A magical night for Monticello girls–and the boys, too

One of the best stories in high school basketball so far this year is the Monticello Magic girls. They clobbered St. Francis 78-32 last night (Tuesday, January 14) to get to 13-0. They got my attention with an 87-79 win at St. Michael-Albertville earlier this year. I was told by a Monti dad that it was the 1st win over SMA since 2013. So, now, they’re rated #3 on the Hub and #1 on QRF.  And, they have the #17-rated junior in 5-9 combo guard Samantha Voll, who led the Magic with 27 points, 4 assists and 5 steals last night, according to my own unofficial stats. But, it’s not like it came totally off the wall, Monticello’s sucess, that is. The Magic were 24-5 last year and lost to Totino-Grace by just one point in the section 5AAA final. You can bet that they’ve got their Friday, February 7 game at Totino circled in red on their calendars.

And, just for the record, the Monticello boys won in the 2nd game of the evening’s doubleheader 83-62. The game was close through 2:30 of the 1st half, with the Saints leading 29-28. St. Francis then had 5 straight turnovers, then missed 4 straight shots while Monti went 8-for-8. It was 43-31 at the half, though the Saints Connor Peterson, a 6-5 senior, was the best player on the floor. He scored 15 points in the 1st half on 5-of-11 shooting, including 2-for-4 from 3, with 6 rebounds. I don’t have his 2nd half numbers.

All in all, I had a nice time, by the way. First, I introduced myself to Paul Ruda, dad to Monti’s not-quite-identical twin bigs Abby and Addison Ruda, who combined for 15 points, 9 boards, 3 assists and 3 steals. Paul is from my late wife’s hometown of Long Prairie, and I remember watching his brother Dave play in the state Class AA final in 1998, when DeLaSalle edged Long Prairie 53-52 on 2 Ben Johnson FT in the waning seconds. Yes, that Ben Johnson. And I renewed acquaintances with long-time Monti coach Craig Geyen, who is both a survivor and a gentleman.

But, returning to the girls game, it was immediately apparent that Monti had the better athletes and the better basketball players, particularly in the person of Sam Voll. In the 1st 10 minutes, Monti ran out to leads of 7-1, 13-3 and 21-7. At that point, St, Francis had 11 turnovers and had taken just 5 shots, making 2. Meanwhile, Voll scored 11 of Monti’s 1st 13 points. Then, with the score 28-13 at 7:39, Monti shut out the Saints the rest of the 1st half 18-0 to lead 46-13. I thought it would be a closer game, as St. Francis came into the game 4-0 in the conference, same as Monti. But, St. Francis could not begin to handle Monti’s ball pressure or really get into their offense. Voll also led Monti’s ball defense and 3 of her 5 steals were of the “home run” variety, leading directly to 8 Monticello points. It was all St. Francis could do to complete perimeter passes to avoid traps and maintain possession. Advancing the ball toward the basket, well, that was an entirely different kettle of fish.

The 2nd half was marginally closer as the game slipped into running time and Monti “won” the 2nd half 32-19. After Voll with her 27 points, only the Magic’s Aubrey Krienke was in double figures for either team with 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting. All of Monti’s starters are juniors, and just 3 of the 14 girls who got into the box score are seniors. Emily Schoenrock, a sophomore post, led St. Francis with 9 points on 3-of-6 shooting and 5-of-6 rebounds. This is according to my unofficial scoring. Schoenrock is clearly the Saints’ best player, though she, like all of her teammates, found rough sledding last night. But, when her post moves become a little quicker and more intuitive, she will be a good player for the Saints. And, she has a pair of 7th grade sisters, Haley and Sophie, who scored 2 points with 3 rebounds.

At 6:30 a.m. on Wednesday morning, there is no box score for this game on the Hub, so I’ll go ahead and post mine with the warning that these are unofficial stats. If and when an official box emerges, and insofar as there might be any discrepancies between this box and that box, you can assume that mine is wrong. But, here goes.

Monticello 78 St. Francis 32

Monticello Magic

No. Name Pts FG 3s FT Reb Ast Stl Blk TO
21 Samantha Voll 27 10/19 4/7 3/3 2 def-2 off 4 5 5
22 Addison Ruda 6 2/3 2/3 1-2 1 1 1
23 Aubrey Krienke 12 5/10 2/4 1 1 1
24 Parker Haffeman 0 0/1 3 2 2
33 Abby Ruda 9 4/5 0/1 1/1 2-4 2 2 1
1 Madelyn Barrow 7 3/4 1/1 2 2 2 2
2 Keyarra Volkmuth 0 0/2 0/2 2
3 Reese Hausman 8 2/6 2/4 2/2 2-2 1 2 2
4 Alexandra Andrist 2 1/1
5 Alemitu Rosh 0 0/1 1
11 Brooklyn Lindberg 0 0/1 1
12 Rylee Hasuman 3 1/5 0/1 1/3 0-4 1 2
14 Sheila Kerindo 2 0/1 2/2 0-1 1
41 Isabel Swain 2 1/1 0-2
Total 78 29/59 49% 11/24 46% 9/11 14 def 17 off 14 18 0 14
  36 Points Off Turnovers, 15 2nd Chance Points

St. Francis Saints

No. Name Pts FG 3s FT Reb Ast Stl Blk TO
2 Emily Schoenrock 9 2/6 5/6 1-1 1 3
20 Naomi Braski 0 0/1 0-1
21 Alyssa Anderson 4 2/5 0/1 4-3 3 5
22 Macy Hass 5 2/8 1/3 1-1 1 3
23 Amara Stancer 2 0/2 0/1 2/2 2 1 5
1 Chloe Waterworth 0 0/1 0/1
3 Jailyn Kiser 3 1/1 1/1 2
11 Ella Waterworth 0 1
14 Madison Bailey 2 1/1 1 1
15 Elle Herzog 0 1 4
24 Olivia Buttacavoli 0 0/1
33 Addison Clancy 5 1/2 1/1 1 2 2
35 Sophie Schoenrock 0 0/1 2
40 Haley Schoenrock 2 1/2 1 2
Total 32 10/31

32%

3/8 37.5% 7/8

87.5%

12-6 1 8 2 27
  3 Points Off Turnovers, 4 2nd Chance Points

 

 

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