At least somebody gets to play

Prologue
If not 1 Metro East game, then why not pick another.  With the Mahtomedi vs South St. Paul viewing gone haywire, I flipped over to the league's top rivalry game Tartan at North St. Paul.  Life has been difficult in the Metro East.  The other 5 teams in the league had their games cancelled tonight.   Tartan playing with basically 6 guys.  Not to mention that this is the 1st game in over 3 weeks for North St. Paul.  In fact, it was the same day that Tartan lost their only game of the year to South St. Paul (I did that thriller live here). 

Game Time
North St. Paul opens the game by missing their 1st 7 3 point attempts.  That allows Tartan to open up an 8-2 lead.  That lead is 14-9 when the benches ignite.  Derrick Love comes off the Tartan bench and torches the right corner.  He buries 3 straight catch and shoot shots from there.  Kendarius Daily off the NSP bench and he buries a couple of 3s.  That's in of a stretch where he scores 12 of 15 for the Polars.  26-17 Tartan with the lead as we go under 7 minutes to play in the half.  NSP top scorer Murl Smith keeping it close.  He goes fade in the post, 2 free throws and a 3 point play.  Love adds another bomb from the right corner just for fun.  37-28 Tartan at the half.

Tartan's top scorer Dewayne Thompson goes to the bench with a quick 3rd foul to start the 2nd half.  That foul leads to a Smith 3 point play.  Daily adds a pair of bombs to keep NSP within 42-37.  Thompson comes back with the margin at 50-41.  Smith on the offensive board to hold the Tartan lead at 52-47.  Then a stretch of 3 or 4 racehorse possessions.  Thompson with 2 layups off of that.  Tartan then converts a turnover into another layup.  Missed shot and Tartan runs for another layup.  That's an 11-2 Tartan run in the blink of an eye.  63-49 Titans as we go under 8 minutes left.

Laron Thomas and Smith from deep to pull the Polars within 63-55 with just over 6 minutes left.  But NSP only scores 1 more time.  Thompson with an easy bucket and an assist for another layup.  Tartan kills the clock for layups and free throws to score the next 11 points.  Tartan wins 74-57.

Post Game
North St. Paul falls to 2-2 overall and in the conference.  Murl Smith and Kendarius Daily each score 24 points to lead all scorers.  But no help as the rest of the roster combined for 9. The time off showed with cold shooting and way too many breakdowns defensively.  NSP has rematches next week at Mahtomedi and home against St. Thomas Academy.

Tartan improves to 7-1 overall, 5-1 in the Metro East.  Tartan has 5 of their 6 players in double figures. Curtis Favors with 16 points to lead the way.  AJ Burns and Derrick Love with 14 points each.  Love with those 4 big triples in the 1st half to open up the lead.  Marko Vuckomanovich with 12.  Leading scorer Dewayne Thompson with only 11 but still a solid game.  Good ball movement and patience from Tartan.  Effective use of curling screens in their offense.

Four Factors

FACTOR	North St. Paul	Tartan
Effective FG %	45.7%	61.8%
Offensive Rebound %	22.9%	39.3%
Free Throw Rate	6.9%	31.4%
Turnover %	20.3%	23.1%
Points Per Possession	0.89	1.14

Tartan wins 3 of the 4 factors including EFG.  That makes Czar's law 60-9 on the season.  After missing their 1st 7 3s, NSP was 7-17 from deep compared to the 7-16 that Tartan shot for the whole game.  Very interesting that NSP only shot 4 free throws (made all of them).  NSP is an aggressive attacking the rim group and didn't get fouled.  Tartan got 6 of their 16 FTA on 3 PT attempt fouls and made 5 of those. That's not a knock on the officiating just a note on Tartan's lack of fouling.