A Warriors Blowout

A late lunch break takes me to West Lutheran as they host #5A Lakeview Christian and Anders Broman  No concessions as I walk in with the score 5-3 West Lutheran 90 seconds in.  West Lutheran opens that up to 18-12 at the 12:41 mark.  Anders with 8 of the next 10 for Lakeview Christian and its 25-22 West Lutheran midway through the half.  Anders getting some open looks and he's already got 25 when Lakeview ties the game at 37 at the 5:32 mark.  Then West Lutheran goes on a 12-0 run to get some breathing room.  Lakeview Christian gets the last 5 of the half to cut the West Lutheran lead to 53-46 at the break.  Anders Broman with 31 of those.

Bjorn Broman scores to open the 2nd half but that's as close as Lakeview Christian will get.  A 14-0 West Lutheran run pushes the lead to 67-48 with 13:56 left.  Anders Broman 0-4 to start the half but he's the only offense.  He knocks down a 3 and then a steal for a 3 point play to cut in to the lead to 16.  But West Lutheran slams the door with a 9-0 run.  That expands the lead to 25 and West Lutheran cruises from there to a surprising 96-68 blowout win.

Anders Broman finishes with 49 points but he got absolutely no help.  Bjorn Broman couldn't throw it in the ocean on this day and was held to 8 points.  The rest of the roster only saw 2 other players score a total of 11 points.  Josh Plys couldn't get off a shot as West Lutheran did a quality job of getting to him at the arc.  West Lutheran is now 7-2 with a close loss at #3 Heritage.  If it were me I'd drop Lakeview Christian right out of the poll and replace them with the Warriors.  I can't put them back in the poll until they beat a quality team and there aren't many of those left on the schedule (Minnehaha, Melrose and Upsala).  Another big game for the Warriors in the MCAA north on Tuesday as #1A Maranatha visits.

Dustin Barth with 25 points and 5 3s to lead the Warriors.  Paul Draeger added 3 more bombs for 13 points.  Andrew Stavig also with 13 and Caleb Skorseth with 15.  West Lutheran was straight man, no face guarding or traps against the Bromans for most of the game.  West Lutheran also used a 3-2 zone that wasn't all that effective as Anders ended up with too many easy looks from the corner against it.   Imagine if West Lutheran would have really gone after him.  The same old problems reared their ugly head for Lakeview Christian.  They got beat back in transition, got mauled on the glass especially on the West Lutheran offensive end and didn't defend the dribble.  With their deficiencies on the defensive end, I'm a little surprised that they don't look at playing more zone.  West Lutheran bailed them out by settling for some 3s midway through the 2nd half.  Turnovers and missed bunnies were a factor on the offensive end.  It doesn't get any easier for 6-4 Lakeview Christian with Onalaska in the TWolves Shootout and Duluth East as opponents in the next 2 games.