Falcons stop the buzz

Prologue
Its the 4 vs 5 game in loaded section 6AAAA with 20-6 Armstrong visiting 18-8 Edina at the Edina Community Center.  I save the stomach from the pizza but that also makes the beverage counter very sad.  Fair number of Edina students in attendance despite their hockey game.  Armstrong with a nice group of vocal students and a full baseline worth of cheerleaders.  Surprising number of scout types in attendance too.

Number of Teams I've Seen: 157 (64 courts)

Beverage Consumption Counter: 1545.8 ounces (97 days, 132 games, 2 scrimmages added on)

• Pepsi: 760 ounces
• Coke: 192 ounces
• Dr. Pepper: 48 ounces
• Sprite: 200 ounces
• Sierra Mist: 12 ounces
• Barq's Root Beer: 20 ounces
• A&W Root Beer: 60 ounces
• Red Powerade: 120 ounces
• 0 Calorie Fruit Punch Powerade: 20 ounces
• Red Gatorade: 96.9 ounces
• Water: 500 ml

Hot Dog Counter: 20

Song of the Day:  The Byrds - Turn Turn Turn

Game Time:
Jerome Dixon with a floater and a 3 and 3 layups from Sean Burns get Armstrong off to a 11-5 lead at the 12:45 mark.  Edina fights back with a transition 3 from soph Jimmy Connell, an inbounds layup and a cherry picking layup and they're on top 14-13 after a 9-2 run.  Armstrong with their own run via Evan Nolan for 3, Dixon to frosh Race Thompson for a 3 point play and a turnover becomes a Burns dunk.  24-16 Falcons at 6:30 and Will Moreton goes to the bench with his 2nd foul right before that dunk.  Then a couple of Burns assists, 1 for a back door and Dixon for 3.  Those counter a couple of Ben Boone jumpers  Max Lynch a couple of post hoops and Edina scores the last 3 of the half.  35-29 Armstrong at the break.  22 points plus at least half of the rest of the offense created by Burns and Dixon.

Dixon and Walt McGrory trade 3s in the broken floor.  Then a pretty Armstrong possession where everybody touches it as it goes backdoor, drift pass to weak side corner then 2 more to the top for a Nolan triple.  Edina still hanging around though.  McGrory with the jumper, then a layup off quality BLOB action, McGrory cherry picks for a layup and then vs the Falcons 3-2 zone he takes the skip pass and buries a 3.  He has 10 of the first 15 in the half for Edina.  Jubie Alade and Race Thompson with post hoops during that time to keep Armstrong ahead 49-44 inside of 11 to play.

Then its all Armstrong the rest of the way.  Dixon to Nolan for 3, Nolan scores on a turnover, Alade on the give and go with Burns to push the lead to 14.  Tre Tate for 3 and the lead is 15 inside of 6 left.  Edina gets a 3 point play from Max Lynch at the 6:39 mark but that's their only field goal in the last 11:25.  Boone makes 2 free throws to cut the margin to 63-50 with 4:27 left.  Armstrong slams the door with 18 of the last 20.  Armstrong finishes the game on a 32-8 run.  Falcons win 81-52.

Post Game:
Edina finishes their season at 18-9, 2-6 in the Lake Conference (5th).  Walt McGrory leads the Hornets with 18 points, 13 of those in the 2nd half and 10 of those early.  But on this night, even those 18 points seemed quiet.  That helped Edina get as close as 4 points.  But nobody else with more than 9 points (Max Lynch).  Lots of missed bunnies and some good looks that just didn't go in.   Ben Boone 6 points, Will Moreton 1 3 for 3 points.  They settled for some quick 3s as they started to fall behind and Armstrong made them pay with solid possessions for scores on the other end.

Armstrong improves to 21-6 and they will play at top seed Eden Prairie on Saturday.  Jerome Dixon with 20 points, Sean Burns with 19.  Evan Nolan with 3 3s on his way to 13 points.  Race Thompson leading the bench mob with 11, 26 total for the bench.  Armstrong ran a ton of offense through Burns at the elbows, usually the left one so he could take it to Lynch with his strong right hand.  Quality tactical move against the shot blocker.  Dixon was also able to create off the bounce without much trouble.  The bench not only provided scoring but great energy all the way down to 10th guy Chance Bowen.