Gotta love late afternoon meetings. I wanted to do the DLS at St. Bernard's game but considering I'll see DLS later in the week and saw them last Saturday, its probably better this way. A chance to see Chris Breuer (son of Randy Breuer) play again. Good student section for this game too from SCL.
Dakota Tidd gets our first mention of the night as he schools Breuer in the post to make it 6 all with 15 minutes to go in the 1st half. He gets a 3 pt play at 13:03 to make it 13-10 Breck and has 9 quick pts. Breuer and Blake Johnson trade buckets to make it 15-14 Breck with 11:31 left in the half. A Thomas Smolenski 3 makes it 18-14 Breck at 10:25 but Breuer gets 6 of the next 8 points in an 8-0 SCL run and its 22-18 SCL with 8:40 left in the half. Smolenski with 4 straight Breck points and we're tied at 24 with 6:44 to go in the half. Breuer continues to be en fuego as he gets 2 at 5:35 to make it 28-25 SCL, an offensive rebound for 2 at 3:45 to give SCL a 32-27 lead. He gets another deuce and caps off his half with a triple to make it 38-31 SCL with 1:20 left in the half. Tidd countered the last 2 by Breuer and now he counters again, this time with a 3 pt play, but Aaron Hulsebus knocks down a 3 right before the break and SCL goes to halftime up 41-34. Breuer with 19, Hulsebus with 12. Tidd with15 and Smolenski with 7. SCL is on fire making just about everything. Breuer is getting it done on the block, with the 3 and inbetween. Tidd unstoppable when he got interior touches and wanted to score.
Breck comes out on a 13-2 run to start the half as SCL has a couple of sloppy turnovers and a big Tidd block leads to a Alex McDonald layin. Breuer with the only 2 SCL points during the run and he breaks the run with another bucket to make it 47-45 Breck with 12 minutes left. Out of a timeout before the end of the run, SCL went 2-3 zone and Smolenski had a couple of good looks at 3s that didn't go in that would have really broken it open. But Smolenski does hit 2 FTs at 9:05 to give Breck a 54-49 lead. Leighton Spaulding gets a tough reverse layup on a backdoor cut and then 2 more off of a Tidd turnover and its 54-53 at 8:11. Alex McDonald down the lane for 2, Matt Vargas with a bucket and then 2 more on a SCL turnover and Breck is up 60-53 with 6:15 remaining. Breuer again breaks a Breck run and Hulsebus gets a 3 and its 60-58 Breck with 5 to play. Vargas hits 2 FTs before another Hulsebus 3. Alex McDonald with 2 FTs. Gabe Greseth on a nice give and go as Breuer hits him for the score from the post. Michael Roeller gets a putback for SCL and they lead 65-64 with 3:15 left. Vargas hits a 10 footer at 2:33 to put Breck back on top. Hulsebus goes to the block and gets a post up for 2 at 2:07. SCL then runs a lob for Breuer which he lays in for a 69-66 lead with 1:45 to play. Breck misses and Hulsebus gets the rebound but he gets a T for throwing an elbow (questionable in addition to 2 forearm push off calls on the dribble that were also questionable so a rough night for him with the zebras) and that his 5th foul so he's done with 1:24 to go. Smolenski makes the 2 technicals and Tidd gets the ball in the post to draw a foul and make 1 of 2 FTs. We're tied at 69 with 1:09 left. Greseth gets fouled and makes 2 clutch FTs at 43.9 (71-69 SCL). McDonald misses and Breuer rebounds. Breuer then finds Spaulding for a layup with 12 seconds to go and that's your ballgame. 73-69 St. Croix Lutheran wins.
Dakota Tidd with 19, but only 4 in the 2nd half. Thomas Smolenski with 13 for Breck in a balanced attack. They host Trinity in 4AA West play next Tuesday and then a probably revenge game with Edison in the 2nd round (3/13) before a shot at Holy Family in the subsection final on 3/15. Regular season finale is Friday at Mounds Park Academy. They definitely aren't the same team without John Gray on the bench.
Chris Breuer leads the Crusaders with 27, very left handed, but he was very effective scoring and on the glass. Aaron Hulsebus is one of the better guards people don't know about (14 PPG). They lose just 2 seniors so they'll be good next year. They'll be the 5 seed in 4AA East and their road game will be very interesting either at Minnehaha (3 pt loss at SCL w/o Taylor Sparkman for Minnehaha) or Roosevelt.
The Breck St Croix game last night was pretty close to a mugging. Aaron Hulsebus guard for St Croix had three offensive calls where the defensive player made more contact than he did. The rules are pretty clear cut as to no
ReplyDeleteHand Checking! Poor Aaron was victm of poor officiating. The outcome of the game needs to be put in the hands of the players and not the officials. St Croix had a call go there way in the final forty-five seconds to give them two fouls shots that put them ahead. The foul was a hand check that had been overlooked all game. The officials had finally found the error of their ways but should have let it go. Maybe they should hire officials that have played the game of Basketball. Oh well there is Justice the better team won!
Poor Aaron got locked down in the second half by a quicker stronger defender. Handchecking had nothing to do with Aaron's inability to get by his man. Aaron is an excellent shooter but needs work on ballhandling and improving his quickness. He will be challenged in the subsections if SCL meets Mpls Roosevelt. I suggest Gabe play point since he is more poised, a natural leader, quicker and stronger, and a better ball handler. Aaron is a perfect shooting guard and would be dangerous from the wing. Aaron became very frustrated when he could not get by his defender and needs to develop his poise. The Crusaders are very well coached and could make some noise in the subsections. It will be interesting to see how they do in that challenging bracket. Good luck to SCL!
ReplyDeleteWhile he was largely quiet in the 2nd half, he had 2 clutch 3s and then a clutch bucket on a postup in a 3 minute stretch (5 min left to 2 minutes left) that brought SCL from 5 down to 1 up. That was 8 of his 10 2nd half points so he got it done in crunch time.
ReplyDeleteHate to take sides in this Aaron v. Mark thing, but it was obvious that Aaron was in trouble any time he went left. What Breck did to him was similar to way DeLaSalle shuts down good point guards. Also, picking up that fifth foul on a T wasn't exactly a leadership move, no matter how frustrated you get. SCL simply needs to play with the poise and class that Breuer shows on the court -- and with the enthusiasm of its student rooting section. The kids were classier than the "grown-ups."
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