Orono wins Wright County duel

Shelby Moats

Prologue
Where am I?  A rare appearance for me at a Wright County Conference game as Waconia travels to Orono in a battle of league leaders.  You'd be hard pressed to see 2 better looking jump shots than Jordan Smith and Shelby Moats.  Waconia with a wild 62-60 comeback victory in overtime last night against New Prague in boys action, how would that impact them today?  The always nice doubleheader and good crowd as the Waconia girls hung on 49-46.

Game Time
Slow pace to start as Orono is deliberate getting into their dribble drive stuff.  Shelby Moats puts Waconia up with his 2nd bucket at 13:10, 4-3 Waconia. Moats and Kyle Mileusnic trade triples before a Alex Schmitt putback after an Orono turnover ties the game at 11 at the 9:50 mark.  Jeremy Borg drives for 2, Mileusnic again for 3, Daniel Drew drives for 2, Chase Myhran for 3 and a Chase Gottschalk layup from a Jordan Smith steal is a 12-4 run.  23-15 Orono at the 6:36 mark to force a Waconia timeout.  Moats for 3 and Danny Fischbach with 2 fouls nails a jumper.  Moats gets a post touch and the 2nd pass out of the double-team is a Bronson Scheff triple.  Then Moats scores at the end of the half.  25 all at the break.  Moats with 14 of the 25 and 7 rebounds.  Jordan Smith with 5 points on cold 2-10 shooting.

Moats with a layup and Fischbach with a sweet up and under.  32-29 Waconia.  The teams trade hoops as Fischbach and Moats each score again.  38-34 Waconia with 13:30 left.  Then another Orono run.  Borg with a short jumper, a turnover becomes a Smith putback, Drew steps thru for 2 and then nails a 3 and Erik Peterson nails a 3 to conclude a 12-0 run in just 1:40.  Timeout Waconia down 46-38 with 11:24 left.  Moats has to come back in the game to stop the bleeding.  Ben Kortuem with a layup and an immediate turnover is a Alex Schmitt bucket, all in about 10 seconds, to cut the lead to 4.  Then Moats with 3 straight post touches drawing 2 fouls (Borg comes back to defend).  Those 4 points keep the game at 50-46 Orono at 9:20.  Moats finds Kortuem for 3 (not a post inside out) and Moats scores 2 after an Orono turnover.  Coach Wohler tried to prevent the turnover with a timeout and no ref saw it.  He was not happy after the Moats hoop when he finally got the timeout.  53-51 Orono with 7:23 left.  Borg with a foul line jumper, a tip in, then Smith for 3 out of The World's Worst Offense and a backdoor layup on a great side out of bounds play call.  Those 2 hoops after Waconia turnovers.  62-51 Orono with 5:05 left for another Waconia timeout. 2nd time that I thought coach Hayes was about 1 play late stopping a run.  9-0 Orono in 2:23 is the run.  Moats inside for 2 to cut the lead to 6 with 3:10 left.  Orono spreads the floor and holds out of their base dribble motion.  Borg misses an open dunk with 2:20 left but Waconia doesn't convert.  Myhran with a layup on the next Orono possession and that does it.  74-62 Orono wins.

For Waconia, they fall to 10-3 overall and 3-1 in the Wright County.  Shelby Moats leads the way with 30 points and 10 rebounds.  Only a couple of 3s in that too.  Orono made no effort to front him and he plenty of times with great position where he didn't get touches.  Ben Kortuem with 15 points, 5-12 shooting.  Quiet day for Danny Fischbach with 8 points.  The Wildcats host Watertown-Mayer on Tuesday with both teams having only 1 league loss.  6'4 Frosh Wylie Ferron was the first guy off the Waconia bench, keep an eye on him down the road.

For Orono, Jordan Smith came back after a cold first half to finish with 20 points on 7-18 shooting.  Jeremy Borg 14 points and a smart job defending Moats on the perimeter.  He really got up into Moats to eliminate the 3 point shot.  Kyle Mileusnic with a nice night of 10 points off the Spartans bench.

Shelby Moats photo courtesy of MNPhotoNet.net