The Lions Share of the Scoring

Prologue
To Legacy Christian (yet everything else still says Meadow Creek Christian) to see Lakeview Christian play.  So what would cause The Czar to run all the way to Andover to this one?  It's a look at Lakeview Christian's sophomore star Anders Broman.  Coming into tonight, he's 445 points ahead of Kevin Noreen's career scoring record pace so I figured I should take this rare opportunity to see him play in the metro (he has 2 other Saturday games here in January).  If you're not following my career scoring tracker, you can follow it here.  Late arrival means no food, but the 24 oz Pepsi is always going to get my business.  The Paxson clan (Charlie and Ben) in the house watching their guys (both Bromans play for Glory).  A rare sighting of the Glory guys.  No real good song selection for tonight, but since we have Lions vs Lions and an impending storm of the decade.  Let's go with...

Song of the Day
Hakuna Matata - Elton John/Tim Rice (Lion King Soundtrack)

Game Time
Lakeview Christian with all 6 members of the rotation back next year.  That includes 2 sophs and an 8th grader (Bjorn Broman).  Ben Freeby with the 2nd of many layups off of BLOBs (I counted 5 on the night and another easy one missed).  16-15 Legacy at the 12:15 mark in a fast pace but they're running THE WORLD'S WORST OFFENSE, so that's a negative.  But forward Matt Clausen is on the bench with 2 fouls.  26-22 Lakeview at 9:50 and the other top post, Freeby has his 2nd foul. The 2 big advantages on the bench.  Anders Broman with a floater and adds a bucket at 3:45 for a 38-34 Lakeview lead.  Freeby and Clausen back on the floor for a Legacy run of 16-2.  Clausen off the back to back layups off the BLOB and a putback for 7 in a row.  Nate Johnson off the bench finishes the run by putting back a missed free throw.  50-40 Legacy.  Bjorn Broman beats the buzzer for a 50-44 Legacy lead at the half.  Anders Broman 19 points on 6-13 shooting.  Bjorn Broman 13 points.  The forward combination of Freeby/Clausen combine for 12 points

The first 5 points of the second half go to Legacy. Freeby finishes that with a elbow jumper.  55-44 Legacy with 15:46 left and it looks like they'll pull away.  Anders Broman with a free throw, a steal for a 3 point play and a driving layup to cut the lead to 6 with 13:35 left.  Another basket by Anders before Clausen picks up his 4th foul on a bad charge with 12:18 left.  Anders with the steal and then up and under for 2.  A floater and then a Josh Plys triple cut the Legacy lead to 63-62 with 10 minutes left.  Timeout Legacy.  Freeby inside for 2 and the foul  68 all with 7:41 left.  Then there's inbound layup #5, its Freeby with 6:30 left.  72-70 Lakeview leads.  Anders with a putback and then a postup for 2 free throws.  Then a layup with 4 minutes left for a 78-74 Lakeview lead.  Then 6 straight missed free throws from Legacy before Anders goes behind a baseline drive and his defender for some unknown reason leaves him all alone.  The right wing triple is the dagger.  81-74 Lakeview with 3:05 left.  Anders smartly keeps the ball in his hands late and while the late game foul shooting wasn't great, Legacy couldn't convert anything at the end.  Lakeview wins 86-80. 

Post Game
For Legacy Christian, Ben Freeby and Grant Anderson lead the way with 22 points.  Matt Clausen with 15 points.  I had Freeby with 9 rebounds and Clausen with 14 rebounds (many on missed FTs).  Big advantage inside for Legacy and there was no conscience effort to pound the ball inside to Clausen and Freeby, even when using THE WORLD'S WORST OFFENSE.  While the on ball defense was OK, Legacy didn't get help defenders to the ball at all and gave up tons of easy buckets on that.  And somehow no triangle and 2 or Box and 1 or traps or anything to take the Bromans out of the game.  Not a good loss when you're the more talented team and playing at home.  They fall to 0-2 and host section 5AA rival Eden Valley-Watkins on Tuesday.

For Lakeview Christian, Anders Broman with 45 points on my sheet.  15-27 from the floor with a pair of triples and 13-17 from the charity stripe.   Most of those baskets were at the basket due to poor help defense.  While his shot has a slow hitch in it, any shot that goes in can't be all that bad.  I liked his poise (experience showed) and he really converted quickly from defense to offense.  Kevin Noreen haters would call it cherry picking.  Frankly I was more impressed with little brother Bjorn as I thought he was quicker and he really got after the ball on defense.  His shot didn't have that same hitch.  I had him for 17 points, but no outside shots there either.  They only go 6 deep and the talent level drops off after the Broman brothers so depth is an issue.  And giving up layup after layup after layup on BLOBs in totally inexcusable from a coaching perspective.  Is a 2-3 zone too much to ask?  Expect them to get wins against the weakness of section 7A, but when they play quality competition (which is rare) they'll be outclassed.  They improve to 2-0 and either play at CHOF tomorrow or host Carlton at Tuesday.

(Czar's Note:  My stat sheet is shockingly different than the official book.  You couldn't miss the 2 triples from Josh Plys yet he only has 3 points in the book.  I had the Broman's for 62 combined, the book has 66, Anders with 47.  I had Freeby for 19, book somehow has 22)