Arlington at Park Thoughts

My first trip to see the low ceiling at Park of Cottage Grove. One of the Lakeville schools on hand scouting for sections (probably North as we'll see later). Vern Simmons from Johnson on hand for another look at Arlington. Nice 2 ball passing drill by Park in warmups with 2 guys with 2 balls doing slides while passing back and forth. 1 guy bounce pass, 1 guy chest pass. Interesting drill. They also do some nice spacing concepts in warmups to, ex: where does the post guy go when the wing drives middle vs drive baseline.

5-2 Park early when they decide to switch from man to 1-3-1. Arlington promptly gets 11 in a row. 6 Deandre White points and the other 5 from Travon McKee. Park gets out the 1-3-1 and gets 7 in a row. 13-12 Arlington at 9:40. Park with 6 in a row over the last 1:30 of the half to take a 24-22 halftime lead. Ricky Hernandez with 8 points for Park. McKee and White with 8 each for Arlington.

White with a tip in at 14:05 to cut the Park lead to 28-27 at 14:05. Park goes on a 9-1 over the next 4:50 thanks to 5 points from Drew Benson. That included a nice dive down the lane for a 3 point play from Andy Voigt. 37-28 Park with 9:15 left. Demarkeo Jones with a pair of triples for Arlington, 39-34 Park wiht 8 minutes left. Park mysteriously goes back to the 1-3-1 and White gets open on the backside for a layin. 41-36 Park at 6:37. Park thankfully goes back man. Charles Langhorne with 2 at 4:34 to cut the Park lead to 3. McKee with back to back steals and Arlington is within 1, 41-40 with 3:30 left. White with 2 postups and McKee strips Craig Brown for 2 more and Arlington leads 46-41 with 2:15 left. 12-0 Arlington run over 5:20 and it started when Park went to that 1 possession of 1-3-1. Craig Brown keeps Park in it with a putback at 1:25. Arlington misses a front end and then 0-2 to give Park life. Cody Hoffman with 2 free throws with 16.6 left to keep Park within 3, 48-45. But Langhorne makes 3 of 4 to seal the deal. Arlington wins 51-45.

For Park, they were outscored 13-0 when they played the 1-3-1. +7 with their man-man defense. Ricky Hernandez with 16 points to lead Park. Craig Brown and Andy Voigt with 8 each. Tough loss when you lead by 9 with 9 minutes left. I like their fundamentals and Cody Hofmann gives them intangibles and does the little things. Park has lost 7 of 8 and they're looking like the 8 seed in 3AAAA and a 1st round meeting with Lakeville North.

For Arlington, Deandre White clutch with 16 points. Travon McKee with 13 and his defense turned this one around. Charles Langhorne with 8 points and 11 rebounds. They played some 1-2-2, 2-3 and 1-3-1 with some 1-2-1-1 press. You can really assistant coach John Gray's influence on their offense. They run a couple of the same offenses that Gray used at Breck over the last few years and the philosophy of everything going at the basket is there. The Phoenix have won 7 out of 8 and are trying to make a case over Hill-Murray for the #3 seed in section 3AAA. Granted the only good win in that group is a home win over Roseville. So it looks like Arlington will need wins in at least 1 of their next 2 games coming up as they host Johnson on Friday and go to Central on Tuesday. You want to avoid the 4 seed and that 2nd round game with Johnson. Hill-Murray has the head-head win but they still have games with Central, Richfield, Tartan and Sibley left on the schedule.