Net Games: Cooper at Armstrong

So with the weather elements putting a huge dent in my holiday hoops plans, no better place to see a game then in the comfort of The Czar's castle. We rewind the hands of time to December 12th for one of the best rivalries in all of the metro as Cooper made the trip down Hwy 169 to visit district rival Armstrong. If these teams don't end up in the same league after all of the Classic Lake realignment is done, its criminal.

Cooper gives Quincy Bethea the assignment on Damarius Cruz. After Armstrong makes the opening 3, Cooper gets the next 15 points. Rodney Williams with 3 straight dunks including a breakaway 360 dunk during the run and a layup. Ryan Virnig breaks the run with a nice head fake on Williams. Rodney loves to block shots so this works almost everytime. Andy Seidlitz with 9 straight Armstrong points over a 7:30 stretch as Cruz can't buy a bucket. Armstrong tries some zone, but Rodney makes 2 hard basket cuts and goes up and over the Armstrong 2-3 zone from Bethea for a dunk and a layin. On the layin, Virnig gets under Williams and injures his right knee and leaves the game. Rodney makes the foul shot and the lead is 39-19 with 3 left in the half. Armstrong gets a 3 from Curtis and then Cruz finally makes a shot, another triple. 40-27 Cooper at the half. Armstrong with 7 3s, 4-9 FTs and the 1 Virnig 2 point bucket. Seidlitz 9, Curtis 6 and Cruz 5 points on 1-8 shooting. Williams with 15 points, 6 rebounds and a block. He had 4 dunks and 2 layins in the half.

Rodney with an offensive rebound that he dunks with 1 hand and its 46-29. Armstrong with 10 of the next 12 points and its 48-39 at 12:30. Cruz heating up with a triple at 10:40 and its 54-44 Cooper. Rodney counters with a post up deuce. Curtis with a nice up fake for 2 and then Weber with a floater and its 58-50 with 7 minutes to play. But Armstrong doesn't get any closer than that. Rodney goes up and over the zone again for a dunk and then puts back his own post up miss. He swats Seidlitz and Cruz and rebounds another Cruz miss over the next 2 minutes. Williams adds on a nasty 1 hand lefty followup dunk of a missed FT and another dunk to put the icing on the cake. Cooper wins 76-59.

For Cooper, Rodney with 29 points. I also had him unofficially for 12 rebounds and 4 blocks. 8 dunks and 2 layups. No makes outside of 8 feet. Bethea with nice assists to Rodney but he had all 13 of his points in the 1st half. Jamal Roberts really gives them good energy off the bench. He had 11 points tonight and he had the 1st 6 Cooper points of the 2nd half in the Columbia Heights game.

For Armstrong, Damarius Cruz with a hot 2nd half after a very cold 1st half. I had him 7 of 20 from the field after missing his 1st 7 shots of the night. Andy Seidlitz with 5 more 3s in this game after knocking down 6 in their opener vs Buffalo. One of the premier shooters in the metro. He finished with 17. Marquel Curtis did plenty of ballhandling tonight as he finished with 12. With Virnig out via injury, no Joe Lewis and Ted Vogt not on the team this season, the Falcons have nobody inside. They tried to spread the floor in a very dribble drive motion way to give their guards room to operate.