Monticello –– It was a chilly night in Monticello this past Wednesday when the Panthers hosted the Washingtonville Wizards for a girls basketball game. Washingtonville was able to lock down a 52-31 win over Monticello after a tough battle. Coach Sheila Burns of Monticello had this to say after the game, “I’m happy with the progress we’re making as we end this season. We definitely played much better against Washingtonville this time around. We certainly have our morale up to end it. I’m excited to have some of the JV players that we have coming up next year and I look forward to next season.”

The first quarter opened up with Washingtonville drawing first blood after multiple attempts under the rim. Followed by an immediate response from Monticello’s Morgan Hutchins with an and-one for a three point play. But the Wizards responded with another basket in the paint from their tallest player. Monticello would certainly need to find a response to the Wizard’s height advantage down low if they wanted to win this one. Washingtonville’s full court press also seemed to be causing the Panthers to stumble early on. Washingtonville was able to go on a 12 point run and finished the quarter 18-6 over Monticello.

To start the second quarter Monticello’s Ava Williams hit a deep three to make the score 18-9 but the Wizards were able to immediately answer back by sinking an open layup. It seemed like Monticello finally had an answer to Washingtonville’s height with Melissa Negron coming in and scoring multiple layups under the basket to put the score at 20-13. Monticello ended the quarter 31-15 behind Washingtonville but they still had a lot of basketball left to play.

Coming out of halftime, Morgan Hutchins was able to get a quick layup from the paint followed by a jump shot from Reiley Schloicka to make the score 35-19. Both teams were dropping shot after shot with Washingtonville retaining a 14 or 15 point lead the entire time. If Monticello was able to get some key stops on defense they’d be back in this game. The quarter ended with Monticello down 43-25 but with the Panthers still fighting hard.

The final quarter began with multiple foul shot attempts for Monticello but only two were able to be converted into points on the board. But Washingtonville was also able to score in this time so the Panthers weren’t able to close the lead at all. With just three minutes left and down by 20 it didn’t look good for Monticello. Unfortunately they weren’t able to pull a victory from the jaws of defeat and lost 52-31 to Washingtonville.