A Roseville Thriller

Welcome to Raider Country

Prologue
A late day in my real life keeps me away from my planned matchup of Lakeville North at Eastview (a thriller).  But its not all bad.  I get a showdown of the best of the Suburban East with Cretin-Derham Hall 1 game behind visiting league-leading Roseville.  We have a full student section on the baseline, the Roseville band and the Raider mascot.  Its wolf like so we'll add it to the best mange competition with the MTS Wolf and the PSA Lycan.  Full on 1 side with bleachers open behind the benches at Roseville which is very rare.  Quality pizza and pepsi on the concessions menu.

Game Time
Cortez Tillman opens the scoring with a 3 point play.  Roseville responds with an 11-0 run.  Logan Brown with a couple of jumpers off of turnovers and 5 points from under appreciated guard Collin Johnson.  The Neumanns attempt to bring CDH back with CJ on the offensive glass, Sam for 3, CJ to Sam backdoor for a 3 point play on the double clutch.  14-12 Roseville at the 11:15 mark.  Mack Johnson and Kobe Critchley with 3s as the lead stretches to 7.  Then a block party.  CJ Neumann swat on 1 end, CDH back the other way and Critchley blocks that and throws the outlet to Mack Johnson for a layup. Emeche Wells takes a steal for a layup and just went CDH was getting going they need a timeout to stall the lost momentum.  31-21 Roseville at the 5:53 mark.  Cortez Tillman banks in 1 3 and makes another one right after it to cut the lead to 8.  Taylor Montero with 2 free throws and 3 point play to cut the lead to 5.  Jacob Hall beats the halftime buzzer for a 46-39 Roseville lead.  They played the last 10+ without center Jordan Burich (2 fouls) and last 7 without Logan Brown (3 fouls).

Burich with a layup and then Brown with great hustle for a layup and then he nails a pullup jumper in the lane.  55-41 Roseville with 13:45 to play.  CDH goes 1-3-1 with Sam Neumann on top and they get a couple of shots to fall.  CJ Neumann with a layup and Tillman with another 3.  Shea Fields with a steal for 2 followed by another Tillman 3.  That's a 10-0 run in 90 seconds to cut the lead to 4.  55-51 Roseville with 11:50 to play.  Brown breaks the run with a 3 but CDH isn't done.  Tillman with 2 free throws, CJ Neumann runs down the lane and makes an awkward 2, then the great extra pass after a kickout finds Sam Neumann all alone for the right wing 3.  60-58 Roseville hanging on with 10:20 left.  17-3 CDH run in 3:25.  Teams trade buckets before Montero steals a soft pass and takes it for 2.  CJ Neumann then cuts to the rim and is wide open on a baseline out of bounds.  That results in 1 of 2 free throws and CDH has the lead 65-64 with 6:34 to play.  Brown and Luke Hamel trade putbacks.  Then Mack Johnson inside out from Burich for 3 with 5:05 left.  Tillman and Wells trade buckets before a Montero drive and lefty score with 3:25 left to tie the game at 71.  Collin Johnson drive and patient pass to Burich for a layup (and missed FT on the foul).  He then finds Mack Johnson for the 1st of back to back clutch bombs.  Those sandwich a CJ Neumann bucket on the post.  79-73 Roseville with 1:50 left. Offenses getting it done down the stretch.  Montero with 2 freebies.  Roseville holds and Burich with a nice cut for a layup with 1 minute left.  CJ Neumann puts back a miss with 47.1 to play.  CDH timeout to stop the clock down 81-77.

Roseville can't get it in and its a 5 second violation.  Tillman promptly knocks down a 3 with 40.2 left and here we go.  Roseville gets it in this time but rushing the ball up the sidelines, CDH does a great job to chase it down and get the backtap for a turnover.  35 seconds left and back comes CDH.  Tillman and CJ Neumann both miss but CDH gets it back with 18.9 to play.  We'll play on without the timeout.  CJ Neumann catches the inbound at the right elbow, fakes the handoff to the inbounder and takes it to the rack for 2 with 14 seconds left.  82-81 CDH takes the lead.  Back comes Roseville and they'll also go without a timeout.  Ball ends up in the hands of Emeche Wells in a 1-4 low set as time ticks away.  Down to 5, 4, 3 and Wells isn't going anywhere, SHOOT IT!  He just gets it off from 18 feet away at the buzzer over Montero just like last season.

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSS!!!!  No doubt about it as the jumper was pure.

Its pandemonium as the Roseville students flood the court and why not.  Wells beats the buzzer for the 2nd straight year at home vs CDH and Roseville gets the huge 83-82 win.

Post Game
For Cretin-Derham Hall, their big 3 all play well.  Taylor Montero and Cortez Tillman with 23 each.  Tillman with 5 3s on the night.  CJ Neumann with 21 points and 11 rebounds.  Luke Hamel with the 5 bench points and was productive pounding the offensive glass, especially later in the 1st half with Burich sitting and Roseville using the small lineup.  Once again CDH goes to the 1-3-1 in the 2nd half and almost pulls off a big win.  They used a similar tactic to beat Woodbury a couple of weeks ago.  But the zone is very different when Sam Neumann plays the top rather than Fields.  The length makes a difference and I thought Sam should have been brought back in sooner down the stretch.  CDH falls to 12-7 overall, 9-3 in the Suburban East and 3rd place.  That's 1 game behind Woodbury and now 2 behind Roseville (and Roseville won both).  They host Mounds View on Tuesday in a battle for 3rd.  In section terms I don't think this hurts them.  I messed it up in my Tartan article the other night, CDH is now in 3AAAA and fairly solid in the 3 slot which would most likely mean Apple Valley in a semifinal.

For Roseville, Mack Johnson comes up large with 24 points, 6 3s.  3 of those 3s in the last 5 minutes.  Logan Brown with 13 of his 17 in the 2nd half.  He was huge early in the half when Mack Johnson rested with foul trouble.  Emeche Wells 10 of his 14 in the 1st half but the last 2 were the most important.  Jordan Burich and Collin Johnson each with 10 to round out all 5 starters in double figures.  Collin Johnson is one of those kids who won't wow, but he's rock solid and a calming influence on them (like Montero is for CDH).  I'd really like to see him get more minutes.  Burich's foul trouble hurt in the 1st half and CDH won the battle on the glass in those 10 minutes.  Roseville is now 17-3 and 11-1 in the Suburban East to stay 1 game up on Woodbury.  They still have to visit Woodbury on February 23rd in a game that could be for the outright or split conference title.  Roseville with a win in that game would likely lock up not only the conference title but also the #1 seed in the 4AAAA playoffs.  A Woodbury win would muddy the waters quite a bit.