New Life at St. Agnes Thoughts

Shhhhhhhh! Be very very quiet. No, Elmer Fudd is not in the building. I'm watching St. Agnes shoot a free throw. You can hear a pin drop in this little band box known as Bandas Hall. I was going to do the Park Center vs Edison game but I saw Edison in fall league and they were bad and I'll see Park Center later in the season so a late minute change of plans. I wanted to see New Life before I see them again vs Maranatha later in the season. So that leads me to this matchup of Subsection 4A East foes. Northwestern (college that is) in the building watching.

Forward Robbie Anderstrom with the 1st 7 NLA points of the night for a quick start. 7-6 NLA at 14:54. St. Agnes with a long offensive possession that results in no points and NLA converts with a James Housworth layup. NLA gets another bucket to conclude an 8-0 run over 4 minutes. 15-6 NLA. Leevon Perry into the game for the 1st time for the Aggies and he immediately scores. 17-10 NLA with 10:10 left in the 1st half. Anderstrom with a jumper to cap a 9-2 NLA run and the lead is 28-15 with 4:25 left in the half. The Aggies go to a 1-2-2 defense to slow NLA down. About 5 straight possessions of Dalton Sturdevant going solo in a 1-4 low set gives him 4 points. Perry with a jumper and Dakari Davison with a steal for 2 at 20 seconds left, Anderstrom with a putback with 5 seconds left. Philip Butler beats the 1st half buzzer for St. Agnes and NLA's lead is only 35-30 at the break. Anderstrom with a monster 1st half doing it all on both ends. 18 points, 7 rebounds, 3 blocks and a steal. St. Agnes with 8 players scoring in the half.

Perry into the game 2 minutes into the 2nd half with the Aggies down 9. He immediately scores over Anderstrom. Ryan Furlong with a steal for a layup at 15:15 and he's got the 1st 6 NLA points of the half. Aggies go back to their 1-2-2 zone. Anderstrom at a weak spot in the zone, the foul line, finds Sam Penwell for back to back layups. Anderstrom with 2 of his own off an inbounds play and the lead is 47-32 with 13 minutes left. Perry with another jumper but Penwell counters with another layup. Anderstrom with a jumper at 10:45 to expand the lead to 17, 54-37. Ryan Furlong with a triple at 7:30 to make it 60-39. 25-9 run over 10:30 to start the 2nd half. Davison with a layin at 5:45 to finally get St. Agnes another person in the 2nd half scoring column. Perry had all 9 Aggies points in the half until that moment. That ends the evening's drama. NLA wins 70-49.

For St. Agnes, Perry with 13 points to lead the way. There's some quickness here, but overall I think they'll struggle. With 4 of the starters being seniors, next year could be really long. Davison is only a frosh and starting and they do have a wide bodied freshman Joe Humphrey getting minutes. Those 2 should make up a big part of the Aggies future.

For NLA, Anderstrom did everything tonight. At 6'6, he played out in their Dribble Drive Motion while 5'11 Sam Penwell was playing the inside position in the offense. 1st possession of the game, Anderstom took the ball to the hoop against a slower defender and got a 3 point play. Nice move by coach Linton to take advantage of the versatility. He even moved over to guard Perry in the 2nd half after he got hot and took a charge. Ryan Furlong with a big 2nd half at the point. Not the quickest guy but he took care of the ball and made plays. Nice job by NLA as a whole of taking care of the ball in what can be a very turnover prone offense if not done well. You can see how well coached they are in it.

X and O of the Day
An interesting set from St. Agnes is our X and O segment today. 2 guards, a post at the foul line and 2 guys on the blocks. Ball side block breaks out to the wing to get the entry. Ball side guard screens the post defender for the post to curl down to the ball side block. The back side guard screens for the back side block in what becomes a de facto double down to the top of the key. St. Agnes used this to look for Joe Costanzo inside.