Totino-Grace blows away ranked city rival

Prologue
Off to Totino-Grace for their city rivalry game and North Suburban Conference opener against #7AAA Fridley.  Its build your own walking taco night.  Concessions provides hamburger and Doritos.  You grab lettuce, salsa and cheese and make it to your delight.  No sour cream which is a significant oversight.  But at $2 its still the best bargain I see all season.  20 more ounces of Red Gatorade on the beverage counter.  Its parents night so we get a late start.  Quality music on the public address.  We get the rare playing Snow's Informer and Play Me Some Mountain Music by Alabama.  But the trip home on a dark night with a bright moon with a big game performance gives us today's tune.

Song of the Day
Bad Moon Rising - CCR

Total Beverage Consumption Counter: 400 ounces  (37 games, 27 days)

• 36 oz Dr Pepper
• 24 oz Sprite
• 80 oz Red Powerade
• 40 oz Red Gatorade
• 140 oz Pepsi
• 60 oz Coke
• 20 oz Barq's Root Beer

Game Time
Totino star Reggie Meyer starts off inside in the 4 out Eagles offense.  With guard Michael Murray on him, that's a mismatch.  Meyer abuses it with 5 points and an assist for 3 more points along with drawing 2 fouls on Murray, Fridley's top player.  10-2 Totino-Grace just over 2 minutes in.  Meyer adds 7 in  a row with a Fridley frustration technical thrown in there.  He buries a 3 to end the opening 26-6 run where he had a part of 20 of the points, 15 on the board and 5 more via assist.  Fridley counters with a 7-0 run with a Matt Duehn 3.  Ahmed Ismail comes off the Fridley bench with 5 straight points.  His 3 cuts the lead to 33-21.  But Meyer scores 10 straight to start a 13-2 run to end the half.  Totino-Grace rolling 46-23 at the break with Meyer going off for 27.  After a 7-0 Fridley run Seth Sullwold scores 7 straight for TG.  Meyer follows that with a block on 1 end and runs  back for 2 free throws on the other.  The 2nd half gets into some racehorse basketball moments.  Fridley would force some turnovers in that hectic pace but would never get closer than 17.  Totino-Grace wins impressively 83-65.

Post Game
For Fridley, Ahmed Ismail with a hot 2nd half with 17 of his 22 keeping it halfways respectable.  Darius Mulbah with 13.  A very strange game plan for dealing with Reggie Meyer but not much would have worked on this night.  Murray is a strong football kid but he had no chance inside with the height difference.  Then coach McDonald went back to Murray in the 2nd half where he did some faceguarding.  Then again, what good matchup is there?  Seeing what changes are made in the rematch will be interesting.  Fridley stays on the road in league play with a trip to Irondale on Thursday before hosting their annual holiday tournament.  Tigers now 6-1, 0-1 in the North Suburban.  With this blowout result and a very soft schedule, I can't see them belonging in the state poll unless they beat the Eagles at the end of January.  The more I look at the North Suburban, it is a really down year for talent.

For Totino-Grace, Reggie Meyer continues to go off this season.  He pours in 41, 27 of those in the first half.  He knocked down a pair of 3s, including a nasty stepback.   He also scored inside and was able to attack off the bounce.  Solid game as well from Seth Sullwold with 20 points.  Colin Fleming bangs in 4 3s for 12 points. Totino-Grace is now 6-1 and I still see them as the clear favorite in the North Suburban.  They play at Spring Lake Park on Friday before going to the Princeton holiday tourney.