2014 Season Opener

Prologue

Its the 2014 Season Opener but in a strange place.  Its off to Mound-Westonka for a section 6AAA showdown between the Whitehawks and Holy Angels.  Its Jesse Foley's return to the bench for AHA and Tyler Biwan's debut on the Mound-Westonka bench.  20 oz of Red Powerade to go with a healthy slice of cheese pizza.  Blake's Sean Kruger in the building to watch his former assistant and get some section scouting in at the same time.  Only 1 side of bleachers and you could hear a pin drop on some home free throws which is a nice touch.

Game Time
Its a fast start for Mound-Westonka with the Swing Offense.  Ryan Rahn back to back bombs for 3 and the Whitehawks are up 9-2 just 2 minutes in.  Holy Angels comes right back with an 18-5 run of their own.  Taylor BonGiovanni with 8 points in the run including a steal and cold blooded pullup 3 on the break to close it.  20-14 Holy Angels takes the lead with 8:30 left in the half.  Charlie Koontz starts to dominate inside for Holy Angels and they stretch the lead to 9.  The hot shooting for Mound-Westonka continues with Rahn's 3rd triple.  28-25 Holy Angels at the 4:32 mark.  Koontz leads an 18-6 run to finish the half as he scores the last five in the final minute.  Rahn's arm must have gotten tired as he missed 2 or 3 good looks from deep short late in the half.  43-31 Holy Angels at half.

The 2nd half was all the story of Holy Angels appearing to pull away and then Mound-Westonka would make a play to hang around.  Tynan O'Hara with a big half for Mound-Westonka.  His 3 off a nice skip pass cuts the margin to 45-37 with 16:25 left.  Koontz with a putback to push the lead to 10 before a classic baseline cut and layup out of the Swing.  O'Hara on the block for a 3 point play and its still an 8 point game.  The lead gets to 12 before Rahn makes a pair of freebies and follows it with his 5th trip to the deep beyond.  Timeout Holy Angels up 59-52 with 9:13 left.  Gabe Wear makes both ends of the bonus to cut the lead to 5.  Then missed opportunities for the Whitehawks.  2 Stars turnovers and no points.  AHA stretches the lead back to 8 with 5:08 left.  Wear with a triple but then Mound-Westonka misses a layup after a Stars miss.  An offensive rebound and the Whitehawks miss the front end of the 1 and 1.

Despite all of that, an offensive rebound, kick out and wonderful extra pass finds Rahn for the 6 pack and its 63-61 Holy Angels with 2:50 left.  Mound-Westonka gets a stop and chance to tie but turns it over with 2 minutes left.  Evan Beeson with a drive and 3 point play with 1:38 left and that's a killer.  O'Hara inside earns 2 free throws to cut the lead to 3 with 1:10 left.  Mound-Westonka plays straight man defense coming out of the timeout but gives up an easy post flash and bucket to Koontz.  The Whitehawks can't score on the other end and that's as close as they'll get.  Holy Angels hangs on 69-63.

Post Game
For Holy Angels, Charlie Koontz leads the way with 27 points and 7 rebounds on the Czar's highly officially unoffiical stat sheet.  19 of those points in the 1st half and he didn't get enough touches in the 2nd half against single coverage that he destroyed all night.  Taylor BonGiovanni with 17 of his 19 in the 1st 20 minutes.   The Whitehawks student section got in his head the rest of the night with an "Airball" chant whenever he touched it.  Nobody else with more than 8 for the Stars.  They're a little depleted right now.  They have to be disappointed they didn't put away the game when they had a double digit lead.

For Mound-Westonka, it was all about the 3 ball.  Ryan Rahn with 6 of them on his way to a team high 24 points.  Good action out of the Swing to have him set the cross screen and then double down for him to the top for quality looks.  Tynan O'Hara stepped up big in the 2nd half on his way to 23 points and 3 triples.  He did some really good work battling inside against a bigger Stars lineup that bothered the Whitehawks.  Gabe Wear with 8 of his 11 in the 2nd half.  Mound-Westonka with 13 makes from deep and only 6 from inside the arc.  Definitely not what coach Biwan is looking for out of the Swing.  Plenty of missed chances when the game got close that kept the Whitehawks from getting the lead back.