Orioles stay the course

Prologue
St. Louis Park hosting St. Francis in North Suburban showdown.  St. Louis Park hoping to stay on top of the league with Cooper.  St. Francis on a slide after a surprising start.  Hot dogs not done early in the JV game but chocolate chip cookies are always a nice alternative.  20 ounces of Coke washes it down.  St. Olaf looking on as part of a nice crowd on hand.  Best moment of the night is a youngster pulling out the Transformer Optimus Prime.  He even was able to convert it back and forth.  Very cool.

Game Time
Jake Johnson with 6 points inside for St. Francis.  DJ Pollard wakes up the home crowd with a steal and 2 handed flush.  Kashif Hayes with a 3 countered by Blake Moreno scoring inside for St. Francis.  11-10 St. Louis Park at the 9:05 mark.  Then the Orioles pick up the offense.  Hayes on the drive, Pollard with a pair of pullups and runs for a layup.  Hayes for 3 and a layup and 3 free throws.  Pollard back to back buckets to force a Saints timeout.  35-19 St. Louis Park just outside of 2 minutes left in the half. Then Moreno with a bucket and Johnson and Moreno with a free throw.  St. Francis within 12 in the last minute.  But they give up an offensive board for 2 and a turnover for 2 more to end the half.  39-23 Orioles at the break.  29 of those 39 from the star duo of Hayes and Pollard.

A pair of Saints 3s, including a long one from Austin Carlson, keep St. Francis within 49-34 with 13:10 to play.  Hayes with 4 straight free throws, an Orioles 3 and Pollard with 4 free throws in a row.  60-39 Orioles with 8:41 left and there's no challenge from there.  A couple late buckets gives St. Louis Park a 76-49 win.

Post Game
For St. Francis, Jake Johnson leads with 11 points and 13 rebounds.  Blake Moreno with 13 points.  The guards just outmatched in this one.  But the Saints do have a nice nucleus of Johnson, Moreno and point guard Cody Wald returning.  That's 6 of the top 7 coming back.  The Saints fall to 11-5 (3-5) with 5 losses in a row.  Its no easier coming up with a trip to Spring Lake Park next Tuesday, then Rogers, Fridley and Columbia Heights in the near future.

St. Louis Park improves to 13-3 and 7-0 in the North Suburban.  Kashif Hayes 23 points on 11-11 from the charity stripe.  DJ Pollard with 22 points.  Just too much athleticism from St. Louis Park.  Interesting with all seniors that they have a whole bunch of them play the 1st half of the JV game.  Maybe good for this year but that makes the future even more bleak.  St. Louis Park is at Totino-Grace on Tuesday in a trap game.  Then the big matchup at Cooper for the conference lead.  It will the 1st matchup between the teams during the season.  That's part of 4 in a row on the road before a 5 game homestand to close the regular season out.