St. Thomas Academy at Richfield Thoughts

Mike Fitzgerald

Winona State and Concordia-St. Paul in the building tonight for the St. Thomas vs Richfield game. Not much of a crowd though. Nice to see John Sherman making an appearance as part of his newspaper work.

Phillip Freeman out quick with a couple of triples. St. Thomas turning it over against the halfcourt man D of Richfield. Richfield 6-4 at 15:30. But then STA settles down. After a couple of layups makes it 10-7 Richfield, STA goes on a 13-0 run over 4 and a half thanks to a pair of triples from Mike Fitzgerald. 20-10 Cadets at 8:40. Renard Robinson with 5 in a row to end an 8-0 run to get Richfield back to 20-18 at 7:05. Then STA goes bombs away from 3. Fitzgerald with 2 more triples, Billy Chapman with 2 of his own and Charlie Aslesen with 1. Jim Dimick not happy with his rotation so he puts 5 JV guys in for the end of the half. STA outscores Richfield 21-7 over the last 7 minutes for a 41-20 lead at halftime. Mike Fitzgerald with 17 points and 4 triples for STA. 8 total triples for STA in the half. Phillip Freeman and Renard Robinson with 8 each for Richfield.

Freeman smoking to start the 2nd half with another pair of triples in a 10-2 Richfield run and they're within 8. He then trades triples with Fitzgerald and makes 2 FTs as he scores 11 straight for Richfield. 48-40 STA at 12:48. Jay Sewer with a circus 2 and its 53-44 with 10:28 left. Then STA goes on a 11-4 run. That gives STA a 64-48 lead with 7 minutes left. The Cadets keep the lead there until the final 2 minutes when Richfield knocks down a handful of 3s to make the score more respectable. 84-75 when I leave with 40 seconds left.

For Richfield, 6 triples and 22 points for Phillip Freeman. Renard Robinson adds 18 and 8 rebounds. Very small lineups for both teams in this one with basically all guards. STA gets 27 from Mike Fitzgerald on 7-16 shooting with 5-9 from 3. I also had him for 11 rebounds. Lefty Billy Chapman with 18 on 4 triples. Charlie Aslesen with 14 points off the bench in a productive night. STA with a nice job in their motion offense.

Mike Fitzgerald picture courtesy of MNPhotoNet.net