Youthful D leads the Titans

Prologue
No programs last night so no writeup of the tight Prairie Seeds at Henry game.  Tonight the color red is still in order as I visit Richfield for an old Classic Suburban showdown with Tartan.  Stoney was the highlight of tonight's 3 man officiating crew.  Oversized slice of sausage pizza is the meal with a bottle of red Powerade.  And a quality selection of music including this 80s hit from The King of Pop

Song of the Day: Bad - Michael Jackson
Number of Teams I've Seen: 20 (10 games, 6 days) (not counting 3 online)

Beverage Ticker: 108 ounces (960 Calories)

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

Food Ticker:

• Hot Dogs: 3
• Walking Tacos: 1
• Pizza: 1

Game Time:
Good start for Tartan with soph Joseph Kearney knocking down a kickout for 3 and driving for a 3 point play.  Antwan Kimmons adds his own 3 point play on a turnover.  13-6 Tartan at the 14:29 mark.  Richfield frosh Ryan Miles off the bench and tries to stop the bleeding with pair of free throws and a layup.  Tartan counters that with a 12-0 run.  Kimmons with 2 buckets off turnovers and a putback in that span.  25-10 Titans at the 9:10 mark.  Kimmons will expand that lead to 19 with a lefty 3 point play and another putback.  Richfield's best scorer Devin Wade-Henderson then sits the last 4 minutes with 3 fouls but Richfield only gives up 1 field goal in that stretch.  43-22 Tartan at the break.  Kearney for 3 and a nice curl for 2 more as the lead grows to 56-27.  Wade-Henderson tacks on a few to get his but the name is never in any doubt as the bench empties with 3 min left.  Tartan wins 79-61

Post Game
For Richfield, Devin Wade-Henderson scores 18 points.  The Tartan defense with soph Joseph Kearney getting most of the duty held him to 7-22 shooting on my sheet with 5 turnovers.  Freshman Ryan Miles with a very nice debut for the Spartans with 17 points off the bench.  He knocked down 3 triples.  Richfield opens the season 0-1 and they get another former Classic Suburban foe next as they visit St. Thomas Academy on Thursday.

For Tartan, Antwan Kimmons leads the way with 16 of his 21 in the 1st half.  Andre Jenkins-Whitmore with 14 of his 20 in the 2nd half.  Soph Joseph Kearney with 16.  Dante Aganmwonyi chips in with 10.  The Titans as you would expect of a Mark Klingsporn group are defensive minded.  Aganmwonyi, Kearney and Kimmons really get after it on that end.  They'll be fine defensively but how the offense progresses is what I'm watching.  Tartan opens 1-0 and visits North Branch on Friday.  That's part of a 3 game road trip to start the season.

Strategy Session
After talking about how teams get open off the dribble, we look at Tartan's offense.  They use a Villanova women's style cutting offense.  Its 5 out and instead of reads its all called vs the read and react variation often used in 5 out.  That includes anything from straight pass and cut to curl cuts to intentionally back cutting the screen.  The curl cuts were definitely available on this night and they did get some looks out of rejecting the screen as well.