Lions zone out vs Maranatha

Prologue
Its another edition of Monday Night Unwatchable Basketball.  Tonight's edition takes me to Providence Academy with the new dome (for football not hoops).  They take on former MCAA rival Maranatha.  But without a Hanson on the roster its a totally different Maranatha team.  I add a hot dog and another 500 ml of water to the tickers.  Hollywood, George Clooney and Ken Jeong get the officiating duties.  Quality music on the public address.  Today's tune is a sampling.

Song of the Day
Heavy D and the Boyz - Now That We Found Love

Number of Teams I've Seen: 111 (39 courts, 2 new, 2 TV games, 70 varsity games)

Beverage Ticker: 420 ounces (3460 calories) + 5.5 liters (670 calories)

• Pepsi: 204 ounces (2300 Calories) + 1.5 liters (630 Calories)
• Coke: 24 ounces (280 Calories)
• Dr Pepper: 48 ounces (600 Calories)
• Sprite: 24 ounces (280 Calories)
• Water: 3.5 Liters + 120 ounces (0 Calories)
• Gatorade: 500 ml (40 Calories)

Hot Dog Ticker: 7
Pizza Ticker: 8
Walking Taco Ticker: 7

Game Time:
I show up at Providence and a Jefferson game breaks out.  Its understandable with Matt Richelsen out for the season with a knee injury.  Providence 2-3 zone like the old days.  Dominic Miller with a 3 point play off pick and roll for a 9-3 lead at 12:27 . The zone not doing a good job defending the high post.  8th grade forward Austin Andrews exploiting that catching and attacking.  Jackson Baird off the bench for 3 to put Providence up 16-10 at the 5:15 mark.  Frosh Justin Mason counters with a floater and another hoop, Andrews puts back a miss.  21 all at the half.

The second half is all Providence.  Maranatha can't do anything against the 2-3 zone.  Drew Lahr all over the offensive glass and too big for the young Mustangs lineup.  Providence does a better job defending the middle of the zone, but Maranatha got away from looking for Andrews there.  Early in the game they got really good inside/out action from it.  The offense struggled so much, coach Jeff Wall decided to just run his Euro ball screen man offense against the zone.  Hey why not, try anything.  Maranatha only 2 2nd half field goals.  They get outscored 29-5 in the 2nd half.  Providence wins 50-26.

Post Game:
Maranatha's 2 game winning streak is snapped.  They fall to 3-9 overall and stand 2-3 in the MCAA.  They play 2 juniors with 1 soph, 3 freshman and their top kid is an 8th grader.  All the seniors play JV.  It will pay dividends long term but makes for a very rough season this year.  They avoided chances to penetrate the zone and couldn't make outside shots.  Frosh Justin Mason leads MCA with 12 points. 8th grade forward Austin Andrews with 8 points.  Kind of reminds me of Wayzata senior Austin Slater.  Maranatha hosts Trinity on Thursday.

Providence improves to 6-7 overall.  They are 1-1 in IMAC play.  Coach Lamar Detert keeps an incredibly tight leash on his squad.  So many instances where he held his team back in transition, even after the game was out of hand.  For a team that doesn't have much firepower, you might think he'd want to run when the opportunity appears.  Not so here as they play as slow as anybody you'll see, including Jefferson.  They only play 6 guys (7th in an emergency, even in this blowout).  Forward Drew Lahr with 13 of his 19 in the 2nd half.  He was too big in the lane and showed a nice short jumper.  He was used with their main weapon PG Dominic Miller in high pick and roll a ton.  Miller finished with 16 points.  The Lions host Breck on Friday.