Tigers run away from Mustangs

Prologue
To another one of my favorite small school venues as I visit Maranatha for their non-conference game against Fridley.   The East side cafeteria with Papa Murphy's sausage pizza tonight.  A&W Root Beer always a hard to find delicacy so we'll have that.  The large slice of pizza devoured while watching thru the windows at the end of the gym in one of the more unique local views.  The sound system needs a complete overhaul but it did pick up something I haven't had happen before.  One of the Maranatha managers was using her phone to provide the music for the evening.  She had it play the national anthem for the game and it went off during the anthem.

Number of Teams I've Seen: 50 (10 courts).  13 out of state, 6 girls

Beverage Ticker: 270.7 ounces (2895 Calories)
21 days, 28 games, 2 scrimmages added on

• Pepsi: 104.9 ounces (1310 calories)
• Coke: 40 ounces (480 calories)
• Sprite: 20 ounces (240 calories)
• A&W Root Beer (240 calories )
• Red Gatorade: 68.9 ounces (625 calories)

Hot Dog Ticker: 3
Walking Taco Ticker: 3
Pizza Ticker: 2

Game Time:
This one gets ugly right away.  Tenzin Sopa to the rim for 2, Tirik Reeves 3 straight layups plus a Jerome Cunningham dunk in a 12-0 run in the 1st 3:15.  3 straight Maranatha turnovers for buckets force a Mustangs timeout down 30-12 at the 5:49 mark.  Its 39-20 at the break.  More of the same in the 2nd half.  Michael Crandall with a pair of triples and a bucket to get it to the running time margin at 10:30. The JV sees the rest of the time.  Despite a bit of pressing from the MCA regulars after that, Fridley wins 74-37.

Post Game
Maranatha falls to 2-1 with the loss.  Turnovers were a huge problem.  Plus their transition defense was suspect as well.  Soph Julian Cavin leads the way with 12 points. Nobody else with more than 6.  The Mustangs go on the road to St. Paul Johnson on Thursday and to St. Agnes next Tuesday.

Fridley improves to 2-2 with the win.  They really convert from defense to offense in a hurry.  That generated a ton of easy buckets.  That was in addition to the easy ones via turnovers.  Tirik Reeves leads the Tigers with 17 of his 21 in the 1st half.  Michael Crandall with 3 bombs off the bench to reach 11 points.  11 Tigers end up scoring in this one as the JV took care of the running time portion of things.  Next up for Fridley is a trip to Mounds View in a back to back.  Then the Tigers host Farmington on Friday.  Next week is neighborhood road trips to Spring Lake Park and Irondale.