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When you lead 36-16 with about two minutes to play in the first half you'd think the game was well in hand - WRONG!
That's what the Dodgeville boys basketball team found out Monday night in a non-conference contest with visiting Monticello, led by former Dodgeville teacher Mark Olson.
The Dodgers enjoyed comfortable leads of 19-10 at the end of the first quarter and 38-23 at the half.
But then came the second half.
That's when the Ponies lit up the nets from outside, hitting eight three pointers (they had 10 on the night), snared some offensive rebounds and converted, also drove the basket for scores and found some back cutters for easy buckets.
The result was they outscored the Dodgers 50-36 n that second half and ended up falling short by just one point 74-73.
The big push came in the third quarter when they made up big ground and held a 24-12 margin.
Monticello's Bryce Klitzke hit 13 of his team-high 22 points in that second half. Lucas Marty hit 18, with 16 of those coming after intermission, Ben May added 14, Jesse Halvorsen had 12 and Aaron Hefty 7 for all their scorering.
The story of the night for the Dodgers again was senior Nick Crowley, who led all scorers with 33 points. He just missed a triple double as he added 13 rebounds and nine assists to his night. The second half was kind to Crowley too as he scored 26 points in the final two frames with 17 coming in the fourth period.
He also made some clutch free throws down the stretch and on a missed charity toss, he grabbed his own rebound and put a short jumper in.
Junior Nate Hottmann added 16 and senior Mitchell Olson chipped in 13.
"Defensively in the second half we didn't get it done," said Dodger coach Ryan Bohnsack. "Their guard play and their entire team caused us fits. It's tough to lose when you shoot as well as they did."
"I thought we played really well in the first half," the coach added. "We got some mismatches and used our height to our advantage."
SCORE BY QUARTERS
MONTICELLO 10 13 24 26-73
DODGEVILLE 19 19 12 24-74
BOX SCORE
Monticello 73 (fg, ft, tp) Klitzke 8-4/8-22, May 6-0-14, Marty 7-0-18, Halvorsen 4-2/3-12, Hefty 3-1/3-7. Totals 28-7/14-73. F-14 3-pointers: Klitzke 2, May 2, Marty 4, Halvorsen 2.
Dodgeville 74: Nelson 0-0-0, Larson 2-1/4-6, Hottmann 6-2/3-16, Rohowetz 1-0-2, Crowley 12-7/11-33, Beerkircher 0-0-0, Nagel 0-0-0, Gullickson 2-0-4, Olson 5-3/4-13. Totals 28-13/22-74. F-13. 3-pointers: Larson 1, Hottmann 2, Crowley 2.