Third Annual White Jacket Game

Prologue
To Brooklyn Center for the 3rd Annual White Jacket game.  Its a tradition that Brooklyn Center coach Matt McCollister digs out the white suit jacket when I show up so we might just as well formalize the thing.  Construction at yet another school, things getting torn up everywhere.  Weeknight game means a pretty calm crowd.  The opponent tonight is St. Croix Lutheran who's coming off of an impressive thrashing of Concordia earlier in the week.

Song of the Day: Jefferson Airplane - White Rabbit

Number of Teams I've Seen: 108 (79 games, 50 days, 38 buildings, 11 online)

Beverage Ticker: 562.3 ounces (6090 calories)

• A&W Root Beer: 12 ounces (170 calories)
• Barq's Root Beer: 12 ounces (160 calories)
• Coke: 28.9 ounces (340 calories)
• Dr. Pepper: 12 ounces (150 calories)
• Fruit Punch Gatorade: 165.8 ounces (1160 calories) 
• Mug Root Beer: 12 ounces (170 calories)
• Pepsi: 246.7 ounces (3080 calories)
• Sprite: 72.9 ounces (860 calories) 

Food Ticker:

• Hot Dogs: 16
• Pizza: 6
• Walking Tacos: 3
• Extras
• French Onion Sun Chips (210 calories)
• 3 Lays Chips (480 calories)
• Kit Kat (210 calories)
• 4 Snickers (1000 calories)

Game Time:
Brooklyn Center with 9 of their 1st 11 points off of Crusaders turnovers.  They tack on a 6-0 run after that for a 20-11 lead under the 9 minute mark.  But St. Croix Lutheran settles down and finally starts to see the ball go thru the hoop.  Xavier Garcia with a 3 point play to cut the margin to 4.  Then 2 triples from Zach Longueville and 1 from Owen Bushaw.  Mert Cula adds a couple of hoops as well in the run.  The run is 20-5 for the Crusaders over the last 8+ of the half.  They lead 31-25 at the break.

Bushaw with another triple and a Longueville 3 point play push the lead to 12 with 12:36 to play.  Brooklyn Center counters with 3 Roland Russ buckets inside to cut the St Croix Lutheran lead to 3 with 7:21 left.  The Centaurs leaving points on the board with 5 straight missed freebies in this stretch.  Bushaw 2 free throws and a kickout bomb and the Crusaders lead is 8 with under 5 to play.

Then the real fun begins.as Brooklyn Center goes on a 11-0 run as the rim gets tight on the St. Croix Lutheran end.  Ben Wehyee with a 3 point play, Maxsamus Wilson with a steal for the lead and Danny Yates running for 2 after an in and out triple.  59-56 Brooklyn Center back on top with 1:14 left.

Longueville then with 1 of 2 free throws and after a Brooklyn Center turnover he buries a 3 with just over 30 seconds left.  That puts the Crusaders back on top.  But before you can blink, its Yates running the other way and he scores with the foul.  That 3 point play with 28 seconds left flips the lead back to Brooklyn Center 62-60. 

Bushaw attacks on the other end and gets fouled.  He makes the 1st, misses the 2nd and it ends up with Longueville for a big time 3.  Brooklyn Center pushes off as they rush the ball back the other way.  After a timeout, Brooklyn Center doesn't immediately foul and it pays off.  St. Croix Lutheran misses both free throws with 10 seconds left and the Centaurs have a chance.  They'll drive and be fouled with 3 seconds left down 2.  But the 1st FT is not good and the 2nd miss is intentional.  Bushaw grabs that and makes 2 free throws to seal it.  St. Croix Lutheran wins a wild ending 66-62.

Post Game
Brooklyn Center falls to 6-9 overall and 0-3 in the Tri-Metro. They've now lost 5 out of 6. The schedule doesn't get easier as I'll be back to see them against Holy Angels on Tuesday.  8th grader Maxsamus Wilson leads the Centaurs with 11 of his 16 points in the 2nd half.  Danny Yates with 11, Roland Russ with 10.  Lots of settling for 3s in this one which was a bit surprising considering the dribble drive stuff that coach McCollister has run for a while now.  Free throws were a killer as the Centaurs missed 11 FTs in the 2nd half and finished just 6-19 from the charity stripe.  St. Croix Lutheran left some points on the board in the 2nd half too but finished 17-26 from the line.  Coach McCollister falls to 2-2 all time in official White Jacket games. 

St. Croix Lutheran improves to 5-7 overall and 2-0 in the Tri-Metro. 3 of those losses are by 5 points or less though. They'll continue league play next week vs St. Agnes and at St. Anthony.  Soph guards Owen Bushaw and Zach Longueville each with 19 points to lead the Crusaders.  Longueville with 4 triples including 2 in the last 35 seconds.  Bushaw with 4 triples of his own to go with the clinching free throws.  Quiet night for soph forward Xavier Garcia with all 5 of his points in the 1st half.  Coach Wendland rolled the dice with 2 of his starters having 4 fouls with almost 8 minutes left (Ezra Blumer and Longueville).  Neither fouled out.