Lakeville North at Edina thoughts

Prologue
Its a battle of preseason top 10s with #8AAAA Lakeville North visiting #9AAAA Edina.  The soph game goes to sudden death OT and afterwards the hot dogs still aren't ready.  We know this because of the meat thermometer.  Hungry?  Why wait?  So I'll go with Snickers and Twix.  Its Lakeville North on hand so look around and what do I see, is that who I think it is?  Oh my it is!  Its the one and only HAT LADY!!!!  Red is the day's color with a purple jacket.  Tyler Flack and Devon Shockley out for Lakeville North.  Flack with a broken arm suffered at the Edina scrimmage on Tuesday.  He may be out 6 weeks.  Reggie Lynch playing  JV for Edina as his transfer from Jefferson not yet approved.  Somebody must have seriously bonked that.  The public address system is broken with multiple squeals during pregame and we're way late for tip so we'll go straight to tip with no national anthem.

Game Time
Mark Handberg in early foul trouble for Edina but Dane Tueteberg relieves him off the bench with 4 quick points.  Add in a Nick Boone bucket inside for a 11-8 Edina lead at the 13:49 mark.  Lakeville North counters with 7 in a row and then gets a Ryan Saarela 3 point play.  Graham Woodward with a jumper and the foul to cut the Lakeville North lead to 18-17 at 10:09.  Saarela with another inside bucket before picking up foul #2 and sitting for the remainder of the half.  22-17 North at 8:35.  North extends the lead to 7 but Graham Woodward keeps it going with a pair of buckets to cut the lead to 4.  The PA system comes to life with Smoke On The Water (always a Czar pep band favorite).  Woodward with a late floater and Boone goes for a pair of late buckets in the half to keep Edina close.  33-29 Lakeville North at the half.  Woodward with 12.  Saarela with 9.

Brett Rasmussen fires up to start the 2nd half with 2 buckets on the post and on a break out he drains a right corner 3 after an Edina timeout.  9-0 Lakeville North run for a 42-29 Panthers lead.  Saarela with 3 of 4 free throws and the lead balloons to 16.  49-33 Panthers with 10:49 to play.  Like last night's game at Park Center the lead doesn't stay.  Derek Hill for 3, Boone inside and a Lakeville North turnover turns into a Woodward drive for 2 free throws.  52-43 Lakeville North with 6:12 to play but Edina on a 7-0 run.  The Hornets would get no closer as they would turn it over on the next 3 possessions allows Lakeville North to score the next 6 and push the lead back to double digits.  Lakeville North goes on to win 63-49.

Post Game
For Edina, Graham Woodward leads with way with 14 points.  12 of those in the first half and almost no looks in the second half.  Nick Boone 11 points.  Flip Deberg held to 7 points.  Edina's 5 out offense didn't run anything for Woodward or Deberg.  Lakeville North's group of guards able to switch the screens on the perimeter to help stifle the offense.  Lynch would have helped some on defense as they got beat up inside.  They aren't a bad team but I certainly don't see them as a top 10 team.  The schedule gives them a rough trip to #2AAAA Eastview (92-55 win at Duluth East tonight) on Tuesday.

For Lakeville North, the interior play did it even without Tyler Flack.  16 points each for Ryan Saarela and Brett Rasmussen (12 in 2nd half).  But they have a ton of guards too even without Shockley or soph JP Macura who only saw garbage seconds tonight.  Joel Oxton a pair of 3s for 12 points. Zach Creighton off the bench with a pair of 3s. Grant Erickson and Trey Heid give them a pair of solid ball handlers.  Tyler David and Kyrell Newell get after it on defense.  They took advantage of their pieces with lots of switching on defense.  2 significant pieces out of the lineup and they still won by double digits.  This is a very underrated squad that will be really scary when they have everybody late in the season.  Expect them to be in the top 5 before long.  The upcoming road schedule will challenge them with a trip to my Missota favorite Chanhassen next Friday and then against Champlin Park in the Tipoff Classic next Saturday

Play of the Day
Side out of bounds concept that I first saw from the Hopkins girls a few years ago but tonight it was used by Edina.  Guys on both blocks with the other 2 up high at foul line and center circle.  Ball side post cross screens partner to the strong side corner.  Then screener flashes back to ball side elbow.  Meanwhile on top its a basic down screen.  But on the pass to the elbow against pressure, the backside is clear for that top screener to continue hard to the rim for an easy layup and Edina got it for a bucket tonight.