Roosevelt survives late comeback

Prologue
A night of snow takes me to Roosevelt to see them in their longtime non-conference game against Rockford.  Takes me back to the days of Rockford star Nick Haugen who's now at North Dakota.  No programs, standard city hot dog (blah) and 1 official who's time doing varsity games has seriously passed him by.  There was one play where he got run over and thankfully didn't get hurt and he had enough problems getting up and down the floor.  Glad he's done the time, but now its time to move on. 

Song of the Day
Time Passes By - Kathy Mattea

Game Time
Rockford goes 3-2 zone for most of the game until they're behind late.  No lead greater than 4 in the 1st half.  Damion Williams 3 triples against the zone for 11 points in the half.  Calvin Jenkins 3-15 for 6 points in the half.  Roosevelt 27-25 at the half.  Nick Monssen effective inside against the small Teddies frontline.  He has a double-double in the half.  Monssen spins back to the ball off an inbounds, gets blocked and puts it back.  34-33 Roosevelt at the 11:55 mark.  Then Abdullahi Omar with back to back triples against the zone and a steal for a layup.  42-33 Roosevelt with 10:25 left.  Rockford decides to stay in the zone and Roosevelt slows the pace to a crawl by extending the offense. Long possessions and they can't get our overwhelmed ref to perform a 5 count when they come out to contest.  Calvin Jenkins with 1 free throw at the 4:09 mark and Roosevelt leads 47-37.  Rockford takes time after that free throw make and goes man.  Rockford takes advantage of 1-4 Roosevelt free throws with a 3, a foul line jumper and Monssen with a putback for the 3 point play.  Roosevelt turns it over and Alec Raabe with a jumper to cut the lead to 48-47.  Timeout Roosevelt with exactly 2 minutes left after the 10-1 run.  Roosevelt turns it over again at the 1:30 mark.  Monssen catches in the post and gets mugged but its a jump ball.  Rockford has the possession arrow but they turn it over with 1:10 left.  Williams nails a huge 3 on the other end to push the lead to 4.  Rockford misses a front end of their own with 53 seconds left and then doesn't foul until 28 seconds left.  Coach Tauber not at all pleased with that.  Roosevelt then goes 4-4 at the stripe to seal a 55-50 win.

Post Game
For Rockford, Nick Monsson finishes with 19 points and 17 rebounds on my sheet.  8-19 shooting.  Tons of points off the glass and a few post touches from the power motion offense that Rockford uses.  But at 6'3, he'll need to move out to the wing at the next level.  Soph Chad Robertson 3 3s for 11 points as the other double figure scorer.  The Rockets fall to 2-9 but have only 1 senior on the roster and had 3 sophomores and a freshman play tonight.  I love their box set where they throw to the elbow and have that guy look at the post who takes 2 steps out and goes back door for a layup.

For Roosevelt, Damion Williams with 4 big triples in the game and the final 2 free throws to seal it.  16 total points for him.  Calvin Jenkins 4-17 and a total of 12 points.  Coach Stockmo did a nice job of controlling tempo with the lead in the last 10 minutes pulling his guys.  Good to win with the off night from Jenkins.   Roosevelt is now 3-7 and they finish the week with Minneapolis City games at Southwest tomorrow and home against Washburn on Friday.