Lions tame the Aggies

Prologue
I trek to St. Agnes for their Tri-Metro game with Providence.  It won't be the last trip of the week over to the east side either.  Small but quality hot dog is the usual standard at St. Agnes.  I go light on the beverage side with just 12 oz of Sprite.  St. Agnes a very depleted roster from what I recall from last season.

Song of the Day
Best Day of My Life - American Authors

Total Beverage Consumption Counter: 724 ounces  (69 games, 54 days)

• 36 oz Dr Pepper
• 36 oz Sprite
• 100 oz Red Powerade
• 60 oz Red Gatorade
• 312 oz Pepsi
• 140 oz Coke
• 20 oz Barq's Root Beer
• 20 oz Mug Root Beer

Game Time
Ben Ratliff 6 quick points and Riley Loew for 3 as Providence pounces on the Aggies for a 12-2 lead at the 13:45 mark.  Nick Turch for 3 and then fouled on the inbounds for 2 of 3 free throws to pull St. Agnes within 14-10.  Providence scores 15 of the next 19  Ratliff with a pair buckets in the run, then frost Gavin Blomberg and soph Dominic Miller finish the run with 3 point plays.  Loew with another 3 at the halftime buzzer for a 38-17 halftime lead.

Miller with another bucket and Sean Healy for 2 to push the lead to 25.  But don't count on running time just yet.  Jake Gutzmann for 3 for the 1st bucket by an Aggie not named Turch in over 14 minutes.  Then he drives for 2 and Turch takes a turnover for a 3 point play.   Gutzmann adds another bomb to cut the lead to 45-35 with 7:15 left.  That's a 13-0 St. Agnes run.  Providence stops the bleeding with buckets from Healy and Loew.  Gutzmann's 3rd bomb cuts the lead to 10 with 3:15 left.  St. Agnes gets no closer.  Providence wins 57-47.

Post Game
For St. Agnes, Nick Turch scores 27 to keep his season average at 26.3.  Jake Gutzmann with 11 of the other 20 for the Aggies.  They're hard pressed to find any offense outside of Turch.  But they did pull out the same nice inbounds play that they used last year which is fun to see.  St. Agnes falls to 3-10 overall, 0-2 in the Tri-Metro. They host Blake on Wednesday before a trip to St. Anthony on Friday.

Providence continues to be a nice story as they improve to 9-4 overall, 3-2 in the Tri-Metro.  Ben Ratliff scores 10 of his 15 in the 1st half to lead the Lions.  Riley Loew with a pair of 3s on the way to 10 points.  10 players score.  Providence extremely patient on offense not settling for jump shots.  That leads to plenty of long possessions looking for their 2 bigs inside which is rare to see.  The Lions are off until Saturday when they visit Watertown-Mayer in an important section 5AA game.