Games on Tape #2 (BC at Breck)

By popular request, we go in back in time to last Tuesday's Brooklyn Center at Breck game. These teams played on Jan 11 to a 63-62 BC win. No Dwight Potter for the Centaurs or Alex McDonald or Bryce McNeal (both sick with the flu) for Breck.

BC gets an early 6-4 lead but then its all downhill from there. Tom Smolenski gets a triple + a Dakota Tidd basket finishes an 11-0 Breck run to make it 15-6 with 11:30 left. DeAngelo Potter picks up his 3rd at 10:05 for BC and is done for the half. BC is taking quick outside shots and they aren't falling. In their zone Tidd is open at the high post. He's done a nice job so far trailing the play and then cutting down the lane to get open. Smolenski gets 5 in a row to make it 27-12 with 6 to go in the half. Smolenski hits 2 more 3s in the half and Breck leads 47-24 at the break. Smolenski with 14 and Tidd playing well with 12. Freddy Young with 10 1st half points for BC.

Tidd gets 2 straight offensive rebounds for buckets to start the 2nd half. He's been really active so far. He gets a 3 point play to make it 60-38 with 10:23 left and the channel 12 announcers have been frothing at the mouth over him for most of the half. Least they forget the disappointing season he's had up until the game before this. Its called homework gentlemen. Breck does play the bench some, but Tidd and Smolenski are in there right until the end (BC starters stayed in the game). The Mustangs in a rout 78-55.

Tidd finishes with 23 and was a monster on the glass and extremely active, great game. Smolenski with 20 for Breck who were really never challenged. Breck ran a nice inbound set all night against the BC zone. Box set bigs high guards low. Ball side guard steps out to the corner. Backside guard fills the top of the key. Ball side big dives to the ball and screens the middle of the zone for the other big who is diagonally cutting to the ball. Simple but effective (much like everything else Breck runs)

Freddy Young with 16, DeAngelo Potter with 1 early free throw and that was it for BC. Tyrese Chambers had 13 points, but he needs to work on his shot selection. There were a handful of shots in this game that he took that would frustrate many coaches. Greg Snowden gave them 9 pts and nice minutes in the 2nd half.

Fast forward back to the present. After averaging 9.4 PPG in the 1st 16 games of the season (only 1 game over 15), Tidd's last 3 games (he had 19 vs SPA in the game after this one), he's averaged 21.7. Much more active and productive than the Minnehaha game I saw where he went bagel. With the SPA win and this win, Breck is now on a 4 game winning streak. Is Tidd's increased production part of it? I don't think its any coincidence. Did coach Gray light a fire under him? If he produces like this, they have a real shot at winning the west subsection of 4AA as they are always tough defensively.