Bearcats are co-champs

Published 10:41 pm Wednesday, February 2, 2011

MONROE — It’s been a long trek for the Monroe Bearcats program to reach any sort of success in 4A boys basketball, but years of work laying the foundation yielded dividends on Wednesday night.

Bolstered by 5-foot-10 senior guard Slava Ulanovskiy’s game-high 20 points, Monroe beat Arling

ton 55-51 in a down-to-the-wire contest for a share of the Western Conference North Division championship.

By rule the teams are crowned co-league champions because they finished with identical records, but the Bearcats (12-3 league, 15-5 overall) earned the coveted top seed to the 4A District 1 tournament by beating the Eagles (12-3, 15-5) twice this season — by a combined seven points.

“We’ve seen some dark days and to see them come through in a big moment is pretty neat for the guys,” Monroe head coach Nick Wold said. “I think they know this is just the beginning, we’ve got a long road ahead of us right now. As much as we’re excited about tonight, what we’ve tried to do all season is be happy about tonight and worry about our next opponent tomorrow. Go back to watching film, go back to practice and really worry about the small things right now.”

Ulanovskiy single-handedly kept Monroe afloat early in the fourth quarter.

Carrying a one-point lead into the final quarter (36-35), Ulanovskiy scored seven of the Bearcats’ first nine points including a momentum-building four-point play with 5 minutes, 55 seconds remaining in the game. The sharp-shooting guard, who possessed a hot hand all game, took a swing pass from the top of the key and converted a 3-pointer on the left wing while being fouled by Arlington guard Zach Cooper.

Ulanovskiy converted the free throw for a 45-39 lead.

“I think it’s almost a better way to go into district against a tough team,” Ulanovskiy said. “That’s what we have to play like. We have to be on that level.”

The Eagles, the preseason coaches’ poll favorites to win the league, kept it close as Blake Petersen scored a runner to cut Monroe’s lead to three with little more than one minute left to play. A missed one-and-one free-throw attempt by Monroe post Tom Meeus (10 points) kept the door open, but Arlington failed to execute against the taller Bearcats.

Eagles guard Eric Carlson had a team-high 17 points.

Monroe guard Joey Roppo (10 points, four assists), who is also the Bearcats starting quarterback during the football season, sank two free throws with 19.3 seconds left to make it a five-point game 53-48, but Arlington’s Griffin Ginnis made his fourth 3-pointer of the night, an NBA-range bucket, with 7.1 seconds to play.

Ahead 53-51, Roppo was fouled and put the game out of reach with two more free throws.

“It’s awesome,” Roppo said. “It’s nice to know that all of our work is paying off. We have districts coming up and we’re getting ready for that so we’re going to celebrate tonight and get ready for the next game tomorrow.”

For a program that has struggled since joining the 4A ranks about 10 years ago, Monroe is beginning to see the fruit of the hard work started under former head coach — now Monroe athletic director — Brett Wille, Wold said.

“We’ve been doing this a long, long time,” Wold said. “I’ve been here eight years, Brett and Dan (Bare) really started with the feeder program and really initiated this process and this is really the group that we thought bought in to all of those things that we wanted to do with offseason work for the last four years. … We’ve been putting this into play for many, many years … We have a detailed offseason program and finally we have a group of guys and our junior class that really have bought in.”

Senior post Cole Parker finished with 12 rebounds and five blocks for Monroe and Ulanovskiy added five assists.

“It’s incredible,” Ulanovskiy said. “We haven’t been here ever, especially for our group. It’s a huge change for us and we’re just enjoying the moment right now.”

The Bearcats, who were 13-27 overall the past two seasons, surpassed that win total this season and head to the district tournament on a high note.

“I thought they just did a good job reversing the ball and finding the open guy and we didn’t do a good enough job recovering,” Arlington head coach Nick Brown said.

Monroe hosts South No. 4-seed Cascade on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.

Arlington, which saw its seven-game winning streak come to an end, hosts South No. 3-seed Edmonds-Woodway on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.

“My kids are like corks, they bounce back, they don’t fold,” Brown said.

At Monroe H.S.

Arlington 10 6 19 16 — 51

Monroe 19 9 8 19 — 55

Arlington—Carlson 17, Cooper 10, Dawn 2, Goheen 0, Cummings 0, Ginnis 12, Brummel 4, Ladines 0, Petersen 6. Monroe—Roppo 14, Bunge 1, Turner 2, Drivstuen 2, Ulanovskiy 20, Reilly 2, Meeus 10, Parker 4. 3-point goals—Ginnis 4, Cooper 2, Roppo 2, Ulanovskiy 4. Records—Arlington 12-3 league, 15-5 overall. Monroe 12-3, 15-5.