Visiting the Lake Show

Prologue
Its the 1st night in a 3 night swing to what will seem like every edge of the kingdom.  Tonight takes me to the Kingdom's finest southern resort town, Prior Lake.  Lakers coach Alex Focke going up against his alma mater Cretin-Derham Hall in this one.  3 members of the Mr Basketball committee front and center.  Tyus and Tre Jones in the house.  UNI assistant Kyle Green on hand to watch Sam Neumann.  He watched GT Johnson at Eagan earlier in the day.  Rene Pulley and the tNBA guys representing the AAU crowd as well as CDH alum Nick Carroll from Pump N Run.  Eastview, Rosemount, Woodbury and St. Thomas Academy amongst those scouting tonight.  Nothing like pizza for desert so I'll dive into my 1st regular season slice of the season.  Always good pizza at the lake.  Beverage #12 is orange powerade, blah, and takes me to 192 oz for the season.

Game Time
Jon Sobaski 2 quick buckets for a 6-0 Laker lead and Jerry Kline wants a timeout less than a minute in.  Carson Shanks with his 2nd trip to the line from post play.  He makes all 4 free throws.  Jashon Cornell picked up 3 in the blink of an eye and sat for CDH.  Jeff Probert continues the inside play for the Lakers and its 16-3 Lakers at the 13:53 mark.  Nick Hart with a putback and the foul for Prior Lake and its 21-8.  CDH with another timeout down 23-12 at the 11:05 mark.  Then Shanks picks up his 2nd foul moments later and sits the rest of the half.  Joe Rosga single handedly keeping the Raiders in it.  He scores 17 of the 1st 20 CDH points.  His back to back 3 balls cut the lead to 25-20 at the 9:18 mark. 

Sobaski with a pull and an assist and Hart with a putback as the Lakers reopen the margin.  Neumann with a charge at the 7:09 mark and he'll sit the rest of the half with 2 fouls.  Probert a spin from the left block and a righty finish for the lefty.  Then a tip in and another bucket from the post to push the lead to 15.  Rosga making all 3 freebies on a foul to cut the lead to 10 with 4:02 left in the half.  The Lakers would finish the half on a 10-2 run.  Sobaski with a 3 point play and a buzzer beating 3.  47-29 at the half.  Rosga with 20 of those for CDH.  Sobaski 12 pts, 4 assists (9 more points) and 4 steals.

Shanks once again getting after it from the left box.  He scores a pair of buckets in there.  56-40 Prior Lake with 13:17 left.  Then a Raiders run.  Rosga with another bucket as he goes lefty to avoid the long arms of Probert and he adds another jumper.  An offensive rebound gets kicked out to Neumann and he knocks that down for his only field goal of the night.  Rosga with the clean strip of Sobaski and knocks down a jumper.  Timeout Prior Lake up 58-51 with 10:13 left.  Rosga the drive and kickout to the right corner for a Teddy Chapman 3.  58-54 with 9:35 left.  The run is 14-2 over 3:40.

But Prior Lake would have their stars answer.  Sobaski with a drive for 2, Shanks again from the left box, Probert for 2 and its a 7-0 run.  Rosga counters with a 4 point play and Stevie Moman with a putback.  That's the 4th foul on Shanks and there's still 5:09 to play.  Prior Lake clinging to a 65-60 lead as he sits.  Sobaski with another clutch drive.  Noah Scanlon with a drive for 1 of 2 free throws.  A CDH turnover and Sobaski with a nice spin move to convert that into points.  CDH needs a timeout as that expands the lead back to 10.  70-60 Lakers with 3:25 left.  Scanlon would make 6 freebies in a row down the stretch to seal it.  That included a pair with 5.8 left after a 2nd late 3 by Teddy Chapman cut the lead to 3.  Rosga would add in a bomb at the buzzer to finish off his huge night.  Prior Lake wins 77-75.

Post Game
For Cretin-Derham Hall it was the Joe Rosga show.  The sophomore finishes with 39 points.  5 triples in there and 10-12 FTs.  Teddy Chapman 3 3s in the 2nd half, including the 2 late ones to keep it interesting.  He finishes with 11 points.  Steve Moman with all 10 of his points in the 2nd half.  Sam Neumann held to 4 points (online box is wrong) on 1-7 shooting.  Great game plan from Prior Lake.  They took a tough minded kid like Scanlon and put him in Neumann's grill all night.  Not quite face guarding but close.  Make him put it on the deck to beat you rather than giving him open looks.  Expect to see that game plan against the Radiers throughout the season.  The Raiders started 3 sophomores and a junior and had another sophomore and 2 juniors off the bench.  That doesn't include freshman star Brian Lankford either.  The future is very bright.  CDH 0-1 and they have 4 in a row at home before the Catholic Spirit tournament.   Rosemount visits on Tuesday.

For Prior Lake, a very good performance from Jon Sobaski.  21 points, 5 assists and 6 steals on my sheet.  When CDH would get close, he made plays to keep the Lakers in control.  Noah Scanlon with 8 of his 10 points from the charity stripe.  Jeff Probert very productive in the 1st half with Shanks in foul trouble.  He had 12 of his 14 in the 1st half.  That included a nice right handed finish from the left baseline and a nice righty jump hook from the right block.  Chris Washburn thinks he's amphibious.  Shanks finishes with 12 points, 6 rebounds and 3 blocks.  That doesn't count at least that many that players altered.  The Prior Lake size was a factor as CDH had nobody to go against Shanks and Probert.  Biggest story though was that Prior Lake was just flat out tougher.  They got on the floor and played much harder.  Experience teaching youth a valuable lesson there.  The Lakers improve to 2-0 and will play Duluth East in the 1st game in the East gym during the Tipoff Classic on Saturday.  Then a big challenge next week as Waconia and Eden Prairie come to town.