Mayer Lutheran outlasts Heritage

My first trip to Heritage Christian Academy tonight as they take on Mayer Lutheran. Interesting side note that almost all of this young Mayer Lutheran roster played together at the 43 Hoops Twin Cities Summer Classic for 16U Hoop Masters. Maranatha coach Jeff Wall looking on as the Mustangs play Mayer Lutheran on March 6th to end the regular season. Interesting that Mayer Lutheran had their JVs lineup on each side of the locker room door for the varsity to run thru.

Mayer Lutheran comes out with 5 junior starters and all 3 of their 6'7+ kids are on the bench. 6'7 soph Travis Rollo has grown 4 inches since July if you believe the programs from each time period. Back and forth early with Heritage star Nathan Johnson and Mayer Lutheran forward Luke Buttenhoff with a couple of buckets each. 10-9 Mayer Lutheran at 13:05. Johnson with back to back hoops and the Eagles are back on top 15-14 at 9:20. The Crusaders counter with an 8-0 run over the next 2:30 to jump out to a 7 point lead. Heritage right back with a bucket from Johnson and then he finds Ethan Stout for a 3 to tie the game at 24 with 4:05 left in the half. 29-27 Mayer Lutheran at halftime.

Buttenhoff continues to be a force inside with a bucket and a pair of free throws. 35-30 Mayer Lutheran at 16:17. Nick Parkhurst with a pair of buckets, Johnson coast to coast and then another 2 for a quick 8-0 Heritage run to put the Eagles up 3 at 14:45. The Crusaders respond with 14 of the next 18. 49-42 Mayer Lutheran with 8:11 on the clock. Tucker Howse with 6 points in the Heritage comeback. The last 2 on a nice feed from Alan Kiser cut the Crusaders lead to 52-50 with 5:20 left. After 2 Buttenhoff FTs for Mayer Lutheran, Johnson counters with a triple and then converts a turnover into 2 free throws to tie it. 60 all at 1:57. Steve Deckert with a great stuff block for Heritage at 1:45 but Parkhurst misses a 3 with 1:25 left. Chad Ische misses 2 FTs (after 6 of 6) with 1:02 left for Mayer Lutheran. Kiser corrals the 2nd miss and steps up and makes both ends of the bonus. Parkhurst then has a pass thrown right to him for a Mayer Lutheran turnover. Matt Tostenson 1 of 2 with 42.7 left for a 63-60 Heritage lead. Buttenhoff left all alone for a short baseline jumper with 31.7 left. Johnson then gets mugged against the press but no call and it appears he kicks the ball out of bounds but Heritage retains possession with 25.6 left, but he's out of the game with a leg injury. Parkhurst 1 of 2 with 21.7 left. Howse deflects a Mayer Lutheran pass out of bounds under the Crusaders basket with 4.5 left. Mayer Lutheran has it under their own hoop and they decide to play it without a timeout. Ische catches above the top of the circle and drives for a layup at the buzzer and we've got overtime. 64 all as we go to the extra session.

Johnson back for the overtime for Heritage. He gets a steal and then after a 45 second possession knocks down a triple. After Josh Genske scores, Heritage patient again and Johnson has another triple go in and out with about 2 minutes left. After a couple of misses each way, a held ball goes to Mayer Lutheran with 1:32 remaining. Buttenhoff 1 of 2 at the stripe to tie it at 67 with 1:17 left. Heritage turns it over with 40 seconds remaining. Out of a Mayer Lutheran timeout, Buttenhoff is left all alone for a layup on the inbounds for a 69-67 Crusaders lead with 30 seconds remaining. Heritage turns it over on the next possession. Mayer Lutheran wins 73-67.

For Heritage, Nathan Johnson with 30 points and 7 rebounds on my sheet. I had him at 12-24 from the floor. Tucker Howse with 11 points. Defensively, they struggle in both their man defense and their 2-3 zone. The loss of Sam Schwalbe to Maple Grove cost them a big guy to be a rebounder. They'll finish up the MCAA regular season on Friday with a rivalry game at Providence as they try to break a losing stretch of 5 out of 6.

For Mayer Lutheran, they were too much inside. Lucas Buttenhoff with 17 points and 11 rebounds by my count. Chad Ische with 20 points and 8 rebounds. Josh Genske with 14 points and CJ Byrne with 12 points and 5 rebounds. Nice job at the line by the Crusaders as I had them 21-27 from the line. The entire rotation except 1 limited minutes senior returns next season. The Crusaders had lost 6 of 7 coming in but the win was over Zach Towle and Concordia Academy.