Basketball Recap: Monticello Takes a Tough Playoff Loss

It's hard to turn regular season success into postseason wins, a fact Monticello can now relate to. They came up short against the Totino-Grace Eagles on Thursday, falling 78-52. While losing is never fun, the Magic can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Minnesota basketball rankings (they are ranked 66th, while the Eagles are ranked eighth).

Jackson Soroko

Points

03/13/25 vs Totino-Grace	18
03/07/25 vs Becker	24
03/04/25 vs Big Lake	23
02/25/25 @ Zimmerman	17
02/20/25 vs Becker	17

Monticello's defeat came despite a true team effort with many players turning in solid performances. Perhaps the best among them was Jackson Soroko, who shot 4-for-7 from beyond the arc and dropped a double-double with 18 points and 12 rebounds. Soroko's big performance that evening made it five games in a row in which he has scored at least 17 points. The team also got some help courtesy of Brayden Dollard, who posted 11 points and five boards.

With the loss, Monticello broke their five-game winning streak and moved their record to 24-5. The wins came thanks in part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 80.4 points over those games. As for Totino-Grace, the victory (which was their ninth in a row) raised their record to 23-5.

Monticello does not have any more games scheduled as of now. As for Totino-Grace, they will challenge Denfeld on Tuesday.