A Crusade to the Final Buzzer

Prologue
To St. Croix Lutheran for a very intriguing non-conference AAA matchup between the Crusaders and Delano.  Its a chance to see Trey Longstreet who had a very good summer with the Heat Tauer 16s.  Delano 11th in this week's AAA poll and St. Croix Lutheran with enough talent to make a run at the poll as well.  Augsburg in the building looking on.  Quality hot dog goes with Coke tonight.  Quality performance from the SCL pep band plus the best introductions around with Soul Bossa Nova for the visitors (Austin Powers theme) and In Da Club by 50 Cent for the home team.

Season Ticker:

• Number of Games: 35
• In Person: 28
• Online: 7
• Number of Teams: 55
• 4A: 23
• 3A: 14
• 2A: 8
• 1A: 4
• Wisconsin: 2
• Girls: 4
• Number of Buildings:13
• Number of Bands: 1

Beverage Ticker: 202.7 ounces (2350 calories)

• Coke: 48.9 ounces (580 calories) 
• Dr. Pepper: 20 ounces (240 calories)
• Pepsi: 69.8 ounces (880 calories)
• 7-Up: 12 ounces (140 calories)
• Sprite: 32 ounces (370 calories) 
• Fruit Punch Gatorade: 20 ounces (140 calories)

Food Ticker:

• Hot Dogs: 4
• Pizza: 2
• Walking Tacos: 1
• Extra: 1
• Reese's Peanut Butter Cups: 1 (175 calories)
• Lays Sour Cream and Onion chips (160 calories)

Game Time:
Delano starts with 2 free throws before St. Croix Lutheran goes on a 10-0 run.  PG Zach Longueville knocking down a 3 after Tigers turnover to complete the run.  Delano finally gets their first field at the 8:48 mark with Max Otto scoring inside.  St. Croix Lutheran's offense finds its own trouble scoring.  Terron O'Neill with a post bucket and then crashing the glass for 2 more.  15-14 St. Croix Lutheran needs a timeout at the 3:52 mark.  Longueville with a late stop and fade in the lane to put St. Croix Lutheran up 17-15 at the break.  Both offenses very patient against really solid defense.

Keagan Smith came in averaging over 21 a night for Delano.  He knocks down a 3 with 15:17 left for his 1st FG of the night.  That puts Delano up 20-19 for their 1st lead since 2-0.  They take a timeout and St Croix Lutheran responds with a 13-2 run.  Xavier Garcia 5 in a row during the run with Longueville going for a 5 in a row to finish it.  32-22 SCL with 12 minutes left.  Smith keeps it going for Delano with back to back treys and he'll attack for 2 more.  Longstreet with a floater and we're back to even at 32 with just under 9 minutes left.  That's a 10-0 Delano run.

Next 6 go to St. Croix Lutheran before Longstreet spins to stop that spurt with 6:29 left.  Delano goes 1-3-1 out of the timeout for a few possessions.  Garcia beats that for a bunny.  Then there's a baseline drive, nutmeg on the drift pass to the weakside corner and the extra pass for a Connor Mielke triple.  43-36 SCL with 3:45 left.  Smith on the offensive board for 2 free throws and then trailing the break he hits a straight away 3 to cut the SCL lead to 2 with 2:07 left.

SCL misses a front end and a layup, Delano can't convert.   Then another SCL miss and Delano can't convert 2 chances on their end.  Garcia makes a couple of FTs with 42.7 left to make it a 2 possession game.  Delano misses 2 FTs on their end but SCL misses a bunny on the other end.  Longstreet scores but Longueville makes 2 FTs with 12.9 left.  49-45 SCL and Delano is out of timeouts.  Longstreet attacks, scores and gets fouled with 9.4 left.  He misses the free throw but its out of bounds to Delano.  Nothing on the initial BLOB action but Otto cuts hard to the rim late and its a wide open layup to tie it.  Long heave is no good and we'll go to OT tied at 49.

Longstreet scores to give Delano the lead but then fouls out with 3:17 left.  The teams trade hoops and Bushaw fouls out with 2:32 left but Delano can't convert the And 1.  2 Mielke free throws tie it at 53.  After a SCL miss, Delano turns it over with 1:15 left.  SCL run offense and then hold for a timeout with 11.3 left.  They had what looked like a ready made 1-4 low iso for Longueville but turned it down for the timeout.  Or did they?  That's exactly what they go to out and Longueville gets a floater to roll around and go in at the buzzer.  St. Croix Lutheran wins 55-53 in OT.

Post Game:
Keagan Smith leads Delano with all 16 of his points in the 2nd half.  That included 4 threes. Trey Longstreet adds 15.  Delano suffers their 1st loss to fall to 4-1 on the season.  No bench players were used in the 1st half and only 1 true reserve all night until fouls kicked in.  They'll visit New Ulm on Tuesday.  Then a really fun cross division game at home against Mound-Westonka next Thursday.

PG Zach Longueville leads the Crusaders with 21 points and 3 triples.  Xavier Garcia with all 11 of his points in the 2nd half.  Owen Bushaw effective off the dribble attacking the rim for 11 points of his own.  No bench points for either team in this one.  The Crusaders improve to 2-2 on the season.  They host Brooklyn Center on Tuesday to end their pre-holiday schedule.

Strategy Session
The chess match in this game was really fun and worth calling out separately.  St Croix Lutheran's offense in the 1st half got bogged down by Delano's switching man to man defense.  So the Crusaders came out in the 2nd half and started to immediately slip their downscreens to the rim.  Longueville was open but not found on this numerous times.  Delano has a ton of length in their lineup and they went to a 1-3-1 in the 2nd half.  I think that fits them well and would expect to see more of it as the year goes on.  Both teams really solid on the defensive end which made the scoring drought understandable.  No cries of shot clock despite the patience both teams showed.  St. Croix Lutheran's discipline and attention to getting in gaps to cut off drives (even to point of over helping) really stuck out, particularly in the 1st half.   That caused Delano's desired attack and kick idea to get bogged down.