No Bull Eagles hang on

Prologue
Its a late starting girls/boys doubleheader with Heritage visiting St. Agnes.  Decent crowd on hand.  Tonight's meal is a 1/4 lb Nathan's beef hot dog sticking out of the bun.  Excellent.  A can of battery acid washes it down.  A unrecognized 2 man crew working the tilt.  Nice crowd of folks on hand.  I had to limit my climb up the heavily inclined bleachers due to leaving my oxygen tank at home.  Today's tune is from warmups.

Song of the Day: Katy Perry - Roar
Number of Teams I've Seen In Person: 26 (13 games, 9 days)
Number of Games I've Seen Online: 6

Beverage Ticker: 140 ounces (1340 Calories)\

• 7 Up: 12 ounces (140 calories)
• Coke: 32 ounces (380 calories) 
• Pepsi: 36 ounces (450 calories)
• Sprite Zero: 20 ounces (0 calories) 
• Sprite: 20 ounces (240 calories)
• Red Powerade: 20 ounces (130 calories)

Food Ticker:

• Hot Dogs: 4
• Walking Tacos: 2
• Pizza: 1

Game Time:
Heritage's Seth Halvorsen with a deep triple and he also converts a turnover.  12-8 Heritage at the 10:30 mark.  St. Agnes guard Marcus Johnson went for 38 against Henry earlier this week.  He has his game going out of the dribble weave look against the Heritage man defense.  A drive and a triple from Johnson get the offense going.  That's despite Heritage switching to a 2-3 zone.  Norman Strickland with the 1st of his 4 triples.  Johnson with another 3 and a bucket.  That ends a 15-2 St. Agnes run.  Aggies up 23-14 at the 4:30 mark.  Offense hard to come by the rest of the half.  Nothing for St. Agnes and only 2 Sam Frederickson buckets.  24-18 St. Agnes leads at the half.

Ben Allen and Phil Berge with bombs and Heritage is back to even 90 seconds into the 2nd half.  Frederickson adds 3 hoops in a row, 2 of them off of turnovers and he's psyched.  The run is 17-4 Heritage in just under 6 minutes (21-5 over 10 minutes across halftime).  35-28 Eagles with 12:12 left.  St. Agnes tries to rally as Strickland hits 2 more 3s.  38-34 Heritage inside 8 minutes to play.

Halvorsen banks a floater and converts a layup with 3:45 left.  Heritage appears safe as the lead is back to 8.  But the best is just beginning.  Luke Brezny for 3, Heritage misses a front end.  Tom Gutzmann converts a layup off a great Jacob Brezny steal.  Lead down to 3.  Heritage misses another front end and Johnson makes 1-2 free throws.  Then Heritage misses both ends of the double bonus with 30 seconds left.  St. Agnes advances the ball and takes timeout down 2 with 26.5 left.

Heritage stays with the 2-3 zone and the ball gets swung to Strickland's favorite spot on the right wing and BANG!.  That's good with 12 seconds left.  Heritage takes time out to set up their last chance.  Halvorsen takes the right wing entry, waits for the UCLA cut and then drives it baseline and scores with 1.7 left.  St. Agnes has 1 last chance full court.  They inbound, throw it ahead and the shot is good but its well after the buzzer.  Heritage wins a thriller 44-43.

Post Game
St. Agnes falls to 0-2 with the loss.  They'll host Mounds Park Academy next Friday as they continue a 4 game home stretch to begin the season.  Marcus Johnson leads the Aggies with 15 points.  But 14 of those were in the 1st half.  He didn't have a field goal after the 4:30 mark of the 1st half.  The zone help limit his scoring opportunities.  Norman Strickland knocks down 4 3s to chip in with 12 points.  Tom Gutzmann with 7 points and I liked his defense.

Sam Frederickson leads Heritage with 16 points.  Seth Halvorsen's game winner gave him 15 on the night.  Ben Allen and Phil Berge each with a pair of 3s for 6.  The 2-3 zone was wide open in the middle but the Eagles got away with it.  St. Agnes didn't punch the ball in the middle to make plays nearly as much as they could have.  That said, the move to the zone made sense as the St. Agnes dribble weave was having no problem getting easy penetration and great driving looks. The Eagles improve to 2-1 on the season.  Heritage returns home next Friday to host neighborhood rival Providence Academy.