Raider balance takes out Hastings

Prologue
To Cretin-Derham Hall to see the 4th ranked Raiders taking on Hastings. No Seantrel Henderson as he's out east doing football stuff.  The best value in the metro with the highly tasty and cheap hot dog and reasonable beverage. Nice to see some familiar faces of parents tonight.  We get the CDH band tonight which is always a treat.  Great work with the Austin Powers theme and Crazy Train at halftime.

Game Time
With no Henderson, the 3 stars sophs (Tillman, Montero, Neumann) all see the starting lineup for CDH.  That moves Raijon Kelly to the 2.  Taylor Montero with a pair of free throws to tie the game at 4 at the 14:40 mark.  That's Hastings star Shane Monjeau's 2nd foul and he has to sit.  Gus Gehlen coming off a bad wheel which explains his absence on Saturday, but he's the first guy off the bench. He nails a 3 and then a steal for a layup.  12-4 CDH at 12:04 and Hastings needs time.  CJ Neumann with a putback and another Gehlen layup pushes the lead to 12 at 9:53.  CDH going with 5 bench guys now as they play 11 guys in the game.   26-14 CDH at the 5:02 mark when the starters return.  Hastings played some 3-2 during this stretch and I thought that it was effective.  But they didn't as they got out of it.  34-21 CDH at the half. 

Monjeau with 5 points and Nick Gmiterko with a hoop to quickly cut the lead to 6 at 16:10.  6 point game at 14:40 when it falls apart.  Neumann with a pair of inside hoops, Kelly with a jumper and 1, Tillman for 3.  That's a 10-0 run to push the lead to 16 and this one is over.  46-30 with 12 to go.  CDH again goes to the 5 bench guys rotation but Hastings makes up no ground.  66-40 Cretin-Derham Hall wins.

For Hastings, Shane Monjeau with 7 of his 17 points early in the 2nd half to try and bring them back.  I also had him for 8 rebounds.  Nick Gmiterko with 11 points.  The 2 combine to go 10-27 from the field on my sheet.  Darius Wilkerson is a nice athlete but beyond that there's little help.  Hastings falls to 1-4. They make the short trip across the river to play neighbor Prescott, WI on Tuesday before hosting their holiday tournament.

For Cretin-Derham Hall, 11 players score.  CJ Neumann leads the way with 10 points and had a couple of nice lefty hooks inside.  Kevin Hannon 3 triples for 9 points.  Cortez Tillman and Raijon Kelly each with 8 points.  You can tell Kelly is still adjusting to playing the 2 as he's used to handling the ball.  Nice job by the bench to not give up the lead in either half.  This could have been a trap game as the Raiders travel to rival St. Thomas Academy tomorrow for a tough game.  Then they'll play in the Catholic Spirit tournament at Concordia-St. Paul (not U of St. Thomas due to construction).  They should breeze to the final there and play Minnetonka.