Mashing away a lead

Prologue
I continue my online tour of the metro by staying on the west side for tonight's live game.  Its a section 8AAAA matchup between Moorhead and Buffalo. These 2 teams looking to make noise behind favorite Maple Grove in the section.  Moorhead coming in winless.  Buffalo coming in with only a single close loss to Edina.

Game Time
Close game early on.  Brady Walthall with a pair of 3s to put Moorhead up 11-10 4 minutes in.  15-14 Buffalo just over 6 minutes in when Buffalo goes off on a 17-4 run.  Buffalo ball movement leading to quality open looks that they knock down.  32-18 Bison at the 6:39 mark as the run takes just over 5 minutes.  Moorhead pulls it back to 9 before a 10-0 Buffalo run closes the half.  Antonio Bluiett with 2 freebies and a jumper to beat the horn (foreshadowing).  44-25 Buffalo at the break.

Moorhead comes out in a zone to start the 2nd half.  That flusters Buffalo to the tune of a 16-2 Spuds run.  Buffalo with a stretch of 6 straight live ball turnovers during that run.  Zach Zrust stops the bleeding to start a 7-0 Buffalo run.  Blake Walthall with another triple in the half to cut the lead to 53-51.  Zrust bangs home a 3 off the extra pass and adds a 3 point play.  65-58 Buffalo Blake Walthall again for 3.  Buffalo lead down to 72-68 with 3 minutes left

Belind Alemadi with the 3 point play to cut the lead to 3 with 42.8 left.  Buffalo misses a bunny and Moorhead has it with 30.3 left.  Out of their last timeout, the miss a triple but its Alemadi finding the rebound and the range for 3.  All tied with 8.1 left.  Buffalo takes timeout to go full court.  Its Bluiett going coast to coast with everybody else out of the way for winner at the buzzer.  Surprisingly easy look.  Buffalo wins 80-78.

Post Game
Moorhead falls to 0-4 on the season.  All 4 losses on the road and 2 of those in Fargo to the top 2 teams in the North Dakota class A poll.  The Walthall brothers lead the way for the Spuds.  Brady with 26 points on my sheet, Blake with 16.  Blake with 4 triples and 14 of those points in the 2nd half.  Brady using his quick release to 4 triples of his own.  Belind Alemadi adds 18 including the last 6 to tie it.  Better defensive intensity in the 2nd half to almost come all the way back from being down 19 at half.  Moorhead gets a tough home opener on Thursday against #10AA Fergus Falls. 

Buffalo gets great balance from their roster.  Zach Zrust and Antonio Bluiett each with 22 points.  Cameron Green comes up big with 6 triples and 20 points playing off of those guys for easy catch and shoot looks.  Will Pool adds 12.  Fun to watch the Bison move the ball.  While I love the spread 5 out pass and cut and their 2-1-2 DDM looks, I do miss their old motion offense from coach Ortmann's playing days.  Buffalo improves to 3-1 overall.  They visit Wayzata on Friday.

Four Factors

FACTOR	Buffalo	Moorhead
Effective FG %	64.7%	55.9%
Offensive Rebound %	29.2%	31.4%
Free Throw Rate	29.4%	25.4%
Turnover %	23.1%	12.5%
Points Per Possession	1.23	1.22

Moorhead makes 2 more 3s but needs 11 more shots to do it.  Free throw attempts dead even.  11 of the 15 Buffalo turnovers coming in live ball situations which helped trigger the Moorhead offense.  Czar's law improves to 25-3.