A Neighborhood Cat and Dog Fight

Prologue
Opening Saturday of the season takes to a northeast Minneapolis setting as Edison makes the short trip to St. Anthony.  Its the season opener for both teams in this matinee.  No fans in attendance for this one.  One of the AAU All-Stars on the whistle.  I held off on my soda addiction for the afternoon.   Our song of the day goes with staying up and watching all these other games online.

Song of the Day: Sleeping with the television on - Billy Joel

Food and Beverage Counter
Mug Root Beer - 12 oz (170 Cal)
Pepsi - 12 oz (150 Cal)

1 Parlour Burger

Game Time
Edison scores on their first 5 trips with 3 bunnies to jump out to an 11-4 lead less than 3 minutes in.  St. Anthony takes a timeout and gets a couple of buckets.  Then they turn it over on 5 of the next 7 possessions.  Edison converts that into a 14-0 run as they add in a couple of triples.  27-11 Tommies with 10:30 left.  St. Anthony needs another timeout.

The game changes at the timeout.  Edison 10-15 shooting at this point but they go 3-14 over the rest of the half.  Some of that due to St. Anthony switching to a 2-3 zone at the 6 minute mark of the half.  Keep in mind that the Minneapolis schools couldn't start practice until this week.  That means limited time to get all your stuff in.  That showed here.  The Huskies dig their way mostly out of the hole with a 10-0 run out of that timeout.  35-29 Edison at the half.

St. Anthony stays with the zone in the 2nd half and that slows the pace.  Luke Omodt breaks the press for 2 and goes inside out to Max Kachman for a triple.  Huskies barking up the right tree (insert Bill Walton howling here) as they take their first lead 40-39 with 13:45 left.  This one is tight but Edison hanging on to the lead coming down the stretch thanks to Jabari Langley putting the offense on his back.  

Kachman shows up huge down the stretch.  He knocks a pass away and saves it to soph Cayden Hauser for a layup.  Kachman follows that with 2 FTs with 3:25 left for 1 point lead.  Then he drives and returns the favor to Omodt for a layup and a drive of his own for 2 more.  That brings the Huskies from down a couple buckets to up 61-57 with 2:46 left.

St. Anthony misses a couple of shots and 4 free throws from Langley pulls Edison within 2.  Edison then forces the 3rd St. Anthony turnover of the final minute.  That gives the Tommies the ball back down 2 in the backcourt with 7 seconds.  Langley drives and dishes and we have a shooting foul with 1.1 left.  Edison can tie with both.  But the 1st is no good.  The intentional miss of the 2nd bounces around for no shot.  St. Anthony hangs on to win 63-61.

Post Game
For Edison, Jabari Langley leads the way with 21 points on my sheet.  15 of those in the 2nd half.  Johnny Spencer held to 1 triple and nothing else before fouling out.  Their scrambling defense really bothered St. Anthony at the start and end of the game.  Plus they've got a couple of guys who can knock down 3s to go along with those 2 athletic wings.  The Tommies fall to 0-1 overall.  They'll stay on the road the rest of the month for 3 winnable Minneapolis City Conference games.  The first being at Henry on Friday so they do get another week of practice before playing again.

St. Anthony starts off the season 1-0.  They really needed this win as they have a gauntlet of 3 road games at #3AAA De La Salle, Fridley (#1 in the heart of Ryan James) and #4AAA Richfield in the next 10 days.  The inside out duo of forward Luke Omodt and guard Max Kachman leads the way.  Omodt finishes with 14 points, Kachman with 10 as part of his huge plays late.  Junior forward Gani Stevens gave the Huskies good minutes as well with 11 points.  Good balance with 8 guys scoring at least 5 points.

Four Factors

FACTOR	St. Anthony	Minneapolis Edison
Effective FG %	49%	40.2%
Offensive Rebound %	24.2%	43.8%
Free Throw Rate	36%	34.4%
Turnover %	27.8%	23.6%
Points Per Possession	0.88	0.85

The teams split the 4 factors with Edison's defense and athleticism winning the turnover and rebounding percentage battles.  Forcing 20 turnovers and grabbing 21 offensive boards turned into 11 extra shots for the Tommies.  But at the end of the day, they still couldn't make enough shots.  Czar theory of EFG still holds.  Granted its an entirely different discussion if Edison makes those last 2 free throws and then wins in overtime.