MONTICELLO – It was a clear night last Monday in Monticello when the Panthers hosted the Middletown Middies for a girls’ basketball game, the first of their season. Coach Sheila Burns seemed excited and hopeful for the start of the season and had this to say about the team, “I’m excited for the growth we are going to see this season. I think we have a good group of girls.” Unfortunately for Monticello, they weren’t able to turn their first home game into a win. 

The first quarter started off with Middletown snagging the jump ball, but they were unable to find the basket through Monticello’s collapsing defense. However, Middletown was picking up rebound after rebound creating multiple attempts at the basket. This constant offensive pressure paid off with Middletown being the first to score at the 5-minute mark. With one minute left, Middletown was able to score again making it 4-0 but Monticello they was unable to answer back before the buzzer. 

Middletown opened the second quarter by forcing multiple turnovers that converted into undefended break away layups allowing Middletown to double their score in the first two minutes. Turnovers made it tough for Monticello to get their momentum going and they went scoreless into halftime while Middletown had scored 18 points. 

In the third quarter Monticello was finally able to break the ice when Morgan Hutchins drove into the paint for a contested layup making the score 26-2. Throughout the third quarter Monticello’s defense and offense were playing better but it wasn’t enough to overcome Middletown’s early lead. They ended the quarter down 29-6 with 8 minutes left to play. 

Early in the final quarter Monticello’s Ava Williams and Morgan Hutchins scored back-to-back layups finally breaking into double digits for Monticello. It didn’t look good for the Panthers being down 21 points with only 6 minutes left, but the Panthers continued to play hard. Middletown finished the night with a 51-10 win over the home team.

“I think we played phenomenally on defense and the girls responded well to all the changes we made throughout the game. Now we just need to focus on bringing our offense up,” shared Coach Burns after the game.