Poor second-half shooting foils Monticello against Western Christian in boys’ state basketball tournament

DES MOINES — Some year. Some year.

Monticello’s boys’ basketball team keeps getting these opportunities, keeps going to the state tournament, eventually the Panthers will get a title. At least get to a championship game.

It just didn’t happen this year. Western Christian was too large, too good, and Monti missed too many shots in Tuesday afternoon’s Class 2A quarterfinals.

The Wolfpack pulled away in the second half and posted a 69-44 victory to end a good Panthers season. Another good Monticello season.

“We’ve got a lot of good kids coming up, and we’ll just keep battling, keep trying to get back, and keep trying to do our thing,” said Monticello Coach Tim Lambert.

This Panthers team overcame a lot of injuries, including a significant shoulder one to four-year starting point guard Tate Petersen. Not many dudes start at that position, any position, four times at the state tournament, but the Kirkwood Community College signee did.

Unfortunately he went out with a game in which he scored 10 points and made only 4 of 14 shots from the field, his injury obviously a factor. That poor-shooting thing was something just about all the Panthers suffered from, as Monti shot just 29.8 percent from the field, including 5 of 27 in the second half.

It was a 32-28 game at halftime, with Western (21-3) taking over in the third quarter and building a 46-34 lead. Western Christian was the 2A field’s third seed to Monticello’s sixth.

“We just couldn’t get over the hump the whole game,” Petersen said. “We’d get close, we just couldn’t get over the hump. Then they made a run, and we just kind of collapsed.”

“We had some good looks early in the third. We just couldn’t make any of them,” Lambert said. “Then they just started snowballing the offense, and we weren’t getting any stops then. They just blew it out. I told the kids it ended up being 20-some points, but it really wasn’t that type of game.”

Preston Ries, the University of Iowa football recruit, had a team-high 17 points, though only two came in the second half. Carson Lambert, the coach’s nephew, had 11 points and seven rebounds.

Western Christian shot 58.3 percent in the game, including making 75 percent in the second half (14 of 21). Most of those buckets were inside looks from brothers Kaden and Tate VanRegenmorter.

They combined for 26 points. Guard Chandler Pollema led the Wolfpack with 17 points, a number of them coming on transition hoops off misses or Monti turnovers.

“The first half was up and down,” Pollema said. “We made a run, they made a run. The second half, our defense was good.”

Western Christian, which has won 10 state championships in school history, plays Roland-Story (25-1) in Thursday’s semifinals. Monticello (17-7) will look to Ries, Lambert and other starters Conley Schauf and Jack Lambert, among others, to try for a fifth straight trip to state next year.

“Just proud of everybody,” Petersen said. “Obviously it hurts, but they’re a great team. It sucks ending like this.”

Monticello lost in the quarterfinals in three of the last four years, advancing to the semifinals before losing to champion Rock Valley last season.

“To come down here four years in a row is pretty unheard of,” Lambert said. “Tate starting four years in a row here is really unheard of, especially for a point guard. I’m hurting for our seniors right now. They’ve done a lot for our program.”

AT DES MOINES

MONTICELLO (44): Jack Lambert 0-0 0-0 0, Conley Schauf 1-2 1-2 4, Tate Petersen 4-14 1-2 10, Carson Lambert 3-11 2-2 11, Preston Ries 5-17 7-9 17, Ian Temple 1-1 0-0 2, Chesney Capron 0-0 0-0 0, Brady Gogel 0-0 0-0 0, Gage Guilford 0-0 0-0 0, Austin Kurt 0-0 0-0 0, Nathan Sauser 0-1 0-0 0, Cord Nietert 0-0 0-0 0, Deacon Besler 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 14-47 11-15 44.

WESTERN CHRISTIAN (69): Kaden VanRegenmorter 7-9 1-2 15, Tate VanRegenmorter 5-11 0-0 11, Ashtin Van’t Hul 2-5 3-4 7, Chandler Pollema 8-10 0-0 17, Tyler Mantel 1-4 2-3 4, Hunter Hofland 0-0 2-2 2, Uchan Harberts 0-0 0-0 0, Ashten Winterfeld 0-0 0-0 0, Kaden DeJager 0-0 0-0 0, Caleb Douma 0-0 0-0 0, Landon De Stigter 0-0 0-0 0, Noah Hilbrands 0-0 0-0 0, J.D. Petitt 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 28-48 8-11 69.

Halftime - Western Christian 32, Monticello 28. 3-point goals - Monticello 5-23 (Schauf 1-2, Petersen 1-6, C. Lambert 3-9, Ries 0-4, Sauser 0-1, Nietert 0-1), Western Christian 5-10 (Pollema 1-2, K. VanRegenmorter 0-1, Moret 3-4, T. VanRegenmorter 1-2, Douma 0-1). Rebounds - Monticello 23 (Petersen 8), Western Christian 34 (Van’t Hul, Pollema, T. VanRegenmorter, Hofland 5). Total fouls - Monticello 15, Western Christian 17. Fouled out - None. Assists - Monticello 7 (Ries 4), Western Christian 16 (Mantel 4). Turnovers - Monticello 14, Western Christian 11.

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