Prologue
Another trip to #6AAA Columbia Heights as the #2AAA Red Knights of Benilde-St. Margaret's visit. Heights trying to stay undefeated in league play while BSM tries to remain 1 game out. While it isn't the best pizza around (sorry Willie), you can't go wrong having the pizza especially with a pepsi. Rene Pulley in the building for a full night tonight after only sticking around for JV at my game last night. Easily the worst officiated game I saw all year and a poorly configured crew with 1 guy who called the game loose and another one who couldn't resist blowing the whistle made for a very very frustrating night by all fans, players and coaches.
Game Time
9-5 Heights on a Gerard Baptiste putback before BSM goes on a 11-0 run behind a Seth Marx 3 and 3 point play. Peter Crawford with a 3 point play and a turnover becomes an Isaiah Zierdan layup for a 22-14 BSM lead at 8:10. Then the fouls mount. Crawford picks up his 2nd with Myles Barnes and Evan Battle already on the bench with 2. Kyle Washington off the bench to give BSM some nice minutes with a quick pair of shot blocks. Darren Glover for 3 from each corner vs a Heights zone for a 28-18 BSM lead. Zach Lofton with 5 points before a Jacob Thomas step back 3 cuts the lead to 28-26 in a 8-0 Heights run. Thomas with a drive and a steal for a dunk to keep the lead at 2 with 1:05 left in the half. Then Zierdan with a putback. Thomas gets mugged, no call and gets a technical. Zierdan makes the freebies and finds Seth Marx for 3. 39-30 Red Knights at the half on the 7-0 run.
Gerard Baptiste with 2 great blocks and that leads to a Thomas bucket and the foul. 46-40 Red Knights with 14:19 left as they take a smart timeout. Zierdan with a steal for 2 and a triple. Evan Battle inside and the lead is 10. Thomas with a deep 3 to keep Heights close. 9 point game with 12:30 left when BSM decides to go 2-3 zone. Crawford with a layup and 2 Sanjay Lumpkin free throws push the lead to 13. Thomas drives for 2 and hits another step back triple to keep Heights within 10. Thomas then drives for 2 and nails a 3 after a BSM turnover. 63-59 BSM with 7:40 left. Sanjay Lumpkin now face-guarding Thomas. Crawford 3-6 FTs and a Sanjay Lumpkin layup push the lead to 68-59 with 6 minutes left. Zach Lofton for 3, Thomas with 2 free throws and a tough hoop by Lofton cut the lead to 70-67 with 4:10 left. Crawford with a 3 point play countered by a Thomas 3 point play. BSM turns it over and Lofton scores on the other end. 75-72 BSM with 2:40 left. Then a dicey intentional foul call but BSM misses the 2 free throws. Lumpkin walks but gets bailed out with a foul call and makes both freebies with 2:24 left. After Thomas misses from 25 feet or further, BSM holds and Crawford goes strong for the 3 point play with 1:31 left for a 80-72 BSM lead. The rest is free throws. BSM wins 86-74. They outscore Heights 11-2 in the last 2:40
For Columbia Heights, it was the Jacob Thomas show. He scores 47 points, 29 of them in the 2nd half doing everything to keep Heights close. 15-34 shooting on my sheet with 6 triples. I also had him with 9 rebounds. Zach Lofton finishes with 16 points but was Minnesota in January cold with 5-22 shooting along with 9 rebounds on my sheet. Heights falls 1 game back in the league race with a 9-3 (3-1) record with 4 winnable games coming up before a big 1-time only showdown with Cooper in February.
For Benilde-St. Margaret's, a very good road win improves the Red Knights to 9-2. They now have 5 out of 7 at home including Hopkins before a February rematch at Cooper. Isaiah Zierden and Peter Crawford each finish with 20 points. Crawford with 15 of his in the 2nd half and 9 in the last 7:07. Kyle Washington 3 points and 3 blocks on my sheet, but he had a defensive impact in the lane with all the driving that Heights does. Coach Moore showed great confidence in the lefty by putting him back in with 8 minutes to go in a tight game. He earned that time with quality 1st half play as the 3rd big guy in with Barnes and Battle both in foul trouble.
The teams meet again February 23rd at Benilde-St. Margaret's.
Willie Braziel photo courtesy of MNPhotoNet.net
-97.jpg)
Thanks for the honest Write up of this game, its just frustrating to have your players play their hearts out to have the kind of calls that were made during this game. Especially at the Varsity Level. Also, Yes, John Moore and I have a good friendship. I respect him and I we love our conference and we both had a nice conversation after the game and left with smiles on our faces. He did a masterful job coaching his guys.
ReplyDelete