Champlin Park at White Bear Lake Thoughts

Prologue
Perfect weather for a polar bear with the mercury at -13 this morning on the way to White Bear Lake.  An early parents day in the east metro.  While a surprising time, always nice to see the parents recognized.  And the Donatelli's pizza is some of the best I encounter anywhere.  That and Davanni's on back to back game days makes for a quality life.  No David Rademacher or Richard Azevedo for White Bear Lake.

Game Time
Back to back triples from Dillon Hager and Jordan Reibling threaten to break this one open early but the Bears hang around.  Eric Gebeke with a steal for 2 and then another bucket to keep WBL close 17-13 at the 8:55 mark.  Kyle Zimmerman kicks out to Josh Pella for 3 and then scores a bucket of his own to keep the Rebels on top.  He closes out the half with a pair of freebies.  31-23 Champlin Park at the half.  Spencer Cummings missing significant time in the half with 2 fouls and Vidal Vance missed the last 11+ of the half after he got a finger in the eye or something of the sort.

Champlin Park opens the half on a 12-4 run.  Jasper Duberry going glass to finish the run.  43-27 Champlin Park with 14:15 left.  White Bear Lake comes right back out of the timeout.  Spencer Cummings with a pair of post baskets including a nice reverse layup to end a 9-0 Bears run against the Rebels bench.  43-36 Champlin Park with 11:55 left.  Champlin Park goes on another big run to put this one away.  17-4 over the next 5:25.  60-40 Champlin Park with 5:30 left and that's all to be written.  Champlin Park wins 70-44.  Only 8 points in the last 11:55 for White Bear Lake.

For White Bear Lake, give them credit for hanging around in the first half with 4 of their best players out of the lineup.  Spencer Cummings leads the way with a double-double of 11 points, 10 rebounds and a pair of blocks.  Ryan Olson 10 points but cold shooting for the lefty at 4-14.  The Bears fall to 4-4.  They get Rademacher and Azevedo back on Tuesday for Cretin-Derham Hall.  That could be a trap game for CDH as they host Forest Lake on Friday in a big Suburban East game.

For Champlin Park, Kyle Zimmerman leads the way with 17 points and 6 rebounds.  Josh Pella 7 points and 8 rebounds.  The forward due of D'Andre Williamson and Brandon Davis active again with 13 and 9 points respectively.  Jasper Duberry still coming off of injury was 2-10.  Dillon Hager with nice backup minutes in that spot with 5 points and 3 steals.  I'd still like to see TJ Okafor get more time.  The Rebels improve to 5-2 with the win.  They have an interesting trip to Park Center on Tuesday, host Maple Grove on Friday and then play Hopkins in the TWolves shootout late game on Saturday.