Panthers wrap up another solid season

   A 14-9 overall record and a third-place finish in the conference highlighted another solid year for the Monticello girls basketball team.

   “Winning 14 games was a huge accomplishment for this group,” Panther coach Donnie Kremer said. “Most people thought we would only win five games. Another highlight was finishing third in the conference. We were picked second to the bottom on our side. I think another achievement that doesn’t show up in the stat book is that these ladies became a team and a family.”

   The Panthers finished the season with an 8-6 conference record, finishing behind Maquoketa and Cascade and tied with Bellevue in the River Valley Conference North Division.

   Three straight wins kicked off the Panthers’ season, before losses to Regina, Bellevue and Cascade dropped the Panthers back to 3-3.

   Monti hit a win streak after the winter break, picking up wins over West Liberty, Camanche, Anamosa and Northeast before falling to the no. 1 team in Class 3A, Maquoketa by just 10.

   The Panthers went 5-4 in the last nine regular season games before kicking off regional play with a 43-35 win over Benton. The win over the Bobcats moved Monti on to play Assumption in a regional semifinal, one that the Knights won, 39-26, to end the Panthers’ season.

   “I thought our defense was very good all year. They really bought in to playing tough defense,” Kremer said. “I thought our fundamentals, as a whole, improved tremendously over the season. I thought our confidence improved dramatically as well.”

   Another highlight to the Panther season was senior Kennedy Hermsen hitting the 1,000-career point plateau. Hermsen also now holds the school record for most three-pointers made in a career. In her senior season, Hermsen averaged 12.0 points per game, to go with 3.7 rebounds, 2.6 steals and 2.3 assists.

   Hermsen, along with Halle Recker, made up the seniors on this year’s squad. Recker started every game this season and averaged 6.3 points and a team high 5.3 rebounds per game.

   “One big individual improvement this season was our senior leadership,” Kremer added. “I thought Kennedy and Halle did an outstanding job leading this year’s team. They really took ownership of the team and got everyone involved. Another big improvement was our team chemistry. It was very good.”

   The Panthers will return a solid nucleus next season, as three starters will come back.

   Mallory McElemeel averaged 9.2 points and 4.2 rebounds a game in her sophomore season, Peyton Ries added 5.7 points a game as a junior, Kenya Davis-Robinson averaged 4.1 points a contest as a freshman and sophomore Kylee McElmeel averaged 3.3 points and 2.5 rebounds a game.

   Freshman Kayla Arduser contributed solid minutes for the Panthers and junior Emma Kromminga, along with sophomore Peytin Schultz and freshmen Drea Burkle, Maci Manternach, Reagan Stoll and Lindsay Ruchti also saw varsity action this season.