Orioles keep rolling

Prologue
Off to the house that Jim Petersen built.  Its another tour of the Metro West as St. Louis Park hosts Bloomington Kennedy.  St. Louis Park's last conference title was 30 years ago in 1986 and its their only title since the days of Petersen.  Always good to catch up with Kennedy coach Willie Braziel to catch up on high school and AAU happenings.  1 can of Dr Pepper supplies tonight's concessions (can't resist the McDonald's across the street). 

Song of the Day
Willie and the Hand Jive - Eric Clapton

Number of Teams I've Seen: 106 (37 courts, 2 new, 2 TV games, 67 varsity games)

Beverage Ticker: 396 ounces (3170 calories) + 5 liters (670 calories)

• Pepsi: 192 ounces (2150 Calories) + 1.5 liters (630 Calories)
• Coke: 12 ounces (140 Calories)
• Dr Pepper: 48 ounces (600 Calories)
• Sprite: 24 ounces (280 Calories)
• Water: 3 Liters + 120 ounces (0 Calories)
• Gatorade: 500 ml (40 Calories)

Hot Dog Ticker: 6
Pizza Ticker: 8
Walking Taco Ticker: 6

Game Time: 
Soph PG Cire Mayfield opens the scoring for St. Louis Park with a layup, Mykal Howard converts a turnover for a layup.  6-0 Orioles lead 2 minutes in.  Howard takes another turnover for a layup and 2 more Mayfield layups.  15-5 St. Louis Park at 11:35 and Kennedy takes a timeout.  Kennedy comes out of their 2-3 and goes man.  Jack Lynch off the bench and nails a BLOB 3 and another hoop.  Mayfield with another layup and 2 free throws.  34-8 St. Louis Park with 5 minutes left in the half.  Kennedy soph PG Markel Aune goes for 13 points from there until halftime to keep the margin from getting any bigger.  51-23 St. Louis Park at the half.  20 Kennedy turnovers leading to all kinds of easy hoops for St. Louis Park.

Kennedy leaves Aune in but swaps in 3 sophs and a junior to start the 2nd half.  That doesn't help all that much as the lead gets to 35 on another Mayfield layup with 13:43 left.  St. Louis Park starts to empty the bench at the 10 minute mark.  Its 45 when we get to the 9 minute mark.  The rest is running time.  St. Louis Park rolls 90-45.

Post Game
As Hubie Brown once said, if you haven't been 1-21, stick around long enough, you'll get there.  Kennedy falls to 0-15 for the season, 0-3 in the Metro West.  A very long season of blowouts.  The schedule has given some nasty games too.  Hopkins, Mounds View, Woodbury, at Wayzata, Edina, Lake City some of the tough teams they've played.  Hope may be on the distant horizon with a nice group of sophs and a couple nice youth teams.  Remember Braziel had Jacob Thomas at Columbia Heights and after a so so soph year, they put it all together 2 years later.  Markel Aune scored 16 of his 21 in the 1st half to lead the Eagles.  Kennedy hosts Cooper on Tuesday and goes to Chaska on Friday.

St. Louis Park rebounds after 2 tough losses to Edina and Jefferson.  They are now 10-4 overall and 2-1 in the Metro West.  Soph PG Cire Mayfield leads the Orioles with 17.  5 in double figures overall.  They did a nice job of getting out and running for a ton of easy hoops.  They have a big rivalry game at Benilde-St. Margaret's on Tuesday to stay 1 game back.  Then they host league leader Cooper on Friday.