Aggies beat an old conference foe

Prologue
And I thought last night was long.  Today is another trip to the St. Paul side of the metro.  Despite many cancellations due to the weather, the St. Agnes at Mounds Park Academy doubleheader remained on my schedule.  Vocal crowd for Spirit Night.  After trying to wait out the Domino's Pizza, I pay attention and realize there's a pulled pork meal deal.  So that's 240 calories of Doritos plus the quality sandwich.  240 more calories of Coke washes it down.  Our tune from the public address seems reasonably appropriate for the day.  No line dancing please as it was a terrible fad along with the Macarena.

Song of the Day: Boot Scootin' Boogie - Brooks and Dunn

Number of Teams I've Seen: 58 (14 courts).  13 out of state, 6 girls

Beverage Ticker: 342.7 ounces (3555 Calories)
25 days, 33 games, 2 scrimmages added on

• Pepsi: 104.9 ounces (1310 calories)
• Coke: 60 ounces (720 calories)
• Dr. Pepper: 12 ounces (150 calories)
• Sprite: 20 ounces (240 calories)
• A&W Root Beer (240 calories)
• Red Gatorade: 88.9 ounces (765 calories)
• Red Powerade: 20 ounces (130 calories)

Hot Dog Ticker: 5
Walking Taco Ticker: 3
Pizza Ticker: 3

Game Time:
The start is incredibly slow.  Mounds Park opens with 4 turnovers and 2 airballs.  Add in a swish and they don't hit the rim for the 1st 6 minutes.  Brendan Connolly with a 3 and Mounds Park takes a 10-5 lead just inside the 10 minute mark.  But the offense goes nowhere after that.  Gary Smith with 2 free throws and 3 jumpers (2 off side pick and roll action).    He'll add 4 more freebies and convert a turnover for 2 more.  Its a 21-0 Aggies run that goes over 9+ minutes.  Mounds Park breaks the drought with a late BLOB layup.  28-13 St. Agnes at the break.

The early portion of the 2nd half is very ugly.  St. Agnes scores on a putback, a free throw off an offensive board and a turnover while missing 2 free throws.  Mounds Park misses 2 free throws and gets a bucket on a putback (could've been a charge).  That's 5-2 in the 1st 8 minutes of the half, ouch.   33-15 St. Agnes at that point.  The offenses explode (by relative comparison) the rest of the way.  St. Agnes runs away from there to get running time.  56-25 Aggies win.  They hold Mounds Park Academy to 3 2nd half field goals.

Post Game
Mounds Park Academy loses their home opener to fall to 1-3 on the season.  They'll host South St. Paul on Monday before hosting their holiday tourney.  Brendan Connolly leads the Panthers with 11 points.  Unofficial tally had Mounds Park Academy with 27 turnovers compared to 25 points.  That's a tough night.

St. Agnes improves to 1-2 with the win.  Its the 1st varsity win for coach Chris Hopkins.  Gary Smith leads the way with 21 points.  He was active inside and had the shooting touch going.  Darius Lopez with 11 points and a pair of 1st half 3s.  Brandon Plasch and Marcus Johnson with 9 each.  Solid defensive effort from the Aggies.  You could really see an emphasis on not forcing shots on the offensive end.  Seeing no donut pivots into a backdoor layup was somewhat disappointing though.  St. Agnes has a pair of games against the MCAA next week.  Maranatha comes calling on Tuesday and they visit Legacy on Thursday to close out the pre-holiday schedule.