beloit is that they are very balanced in scoring and any player in their top five or six can go off and get 15 plus. I'm still struggling on who to take in a match up of Waunakee and Madison East in the playoffs but, would for sure take Madison Memorial over Waunakee even if they did get past East. Monroe will be a dangerous team come playoff time because of their three point shooting but, they rely too much on the Tordoff brothers to carry them and when the threes aren't falling Monroe isn't a very good team.