Thunder growls in the EMAC

Prologue
I'm off to one of those old great small one-side only gyms on my schedule.  After all, in my world you can't have a season without seeing the EMAC.  So with that in mind, I trek to United Christian Academy in Bloomington to see them take on Hiawatha.  With the exception of the masks and no concessions, this atmosphere was honestly about normal.  The Hiawatha JV crew very vocal making it almost sound like their home game.  Since its game night, the Fantastic Friday Feast is a fitting one from Buffalo Wild Wings.

Game Time
Hiawatha with 5 turnovers on the 1st 8 possessions.  They quickly fall behind 8-2.  Mohamed Daud had to sit out last year as a transfer, but is playing big for them this season.  He gets it going with Hiawatha taking an 18-17 lead on a triple.  We're at the 8 minute mark at this point and no points for their star PG Jessye Lewis.  He breaks the ice.  Then he'll add a pair of assists for 5 points and a jumper of his own in a 14-2 Wolves run to end the half.  39-30 Hiawatha at the break.  Daud with 5 triples and 15 points in the half.  Very fast pace to the game in the half and that's in the Wolves favor.

PG Isaac Kaucki isn't the biggest or quickest guy on the guard.  But the guard played tough in this one.  His putback starts the Thunder momentum.  They add back to back triples and Jonah Anderson with the hoop and the foul and why not have 1 more rumble of Thunder from deep.  15-3 UCA run and they lead 52-47 with 9:40 to play.  Lewis to the rack to keep Hiawatha within 3.  Thunder star forward Zach Corley counters with a strong move of his own, they he'll put back a FT miss and then find Kaucki for a back breaking triple.  64-55 Thunder with 5:33 left after an 8-1 spurt. 

Hiawatha staying in it with Romelle Bell.  He scores a couple of buckes from Lewis and on the offense board for 2 FTs.  He'll score again after a couple of Hiawatha misses and the ball bounces around but a great tip to him for a layup.  69-65 UCA with 1:09 left.  Hiawatha doesn't get another score until the end.  Lewis Gerrity makes 1 of 2 FTs with 5.8 left to ice it.  United Christian wins 71-67.

Post Game
Hiawatha falls to 4-1 on the season with the loss.  I won't even try to figure out the EMAC standings since who knows who is actually playing in the league this season.  Mohamed Daud with 6 3s on the night and 22 points to lead the Wolves.  Romelle Bell adds 17.  Jessye Lewis came in averaging over 25 a night.  His shot was cold so he finished with only 11 points but he had a handful of assists to make up for it.  In the second half, the pace was slower and they took quick shots.  Hiawatha visits Edison on Monday before hosting Tri-City United on Thursday.

United Christian is now 3-1 with the only loss being to Simley.  They have this win plus a win at Avail to make claim to the top spot in the league.  Isaac Kaucki with 21 points to lead the Thunder from his point guard spot.  The big front line of Zach Corley and Jonah Anderson chips in with 16 points each.   More of their damage was done in the 2nd half.  Lewis Garrity adds 11.  UCA threw a few guys at Jessye Lewis defensively with Kaeden Kotula getting the main defensive assignment (plus switching on to Daud for part of the 2nd half).  While Lewis did get some good looks, I thought they did a reasonable job not letting him just run wild.  UCA goes on the road next week for Mon/Fri games at Lakes International and Hope Academy.

Four Factors

FACTOR	United Christian	Hiawatha
Effective FG %	42.9%	38%
Offensive Rebound %	38.9%	44.1%
Free Throw Rate	30%	24.4%
Turnover %	24.4%	24.4%
Points Per Possession	0.87	0.82

UCA wins the 4 Factors battle 2-1-1 as turnovers were dead even.  I had Hiawatha 7-37 from the 3 point line.  Mohamed Daud had 6 of those 3s so if you take him out it was even worse.  UCA bigs doing a good job of trying to stay vertical against driving guards going to the rim.  Teams combined to get up 145 shots by my count which is a big number for the games I've seen.  Take the bad shooting and the high rebound totals and that will happen.  That was despite 20 turnovers by each side.