A Titanic Finish

Prologue
The Saturday matinee this week is a trip to the Metro East.  Second place on the line with Mahtomedi hosting Tartan.  Tartan coming in on a surprising 3 game losing streak to fall into 3rd place.  But they move into a tie for 2nd and have the 2-0 head to head tiebreak with a win here.  Titans won the first meeting 63-58 after trailing by 8 at halftime.  All star officiating crew with Stoney, T-Rod and one of the AAU All-Stars on the whistles.

Game Time
Tartan grinding out long possessions early with their 5 out offense.  Curtis Favors working inside and David Perkins working outside for their offense.  Favors with 11 pionts in the 1st half.  Perkins with 3 triples and 11 to complement that.  Will Underwood 10 early points via a couple triples for Mahtomedi but very quiet in the 2nd part of the half.  Mahtomedi would take a 23-18 lead but they a stretch of 4 straight turnovers allowed Tartan to tie the game back up.  Marko Vuckomanovich 2 late Tartan hoops.  That sends Tartan to halftime with a 34-32 lead.

Underwood with a pretty cut and they find him off an offensive board for a 3 point play.  Then the defense loses him for a wide open 3.  Perkins counters with a 3 but Underwood puts back his own miss for another 3 point play.  Underwood scores 11 straight for Mahtomedi and its a 49-45 Zephyrs lead with 9:23 left.  Tartan takes time to try and figure out how to get a stop on him. 

The timeout works as Mahtomedi's offense goes into an 11 possession slump.  4 misses, 4 turnovers and 1-6 from the charity stripe.  Tartan takes advantage.  Derrick Love buries a kick out 3.  Perkins 2 FTs and a triple around a Dewayne Thompson putback.  A very smart set play call out of a timeout for another Perkins 3 with 6:05 left (the last Titans FG). Thompson adds bonus free throws for a 60-52 Tartan lead with 3:43 left.  That a 15-3 run for the Titans.

But now the turnover bug bites Tartan.  John Schaefer converts 1 into a dunk. Underwood converts another.  Schaefer with a putback after another Tartan turnover and its a 1 possession game with just under 2 minutes left.  Tartan misses 2 free throws and another turnover for 2 Mahtomedi misses.  Tartan with their 5th turnover in 7 trips.  Underwood pushes it back the other way and pulls up for 3.  Bank that baby in and we're tied with 25 seconds left.  DeWayne Thompson attacks with 3.2 left.  Block/Charge call and the AAU All-Star is up to the challenge seeing the foot on the charge circle.  BLOCK!  Thompson to the line, he'll miss the 1st and Mahtomedi will try to ice him with a timeout before the 2nd.  Nothing comes of that as Thompson makes the 2nd.  Another Zephyrs timeout to draw up a final play.  Ball out underneath and here we go.

This was fantastic on all levels.  Mahtomedi goes 1 guy deep under the rim.  3 in the backcourt across the foul line (nail and 2 wings).  Will Underwood goes a step or 2 deeper to the volleyball junction on the right wing.  Dewayne Thompson looking like he's going to double Underwood but he backs off.  Underwood takes a hard step to the ball.  The deep guy flashes right to the center circle.  Tartan loses him so its an easy catch.  On the flight of that pass, Underwood takes off for the rim and has a step.  But David Perkins, who hounded Underwood all day, turns on the burners and makes a fantastic play to tip the backdoor pass away and save the game.  Tartan wins 62-61.  

What a great concept for the final play and a great defensive play to break it up.  I first saw the concept back in a 2003 Wisconsin playoff game that I still consider the best game I've ever seen in person That's Adams-Friendship vs La Crosse Aquinas in a Division 2 regional final for those wondering. In that game, the star player was doubled and wings started at the midcourt/sideline junction but the rest of the concept was the exact same.

Post Game
Mahtomedi finishes the regular season 12-4, 10-4 in the Metro East. Will Underwood 4 triples and 29 points to lead all scorers.  John Schaefer adds 12 points.  Mahtomedi will open the 4AAA playoffs on Friday vs St. Paul Johnson.  That's always an interesting matchup of styles.  18 turnovers too much to over come.

Tartan has the exact same record as Mahtomedi but won both head to head meetings by a total of 6 points.  A win over Hill-Murray on Monday would give them a 1/2 game margin for 2nd.  David Perkins with 6 triples and 22 points plus the hounding defense on Underwood.  Curtis Favors does the inside work for 16 points.  Dewayne Thompson with a couple of triples and 13 points as well.  Tartan very patient and disciplined in their 5 out offense.  But its varied 5 out with some triangle STS action for Favors, curls and flares that they use as back screens.

Four Factors

FACTOR	Mahtomedi	Tartan
Effective FG %	51%	49%
Offensive Rebound %	39.4%	35%
Free Throw Rate	25%	38.5%
Turnover %	27.3%	15.2%
Points Per Possession	0.92	0.94

Tartan went a cold 7-23 in the 2nd half to lose EFG.  They finish 9-31 from 3 but 12-21 from 2 thanks to Favors.  That means Czar's Law falls to 94-22 for the season.  But that means they win the turnover battle 18-10.  But 5 late Tartan turnovers almost cost them the game.  In fact, the last 14 Tartan possessions in the last 6 minutes were 5 TO, 4 misses and 4-10 FTs.  Both teams left points at the line, Tartan 11-20, Mahtomedi 8-13.