Providence at Concordia (Bl) Observations

There are the great matchups like Hopkins - Minnetonka. Then we have the extremely good matchups like Osseo-Sibley. There are the OK matchups and the bad matchups (Roseville -Arlington). Then there's tonight's Providence at Concordia (Bl) game. The full 5 flaming torches in the eye designation goes to this game as Providence is dead last in 2A QRF (against a largely 1A schedule) at 1-20. Concordia was 4-16 coming in and 158 of 171 in the A QRF. 11-48 is the record of the 3 other opponents they beat besides Providence (total 12-68). They beat Providence 47-44 back on January 29th. At starting intros, they introduce Providence and you can hear crickets as there might be 50 people in the building max.

Providence gets out to a 11-4 lead at 12:30 of the 1st half. C-Bl closes to 15-12 before Sam Eaton and Zach Money get layups to start a run. The 10-0 run also includes one of the prettiest possessions of zone offense that I've seen all year. Providence makes about 6 passes, blows 1 chance for an easy layup (that's the not pretty part), but gets the ball back and makes the same passes to get the same easy layup. Unselfish, everybody touching the ball everywhere. Providence goes to the locker room up 30-19. Frosh Joe Zangel with 7 pts for the Lions.

After the C-Bl coach gets a T from the hot-headed officiating crew, Providnece extends the lead to 38-26 with about 12 minutes to go. C-Bl pulls to 44-37 outside of 6 minutes but Providence gets the next 8 thanks to a backdoor layup from Sam Eaton, a Zangle steal and layup, and 2 Zach Money layups related to C-Bl turnovers. That run makes it 52-37 with 5:06 to play. Providence doesn't close out well but they're in no danger of losing this one. They win 60-50.

Joe Zangle with 13 for Providence. He has the potential to develop into a Caleb Palkert type of player in 3 years which wouldn't be bad at all. C-Bl remains on my list of teams with a really bleak outlook in the near future. Tough spot for them, the roster lists 3 7th graders and 4 freshmen for the JVs and they only started 1 senior. They were led by 12 points from Jr C Andrew Erdman. C-Bl went 12-29 from the line by my unofficial count, tough to win games that way. I was surprised they stayed in their 2-3 zone as long as they did and they only showed 1 possession of 1-3-1. Providence's man offense while OK early, was totally out of whack once C-Bl went back man. At least Concordia has a play-in game (projected). Providence will get blown out by Holy Family in the 1st round of the tourney.