The Stampede goes on

Prologue
Its a quiet Wednesday night schedule.  But 2 of the best in the Suburban East get together as #10AAAA Mounds View hosts East Ridge.  East Ridge once again playing without forward Drew Adams (Winona St commit)

Game Time
Kendall Blue starts the game with a triple.  He scores again and East Ridge opens up an 8-2 lead just under 3 minutes in.  Mounds View pulls within 13-12 at the 8:09 mark.  East Ridge stretches that lead back to 19-14.  Kobe Kirk then heats up for Mounds View.  He hits 2 buckets around an Evan Kim 3.  Then he'll beat the halftime buzzer for a left wing 3.  24-21 Mounds View takes the lead to halftime.

Kirk keeps it going with 2 free throws and a left side jumper to start the 2nd half.  He scores 11 out of 14 Mounds View points.  Evan Kim with a steal for a bucket as the lead stretches to 31-23. Timeout East Ridge with 15:12 left to stop that momentum.  Blue with a free throw and a jumper to cut the lead to 5.  A nice feed results in a Luke Budzyn dunk before Blue drops the righty floater.  The Mounds View lead is down to 37-35 with 9:05 left and they need a timeout.  

Dylan Wheeler hits the kickout triple.  Blue with a couple of steals for buckets.  44-43 with 1:34 left as both sides are taking long possessions.  East Ridge goes with the strategy to foul Lucas Sopcinski late.  He answers the bell with both ends of the bonus with 54.1 left.  Ben North counters.  East Ridge back to the same strategy and it works as both freebies are missed.  East Ridge misses and Kirk makes 2 FTs with 16.7 left to push the lead back to 3.  East Ridge turnover with 3.4 left.  Ryan Edelman makes 2 free throws to seal it before the meaningless final hoop.  Mounds View wins 50-47.

Post Game
East Ridge loses their 3rd straight game to fall to 5-4 overall and in the Suburban East.  3 of those 4 losses by 3 points or less.  Drew Adams has missed the last 2 of those.  Kendall Blue with 20 points, 8 rebounds and 3 steals via 9-20 shooting on my officially unofficial stat sheet.  Soph guard Alex Mattes with 11.  Rodrick Payne with 7 points and some nice action inside.  They host a rivalry game with Woodbury on Friday.  Woodbury won the 1st meeting by 2 last week.

#10AAAA Mounds View remains undefeated at 10-0.  Half of those wins are by 4 points or less.  Kobe Kirk steps up again with 17 points to lead Mounds View.  Ryan Edelman not known as a scorer chips in with 9 including the clinching free throws.  Evan Kim and Dylan Wheeler each score 7 points.  The Mustangs host rival Irondale on Friday.  A standard Mounds View performance.  Play hard, defend, take care of the ball.  They were able to pull out a win despite a cold shooting night.  Only 4-18 from 3 for the Mustangs.

Four Factors

FACTOR	Mounds View	East Ridge
Effective FG %	40.4%	50%
Offensive Rebound %	39.5%	25%
Free Throw Rate	42.6%	18.2%
Turnover %	16.7%	22.2%
Points Per Possession	0.93	0.87

Mounds View's cold shooting loses the EFG battle but they did win turnovers.  That puts Czar's Law at 67-13 on the season. Mounds View 15 offensive boards but half of that was on 2 possessions.  Mounds View makes 12 FTs to only 8 FTAs for East Ridge.  Mounds View with 3 turnovers in a 4 possession stretch in the 2nd half.  But they finish with only 9 for the game.