Raiders win an overtime thriller

Prologue
After an off day and another day of the real world rearing its ugly head, I'm back in the gym for an old football rivalry.  Its Eden Prairie vs Cretin-Derham Hall at the CDH football, University of St. Thomas.  That's Steve Fritz Court at Schoenecker Arena at The University of St. Thomas.  Got all that?  Good.  Its varsity only so no concessions on this frigid evening.

Song of the Day:  Billy Joel - Its Still Rock and Roll to Me

Number of Teams I've Seen: 100 (34 courts).  14 out of state, 8 girls

Beverage Ticker: 586.7 ounces (6345 Calories)
52 days, 67 games, 2 scrimmages added on

• Pepsi: 220.9 ounces (2760 calories)
• Coke: 84 ounces (1000 calories)
• Dr. Pepper: 24 ounces (300 calories)
• Sprite: 52 ounces (620 calories)
• A&W Root Beer : 16.9 ounces (240 calories)
• Mug Root Beer: 20 ounces (260 calories)
• Red Gatorade/Powerade: 168.9 ounces (1165 calories)

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

Game Time:
We're even early on with Daniel Oturu working inside for CDH and Owen Chose and Kyler Kluge hitting 3s for Eden Prairie.  10 all at the 12:45 mark.  The its Ryan Larson with a triple and jumper off the pick and roll as CDH goes on a 9-0 run.  19-10 Raiders just inside the 10 minute mark.  Eden Prairie's 1st FG was a 2, but its all triples at this point.  Chose and Drake Dobbs for 3.  Chose sits with his 2nd foul and the CDH lead is 25-16 at the 8:18 mark.  Then Kluge with another 3, CDH goes 1-3-1 and its Kluge again from deep.  2 3s on 2 possessions of 1-3-1 defense.  Chose is back in and hits 2 more bombs.  29 all at the 9:20 mark.  Dobbs ends the run at 12-2 with a hoop to put EP on top 31-29.  Larson drives and scores and adds 2 free throws on a steal as CDH goes 6-0 to end the half.  35-29 CDH at the break.  Eden Prairie with their first and last field goals from 2 and the 8 inbetween from 3.

Oturu dunks and Jake Prince scores inside.  Kluge counters that with 2 more 3s.  42-41 CDH with 14:48 left.  Oturu on the high low feed and its 47-41 CDH with 12:45 left.  Eden Prairie responds with Antonio Montero going for 3 and a bucket and a 3 point play from frosh Connor Christensen.  Its a 14-2 Eagles run and they lead 55-49 with 7:23 left.  After we wait until the 7:55 mark of the half for the 1st foul, we then get a foul fest.  Oturu with a putback and a free throw to cut the lead in half.  But Chose responds with an inbound jumper and a triple off side pick and roll.  62-55 EP with 3:10 left.

CDH scores and EP turns it over on the next 2 possessions.  Larson drives for a 3 point play on the 1st and its his steal for a hoop on the 2nd.  62 all with 2 minutes left.  Eden Prairie holds and takes timeout with 45.4 left.  Out of the timeout, its a set play elbow handoff for Chose and Oturu switches out to stop it cold.  After another EP timeout, its the same play but Oturu denies the initial entry.  Chose ends up with it and is fouled on a 3 with 5.9 left.  Wow.  He makes all 3.  Eden Prairie fouls on the inbounds.  Larson makes the 1st and CDH takes timeout to set up a free throw miss.  After some tomfoolery in getting all set on the lane, Larson perfectly misses it off the right side and Jake Prince comes from outside the 3 point line on that side to grab it and put it back.   Great draw up with Oturu drawing all the attention on that side and executed to perfection.  65 all to OT.

In the OT, its Oturu scoring twice inside around a Chose 3.  Larson takes a turnover and scores with 1:50 left to push the CDH lead to 4.  After an Eden Prairie miss, its soph Jaeden King with the dagger 3 with under 90 seconds left.   The rest is free throws.  Cretin-Derham Hall goes on to win 82-74.
 
Post Game
Owen Chose leads Eden Prairie with 30 points and 6 triples.  He came up with clutch points all night.  Kyler Kluge with 17 points with 5 more triples punishing the defense when it backed off.  The Eagles make 13 3s on the night but its not enough.  Eden Prairie falls to 7-5 overall, 0-1 in the Lake conference.  The schedule remains brutal as they host Minnetonka tomorrow and then New Prague on Tuesday before road trips to Hopkins and Edina.

Daniel Oturu with a huge night of 27 points and 20 rebounds to lead Cretin-Derham Hall.  He was way to much to handle inside.  He also made plays attacking the rim from the foul line.  Ryan Larson adds 24 from the point guard spot.  He came up with some big steals late.  Down 7 with 3 minutes left and they looked done.  The lapse on zone defense, the crazy foul at the end and the King 3 to seal it on OT are the moments of bad decision making that make a coach cringe.  Cretin-Derham Hall improves to 7-4 overall, 4-0 in the Suburban East.  They are at White Bear Lake tomorrow before a week off to prepare for the league leader showdown with Woodbury next Friday.