Post #100, Prior Lake at Holy Angels

Post #100 covers game #81, January 25th, 2008. Holy Angels hosting Prior Lake in a quality Missota conference matchup. The AHA students are out in force, but after seeing the BSM and Tonka students last night, its a downgrade.

AHA fights back from a 7-1 deficit to tie the game at 9 early but then Prior Lake gets 8 in a row off 3 straight AHA turnovers. Tor Anderson then gets 2 assists, a deuce and a triple and its 28-14. Finally Deryck Ludwig gets wide open as 2 defenders follow Anderson on an inbounds play and he slams it home with 2 hands and its 32-14 Prior Lake with 5 1/2 to go in the 1st half. All total a 23-5 run over a span of about 9 minutes. But Prior Lake doesn't score the rest of the half. Stoddard Barnhill gets 2 buckets and 2 FTs (and had chances at 4 more points) and its only 32-20 Prior Lake at halftime.

2nd half sees James Pfitzinger and Ludwig go back and forth for 6 pts each right off the bat. Joe St. Mane gets a hoop and AHA is as close as they've been since the run at 47-40 with 7:38 to go. Its 54-42 with about 3 minutes left and 54-44 at 2 minutes and this game should be over. But Sahr Ngekia (henceforth referred to as Bonzi Wells because of looks, headband included, and his tough post game) gets a bucket, Anthony Kemper misses the front end of a 1 and 1 and Joe St. Mane hits a 3 and all of a sudden its 54-49 with 1:23 left, hold the phone. Ludwig then airballs the front end of another 1-1 to give AHA the ball back, but Bonzi gets called for a charge at 1:03 and Anderson finds Ludwig for a layup. St. Mane hits another 3 to make it 56-52 with 45.1 to go and you wonder if AHA has enough time. Kristjan Johnson hits 2 FTs and Tyler Bredow gets called for a charge at 34.5 with the score 58-52 Prior Lake. After 1 of 2 FT from Prior Lake, Will Baregi only goes 1 for 3 from the line with 25.2 left but AHA gets a steal and a bucket to pull within 59-55 with 20 seconds left. Prior Lake makes 2 more FTs and Joe St. Mane hits 1 more 3 with Prior Lake letting the clock run out after the make. Prior Lake wins 61-58. Barnhill with 17 to lead the Stars. Deryck Ludwig outplays Pfitzinger to lead Prior Lake with 20. Tor Anderson with 13 pts and a solid floor game for Prior Lake. Nice player and didn't force anything. As a side note, I also liked 6-4 Soph G Andrew Dale and 6-3 junior Christian Verity from the JV game, they should be nice varsity players for them next season.

The final score is misleading. After the 1st half run, the final score was as close as AHA got and they never had the ball with a chance to tie or lead. James Pfitzinger and Bonzi go double bagel in the 1st half which just can't happen. When you've got post players like that they have to get touches. Obviously there was an emphasis to get James the ball early in the 2nd half. After seeing Prior Lake play, I can see why they would beat Burnsville but would struggle against a defensive team like Eastview. Prior Lake really had some stretches where they struggled to generate offense.