Minnesota Transitions at Roosevelt observations

Game 1 of the night with the Twin Cities Hoops Insider (TCHI) is Minnesota Transitions at Minneapolis Roosevelt. These teams have played the past 3 years coming into tonight with Roosevelt winning all 3 meetings in good games by scores of 80-76, 110-97 and 77-73 last year at MTS. A win here would be big for the MTS cause in the east subsection of 4A. Roosevelt looking to rebound from 2 straight tough losses in Minneapolis City play.

Right off the opening tip Josh Mason of Roosevelt injures a knee and it looks bad. But as we'll find out, looks can be deceiving. MTS is in their usual 2-2-1 half court defense. MTS goes on a 9-2 run to make it 12-6 with 13 to play in the half. Roosevelt is attacking from the baseline as MTS is doing well keeping the ball out of the middle, but they're getting hammered on the offensive glass. Mason is back with a strong follow-up dunk to tie it at 12 with 10:45 left in the half. Virgil Baker is hot from 3 but 5 straight from Chris Booker give Roosevelt their 1st lead in a while with 8:15 to go in the half. But as much good as Roosevelt did to start stretching the MTS zone and get some exploitable holes, they start settling for quick 3s and play sloppy offense. In fact, they don't score the rest of the half. MTS gets a pretty layup off a missed 3 with 3 or 4 passes and the ball never touching the floor to make it 26-21 at 5:35. Kevin Noreen gets a layup and then a block that leads to a Jerry Brookins 3 and its a 13-0 run to make the score 33-21 with 4:12 left in the half. But MTS doesn't score the rest of the half and its 33-21 at halftime. Virgil Baker has 13 points (3 3s) in the half to lead MTS. Kevin Noreen with 7. Derek Scully with 7 to lead Roosevelt. Roosevelt had opportunities when the ball went baseline as the defense wasn't filling the middle and Roosevelt cutters had good looks. MTS didn't reach nearly as much as I've seen them in the past which was nice to see and they did a good job of getting easy baskets off the long quick shots from Roosevelt.

Baker hits 2 3s to start the 2nd half and all of a sudden its 40-25 MTS with another Josh Mason dunk included. Xavier Jones heats up for Roosevelt. He hits a 3, a deuce and gets an assist to make it 40-32 with 14:30 to play. That assist is the start of 8 straight Torrieo Williams points for Roosevelt. Kevin Noreen with a really tough 2 to make it 43-34 with 13 to play and its 47-36 outside 11 minutes to play. Williams ends his run with 2 FTs and then Xavier Jones gets 2 steals for 3 point plays in the next 10 seconds and all of a sudden its 47-44 with 10:59 left and we have another MTS/Roosevelt battle on our hands.

A Dylan Clarke Knaeble layup and 1 of 2 FTs from Chris Booker complete a 11-0 Roosevelt run to tie the game at 47 with 8:36 to play. Kyle Noreen finally shakes loose for a wide open 3 and then after a Roosevelt FT gets another one (Roosevelt also left him open for a couple of shots off their inbound play that he missed. Does nobody scout anymore?) to make it 53-48 MTS at 6:40. Jones hits a 3 and 2 FTs to make it 56 all with 4:33 to play. Kevin Noreen holds the ball against Williams and gets fouled with 3:15 to play and makes 1 of 2. Williams makes 1 of 2 on the other end to tie it at 57 with 2:43 left. Kevin Noreen has a good look at a 3 miss and Mason gets a bucket off of another Roosevelt offensive rebound to give Roosevelt their 1st lead since 21-20. It's 59-57 Roosevelt with 2 minutes left. Kevin Noreen turns the ball over in the post with 1:42 to play. Jones hits a tough layup with 1:10 left but Kevin Noreen gets a putback to make it 61-59 Roosevelt with 1 minute to play. Roosevelt is killing the clock but for some reason Jones tries to go thru traffic in the lane and he turns it over with 21 seconds left. After an MTS timeout, Roosevelt takes their 1 foul to give with 12 seconds left (nice idea, but you'd like to wait as long as possible). Out of another timeout, Kevin Noreen gets the ball at the foul line but passes behind a baseline cutter for a turnover with 5 seconds left. Knaeble is fouled with 4 seconds left. On this inbound play, MTS left Williams open for fouling which surprised me because he was 3-3 from the line on the day. They also left Kyle Noreen in the game with 4 fouls and he had to commit his 5th to stop the clock. I would have liked to seen a bench guy in there for him so that if Knaeble misses 1, you still have a top 3 point shooter available for the last play. Knaeble does only make 1 of 2, but a pass to Kevin Noreen at halfcourt is intercepted and Roosevelt hangs on to win another close matchup between these teams 62-59.

Virgil Baker with 19 for MTS, Kevin Noreen with only 12. 6'6 C Torrieo Williams did a nice job on him as he was quick enough to stay with Kevin on the dribble. MTS falls to 14-4 but they still have some good games on the schedule with West Lutheran and New Life Academy.

For Roosevelt, Xavier Jones with 18 and it was his quick spurt of 3 point plays that got them back in it. Roosevelt switched to a nice attack against the MTS zone in the 2nd half. They had shooter Derek Scully running the baseline, Williams on the block to screen or get dump offs and then they played high pick and roll which would allow Scully to get a good corner look. Nice design by coach Stockmo. This caused the MTS zone to expand which opened driving lanes.