Lakeville South's offense disappears

Prologue
To Lakeville South for a South Suburban showdown of the #3 Cougars vs #6 Eastview.  A truckload of coaches on hand too.  St. Olaf, Augsburg, UW-River Falls, UMD, MN State-Mankato, MN-Moorhead, South Dakota and Columbia at a minimum.  Standard concessions with the piping hot hot dog.  An appearance by the Lakeville South band is always welcome which means they get today's music selection.

Song of the Day
Do Wah Diddy Diddy - Manfred Mann

Game Time
Right off the bat we get a pair of surprises with Eastview's Joey King guarding Alex Richter and Spencer Pankonin coming off the South bench.  I expected Eastview's normal defensive stopper Frank Veldman to get the task.  Richter starts the game off with a 3, surprising that he went to that right away.  Riley West from Pankonin out of the high post for 3 and then a drive for 2 more.  10-8 South at the 12:45 mark.  Frank Veldman playing well for Eastview he has an early dunk and drive and an assist to Ben Oberfeld for an easy layup.  A strong drive to the rack nets 2 more.  That's countered by a pair of South buckets to tie the game at the 8:55 mark.  Then the rest of the half is all Eastview.  They go to THE WORLD'S WORST OFFENSE to slow the pace to a crawl.  A jumper out of it, Joey King with a drive for 2, then a handoff to Veldman for another jumper, Richter's 2nd foul at 4:11 gives King 2 FTs and then King with an NBA 3 at the 3:15 mark for an 11-0 run.  No more scoring the rest of the half.  29-18 Eastview at the break.

The drought from the floor goes on for South during the 2nd half.  Veldman with a big dunk to push the lead to 19, King 3-6 FTs and Veldman with a nice backcut in the 5 out for a layup. Richter misses a lob for a dunk and a bunny that he usually finishes in moments that were fitting of South's night.  47-24 Eastview with 9:53 left.  Finally Alec Jensen makes 3 at the 8:38 mark to break South's FG drought.  It covers 18:17 on the clock (more than a half).  Richter with 6 free throws in the half before that as he tried to get going.  Richter strong for a 3 point play and a 3 pointer to cut the lead to 14 with 4:05 left but Veldman goes strong for 2 free throws (foul prevents dunk), a big 2 handed dunk and another backcut for 2 to keep the game out of reach.  Eastview wins 59-43.

Post Game
For Lakeville South, they fall to 11-3 and into a 3 way with Eastview and Eagan for 1st in the South Suburban at 6-1.  Alex Richter 13 of his 16 points in the 2nd half to lead the Cougars, 3-9 FG and I haven't seen him shoot that many outside shots in a long time, if ever.   I expected to see him go at King more, especially in the 1st half.  Jon Christensen 6 of his 8 in the first half.  Riley West an off night of 7 points.  No rest in the South Suburban as the Cougars visit Eagan on Friday.

For Eastview, Frank Veldman was outstanding with 18 points and probably double-digit boards.  He showed explosiveness going to the basket but also a nice handoff jumper in the first half.  Joey King with only 2 field goals but he finishes with 14 points.  In an unusual night for him, only 9-17 from the foul line.  Chris Narum 11 points and Ben Oberfeld 10 points for the Lightning.  Eastview now has wins over the other 3 top league contenders during the 1st round of league play (Apple Valley, Eagan, Lakeville South).  The Lightning improve to 13-2 and host Bloomington Kennedy on Friday.