CHOF vs MN Transitions Observations (Section 4A East Subsection Final)

Game 2 of the day has CHOF vs MTS in a rematch. MTS won 77-72 at CHOF on January 15th. Kevin Noreen with 25 in that game for MTS. Peter Otten led 4 players in double figures with 17 for CHOF.

MTS gets out to a quick 16-4 lead with 13:20 left in the half. CHOF left Virgil Baker wide open for 3 3s, Kavarian Williams had a 3 and Kyle Noreen started the game with a 4 point play. Nick Butler picks up his 3rd foul @ 10:50 and he's done for the half. Nate Fiscus makes 1 of 2 FTs after tweaking a knee and its 19-8 MTS with 10:24 left in the half. After Peter Otten makes a 3 and then a FT, MTS goes on an 8-0 run. The run sees Kevin Noreen get his 1st 2 of the day. 27-12 MTS with 6:55 to go in the half. CHOF staying tough as Otten hits another triple and Cole Piepkorn hits a 3. MTS gets 2 charging calls (Kevin Noreen's 2nd foul at 5:49 and Baker's 2nd at 5:34) and 2 bad looks in 1 on 1 play. Fiscus with a bucket and a FT and Piepkorn with 2 FTs. All of this is a 11-0 run for CHOF to make it 27-23 MTS with 3:30 left in the half. MTS really struggling with fouls as Kyle Noreen has 3, Kevin Noreen has 2 and Baker is on the bench with his 2 fouls. Kyle Noreen still in there with the 3 fouls and gets another 4 point play at 2:50 to kill the CHOF momentum and I'm off the deep end. The half finishes with MTS having a 31-25 lead. Virgil Baker with 14 on 4 3s, Kyle Noreen with 8 on the 2 4 pt plays and Kevin Noreen with only 2 (offensive rebound). Peter Otten with 9, Cole Piepkorn and Nate Fiscus with 8 each. Fiscus starting to get good looks vs the MTS 2-2-1 as the half progressed. CHOF holds Kevin Noreen to 2, but they give 17 inexplicable and horrible points (the 1st 3 Baker 3s and the 2 4 pt plays). Baker and Kyle Noreen are known shooters, make them dribble. Poor preparation by the CHOF coaching staff and/or poor execution by the players.

Nate Fiscus with a 3 pt play with 17:07 left to make it 34-30 MTS. Kevin Noreen with a 3 pt play for Butler's 4th foul with 16:09 to go. Butler stays in and they switch him on to Kyle Noreen. Jake Okerstrom who did a great job on Kevin Noreen in the 1st half, picks up 3 quick fouls in the half and he goes to the bench with his 4th with 13:53 left which gives Kevin Noreen 2 FTs to make it 42-32 MTS. MTS doing a nice job with Kevin on top of a flat 3-2 zone here in the 2nd half. Fiscus goes down after 2 straight defensive rebounds and he goes to the bench with under 11 minutes left. Coach Sherman surprisingly still has Kyle Noreen in there with 4 fouls. After Piepkorn takes a bad 25 footer, Kevin Noreen gets a 3 pt play to push the lead to 49-37 with 10:35 to go. Nick Butler is trading buckets with Kevin Noreen and he draws the 5th on Kyle Noreen at 10:15. 49-40 MTS. Kevin also gets the next 6 MTS points and Butler gets 4 in a row for CHOF and its 55-48 MTS with 7:33 remaining. Kevin picks up his 4th with 6:53 to go. Jake Okerstrom who came back in at 8:36 makes the 1st of 2 FTs and Nick Butler gets the miss and makes 2 FTs of his own to make it 55-51 MTS with 6:51 to go. After a Baker layup with 5 minutes left, the MTS bench picks up a bad technical. Nick Butler makes the 2 FTs, but CHOF can't convert on the possession and its 59-53 MTS. Okerstrom is gone with his 5th foul at 4:35 and you know they now have no one (since Butler has 4) to guard Kevin. Kevin puts back a missed FT on a front end and Baker gets a layup with 4 to go to push the lead to 63-53 MTS and CHOF will get no closer. 77-65 Minnesota Transitions wins.

Nick Butler with 23 of his 24 in the 2nd half to lead CHOF. Nate Fiscus who sat out from 11 minutes left to 3 minutes left before coming back in to gut out the ending finished with 13. Peter Otten also with 13. Cole Piepkorn with a rough day at the point as MTS went after him to force turnovers and he gave up both 4 point plays to Kyle Noreen in addition to taking a couple of bad 3s. They finish 22-6 with 3 starters (including Piepkorn and Fiscus) coming back next year so they'll still be a team to be reckoned with next season.

Kevin Noreen with 24 of his 26 in the 2nd half. Virgil Baker with 25 as he demonstrated that he's more than just a 3 point specialist. Kevin Noreen gets the spotlight for them but Baker is averaging 20 a night too. MCA will have to find an answer for him in the section final. MTS finally makes a section final after having some very good teams over the last 3 years and not getting there. This is a nice step for their program.

4 comments:

  1. kudos to MTS for a big win. Back to the drawing board for CHOF. considering the program was 6-20 2 years ago, We made huge strides.

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  2. BTW Czar, rookiecoach accused CHOF of being very dirty. I didn't see that, but I'm too close. Honestly do you see the Lions as a dirty team?

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  3. Hey Bill, I saw that post too and was really disappointed by it. There were a couple of times where CHOF guys ran thru ball-screens, but I don't consider that dirty. Just good hard playoff basketball. The only kid who was chippy was MacClane Eckman. He was chirping in Virgil Baker's ear at 1 point and had to have the ref talk to him. But to classify as a dirty team, I don't think that's fair at all.

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  4. For this upcoming championship, I'm seeing a lot of similarities to the 05-06 year where MCA had the better record, but Bernard's had the tougher schedule. MTS's only losses came to Park Center (AAAA) and three AA teams - Edison, Roosevelt and Minnehaha. Too close to call for me.

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