Big Cats in the City

Prologue
Its another night in the city as Minneapolis South hosts St. Paul Como Park.  Light crowd on hand for the game.  Kimbo Slice works the JV game (AAU ref who grew out a fantastic beard) but sadly doesn't get the varsity game.  Coke is the beverage of choice tonight.  The South cheerleaders don't even get to stand on the court anywhere. They are relegated to a section of the bleachers behind the South bench.  Quality music during the breaks.  That included this old hit.

Song of the Day:  Staple Singers - I'll Take You There

Number of Teams I've Seen: 124 (42 courts + 2 online).  15 out of state, 9 girls

Beverage Ticker: 767.6 ounces (8405 Calories)
67 days, 88 games, 2 scrimmages added on

• Pepsi: 252.9 ounces (3160 calories)
• Coke: 164 ounces (1960 calories)
• Dr. Pepper: 24 ounces (300 calories)
• Sprite: 52 ounces (620 calories)
• A&W Root Beer : 28.9 ounces (410 calories)
• Mug Root Beer: 20 ounces (260 calories) 
• Barq's Root Beer 20 ounces (270 calories)
• Red Gatorade/Powerade: 201.8 ounces (1425 calories)

Hot Dog Ticker: 12
Pizza Ticker: 8
Walking Taco Ticker: 6

Game Time:
South with 3 players out due to concussions, yikes.  South makes the opening 3 but then gives up the next 13.  Kyrin Woodard with 7 of those including a drive, layup on a turnover and a 3 point play.  South keeps the margin at 20-11 at the 8 minute mark.  Then a 10-1 Cougars run to open it up.  Woodard coast to coast and trailed on a curl cut for a layup during that run.  Center Donald Ventrelli flying into the South bench and bleachers by the cheerleaders as well.  Thankfully he came out laughing.  Major trainwreck potential there.  That would put Como Park up 30-12 and finish Woodard's scoring for the night.  Como Park stays within 33-19 at the half.

South goes to youngsters in the 2nd half (played both JV only 1 half of varsity available).  Frosh Demarco Dowden with a layup off a nice zip pass thru the Como Park 1-2-2.  The Como Park lead down to 35-24 with 15 minutes left.  Como Park then runs away and hides with a 21-2 run that took 7 minutes in the middle of the half.  Trey Clark dunks a turnover and then a quality euro step done at full speed on the break.  He also converts another turnover by softly laying in a lob pass.  Soph Donn Ward scores, then stumbles and throws it in followed by a drive and dunk.  56-26 inside 5:30 to play and the rest is garbage time.  Como Park wins 64-44.

Post Game
Kevin Pellew with 2 late 3s to get to 9 points for the game to lead South.    Only 1 other player with more than 5.  With 3 players out, no shock that scoring was difficult.  They had open corner looks vs the Como Park 1-2-2 zone but made almost none of them.  Demetrius Gladney was the 1 guy who was able to get loose in the middle and made a couple of plays from there.  South falls to 4-14 overall.  They are 4-5 in the Minneapolis City.  They trek to Eden Prairie next week before playing their last 5 league games starting the following week.

Como Park improves to 6-10 overall.  They are 3-1 in the St. Paul City.  After a 6 game losing streak, the Cougars have now won 4 in a row.  They have a huge week in league play next week as they are at rival Central (3-0) and host Highland Park (2-1).  Trey Clark leads the Cougars with 15 points.  Kyrin Woodard with all 14 of his points in the 1st half.  They went to the 1-2-2 zone very early and it paid off.  South couldn't keep guys like Woodard out of the paint either.  Add in the conversion of turnovers and the Cougars win easily.