Governing the city

Prologue
The second half of my back to back city showdowns takes me to St. Paul Central. The Minutemen taking on annual league power Johnson in their 1st meeting of the season.  Minutemen seems appropriate tonight.  With no fans allowed and the teams getting ready before they board the bus, the setup is this.  Show up at a door with no handles and hope it opens and that you know the secret password to get in.  But all that in mind, its good to be out and in the gym after about 30 straight games online.

As another safety measure, St. Paul not only going with no fans but they will play a regular conference schedule only and not any of the 6 available non-conference games.  That included a 1 week late start so this week is their opening week of games.  But I find it strange that both North and Central had cheerleaders yelling all night at the games.  Seems like a Seattle choir super-spreader type scenario to me.  But I'm not a doctor/epidemiologist and Dacha De Czar beats a Holiday Inn so what do I know.

Game Time
Central wasting no time making me wait for their 1-4 low call.  That's THE WORLD'S WORST OFFENSE in their world.  2 possessions of that.  1st bucket is an easy one as they open up an 11-0 lead over 4 minutes in.  Johnson ice ice cold but they'll score 8 in a row to jump back in the game.  Johnson makes 13 of 17 FTs with 2 missed front ends.  They needed that to try to offset 5-25 shooting in the half.  33-23 Central at the break.  Both teams with 11 turnovers.

Central sets the tone right away in the 2nd half by turning it over on 4 of their first 5 trips.  Johnson takes advantage to cut it to 6.  But Central scores on their next 3 trips and the lead is back to 42-31.  The Govs continue to chip away.  A 12-2 run Johnson cuts the lead to 44-43 with 10 minutes left.  6 more Central turnovers during that run.  The next 2 buckets go to Central.  Then 6 more turnovers in the next 8 possessions.  11-1 Johnson run includes a Julian Hodges 3 to tie it.  54-49 Johnson on top with 6:38 to play.

Kaden Doram with 2 free throws and a finger roll to pull Central within 1.  Gavin Gothard with 2 free throws and a clutch triple.  Central back on top 58-57 with 2:50 left.  They convert a turnover for a bucket before a Johnson 3 point play with 1:05 left ties the game.  Central turns it over getting in.  Johnson converts that into a right corner triple to break the tie.  Gothard counters with 2 free throws with 27 seconds left.  Hodges makes 1 of 2 FTs for Johnson with 25.2 left for a 2 point lead.  Central fouled on a drive with 3.5 left, but they'll miss the front end.  Johnson rebounds and makes 1 of 2 FTs with 2.5 left for a 3 point lead.  Central turns it over on the inbounds in a fitting conclusion to the story of their 2nd half.  Johnson wins 65-62.

Post Game
Central falls to 1-1 overll and in conference.  All 5 starters score at least 9 points.  Gavin Gothard leads with 17 points.  He had 3 triples and a perfect 8-8 from the charity stripe.  Jakobe Baer-Taki with 1.  Kaden Doram and Jaylen Cardenas 10 points.  Gideon Musabyimana adds 9 from the point guard spot.  Only 5 points from the bench.  Central has another big game at Highland Park next Tuesday before a week off.  Central with 31 turnovers, 20 of them in the 2nd half was a huge difference.

Johnson improves to 1-1 (Editor's Correction: Johnson 2-0) and gets an early tiebreaker.  Julian Hodges leads the Govs with 19 points from his guard spot.  Johnson visits Como Park and then hosts Washington next week.  They did have a little success throwing the ball inside early in the 2nd half and then got a big 3 point play with 1:05 left.  Other than that, their best offense was trying to force turnovers.  15 chances off live ball turnovers for the Govs and 15 offensive rebounds.  Johnson with 23 turnovers of their own.  Johnson wins the battle at the charity stripe 26-13.

Four Factors

FACTOR	Central	Johnson
Effective FG %	53.3%	38.2%
Offensive Rebound %	24.1%	36.6%
Free Throw Rate	39.1%	66.7%
Turnover %	38.3%	28.4%
Points Per Possession	0.77	0.80

Despite Johnson winning 3 of the 4 factors, Czar's law fails in this.  Johnson with a miserable 5-25 shooting run in the 1st half.  They shoot 13-26 in the 2nd half.  Similar story for Central as they shoot 30% in the 1st half but 10-16 in the 2nd half (62.5%).  Problem for Central was only 16 shot attempts in the half due to 20 2nd half turnovers.  As expected, winning the game but losing the EFG meant that the rest had to make up and they did.  Low assist percentages in this one go with the turnovers.  More offense off the bounce than by ball movement despite Central throwing some of THE WORLD'S WORST OFFENSE.