Zephyrs triple the time again

Prologue
My week of east metro teams continues with an important section and conference matchup of Mahtomedi at Tartan.  Nice student section on hand for Tartan.  The hot dog quality and I splurge for the unlikely weeknight Pepsi to keep the beverage counter rolling.  We'll get into section and conference implications of this one later.

Number of Teams I've Seen: 132 (49 courts)

Beverage Consumption Counter: 1140.9 ounces (69 days, 98 games, 2 scrimmages added on)

• Pepsi: 572 ounces
• Coke: 172 ounces
• Dr. Pepper: 36 ounces
• Sprite: 128 ounces
• Sierra Mist: 12 ounces
• Barq's Root Beer: 20 ounces
• A&W Root Beer: 24 ounces
• Red Powerade: 80 ounces
• Red Gatorade: 80 ounces
• Water: 500 ml

Hot Dog Counter: 13

Song of the Day
Barenaked Ladies - One Week

Game Time:
Mahtomedi comes out diamond and 1 on Jordan Horn.  That promptly gets busted with Kingston Myles, Horn and Jake Lyle hitting from deep.  Joevon Walker lays in a turnover.  11-2 Tartan at 13:47.  But Mahtomedi sticks with the junk defense and hangs around.  Horn goes the lefty finish and pulls up before the zone starts and buries a 3.  That keeps the lead at 20-12 at 7:22.  Junior Jacob Martin with a quick 3 off the bench to cut the lead to 4.  A Ben Nistler 3 helps push the lead back to 9.  Lucas Buller 3 in a row and a Sean Hjelle dunk and a Buller finish off a ball screen.  But Tartan keeps the lead at 34-27 going to the half.

Horn with a couple of free throws and a floater to keep the Tartan lead at 41-34, 13:20 left.  But Horn would go quiet after that and the Zephyrs would take advantage.  Sam Mustar for 3 off a missed free throw, Horn misses a breakaway dunk, Mustar lost and buries another 3.  Sam Newman with a 3 point play to put Mahtomedi on top.  Mustar fouled on the BLOB and makes all 3 free throws.  Hjelle with a backside lob dunk.  That finishes a 19-3 Mahtomedi run.  53-44 Mahtomedi with 6:25 left and Tartan is in trouble.  Then Emanuel Humphrey with a pair of quick putbacks and a Jake Lyle 3 for a quick 7-0 Tartan run.  55-53 Mahtomedi 4:26 left.  Lyle with a long bomb to cut the lead to 1 and Myles with a layup from Horn after a Zephyrs miss to put Tartan back up.  58-57 Titans 1:35 left.  Mahtomedi turns it over inbounding after a timeout.  They'll strategically foul Myles who misses 3 of 4 freebies.  Jackson Bell with a foul line jumper with 42 left to tie it.  Tartan will hold for 1 shot vs the diamond and 1.  Horn goes and gets it for a double high ball screen but Mahtomedi does a good job jumping it and Tartan doesn't get a good look.  Tied at 59 heading to overtime.

Horn starts the overtime by ripping off Hjelle and Myles strips Mustar for his 5th foul.  All 4 free throws on those turnovers are good.  After a Newman hoop, Tartan holds vs the diamond and 1.  Horn is fouled with 1:56 left and makes the 1st.  Joevon Walker puts back the 2nd for a 66-61 Tartan lead.  Newman fouled and makes 2.  Walker misses 2 with 1:15 left as Mahtomedi picks their guy to foul.  Mahtomedi misses 3 triples but gets them back and sophomore Andy Voyen scores with 40 seconds left.  Myles makes 1 of 2 with 27.8 left and the lead is 2.  Then its Newman on a regular Mahtomedi backdoor set with 15 seconds left to tie it.  Buller strips Horn right before the horn and his 25 footer is no good at the horn.  67 all to double OT.

In the 2nd OT, its a redux of Hopkins vs Shakopee from last season at state.  Tartan wins the tip and they'll hold vs the diamond and 1.  The teams trade missed free throws and Tartan holds for the last possession.  After a timeout, the ball ends up with Jake Lyle in a broken play and his long heave is no good.  67 all to the 3rd overtime.

Then in the 3rd overtime Tartan will play.  They miss and Newman gets a set play great look for a 3 that he buries.  Now Tartan has to play.  Walker scores inside and Bell makes a pair of freebies.  Tartan misses with 2 minutes left  Mahtomedi holds and Bell misses 2 free throws with 44.9 left.  Long Tartan possession not getting into anything.  Finally its Lyle with a desperation shot with 10 seconds left that's no good.  Voyen makes 1 of 2 to close it out.  Mahtomedi wins 73-69 in 3 OT.

Post Game:
Tartan falls to 15-4 overall, 7-3 in the Metro East.  That's a 3 way tie for 2nd with Mahtomedi and St. Thomas Academy.  Mahtomedi would win the tiebreak as they are 3-0 against those opponents.  Jordan Horn leads the Titans with 19 points on 5-14 shooting.  I also had him for 5 rebounds and 3 assists.  His last field goal was before the big Mahtomedi run as the diamond and 1 really slowed him down.  Jake Lyle 4 3s for 12, Kingston Myles 13, Joevon Walker 11.  The middle of the diamond and 1 was wide open and not exploited.  That was with Hjelle staying back to protect the hoop.  Tartan did try some side ball screen action but always screened the side guy in the zone and didn't get the top guy.  Hill-Murray and Hastings come to Tartan in the next week.

Mahtomedi survives another triple overtime thriller as they beat Hermantown in 3 OT 10 days ago.  Sam Newman leads the way with 18 points.  A pair of big plays in the 1st overtime to keep the Zephyrs in it.  Sean Hjelle 13 points, 16 rebounds and 5 blocks on my sheet.  His length was a major factor on the defensive end and on set play backside lobs for easy hoops.  Sam Mustar with 14 points and 3 big 3s.  Great game plan from Mahtomedi and despite some 3s, they were happy to stick with the diamond and 1 and it worked.  This was the 1st of the last 8 of the year on the road for Mahtomedi.  They are at St. Thomas on Friday and Hill-Murray next Wednesday.  A big road win like this makes it much easier to go into those 2 games.

Seeding Implications
As we're only 4 weeks away from the playoffs, its time to talk seeds.  So let's assume for sake of discussion that Stillwater beats Mahtomedi at home next month.  That would give us this food chain.  Roseville has 2 wins over Mounds View who beat Stillwater who beat White Bear Lake who beat Mahtomedi in the season opener who beat Tartan twice.  There's your 1 thru 6 seeds in a surprisingly deep section 4AAAA.  Now the Suburban East is definitely better than the Metro East but I have a really hard time thinking that a good 15-4 Tartan club should be behind a 9-10 White Bear Lake team, but the QRF is also even between the 2 (WBL barely leads and that's before tonight's game).  So plenty to play out in the last 3 1/2 weeks and the Suburban East has the voting edge 5-3 in the seeding meeting.  I'll see for myself on Friday as I'll see White Bear Lake for the 1st time.  Of course, my only serious reason for being there will be the fantastic Donatelli's pizza.