Raiding the 4AAAA semis

Prologue
After almost 2 months of nothing but 94 straight online games (93 local plus the Nebraska big school championship) , I'm back in the gym for a 4AAAA semifinal rubber match between East Ridge and host Cretin-Derham Hall.  The teams split the regular season with Tre Holloman not playing during the CDH loss at East Ridge.  KB and the Sunshine Band on the whistle.  Sadly Suel Forrester is no longer on the Public Address and none of the great beef hot dog concessions.

Game Time
Tre Holloman assist for a 3 and a take of his own for 2 on the 1st 2 Raiders possessions.  5-0  CDH and East Ridge has only had the ball once.  East Ridge scores 3 straight buckets including 2 from Kendall Blue for a 6-5 lead.  But their offense isn't lighting it up either.  Alex Mattes with a bucket and he'll trade 3s with Marselio Mendez for a 15-13 Raptors lead.  Ben North with 3 of 4 FTs in that stretch.  CDH finally breaks out of a 2 for 16 shooting stretch by scoring on 9 of their last 11 trips of the half.  Holloman to Mendez for another 3, an assist to Peter Howard for a layup.  Then he finds Jack Tauer who beats the buzzer (or does he) from the top of the key.  DANG IT CHLOE!  30-21 Cretin-Derham Hall at the break. 

Holloman adding scoring to his assists in the 2nd half.  He goes in the post for 2.  Then a steal for a dunk and he'll add a left baseline jumper being left alone.  Coach Josh Peltier not happy with his Raptors squad.  Holloman adds a triple and the halftime lead is now doubled.  43-25 CDH with 13:07 left.  Another Holloman steal for a dunk keeps the lead at 47-29.  East Ridge unable to get stops as that's CDH points on 17 out of 21 possessions across halftime.  Kendall Blue with a pair of hoops.  Raptors cut the margin to 51-40 with 9:20 left on a Ben North drive.

But East Ridge won't threaten any more than that.  Holloman in the post for 2 free throws.  Jack Plum with a steal for a dunk.  Holloman strips Blue for another bucket and goes coast to coast to beat the press for 2 more. 65-49 CDH with 4 minutes left.  East Ridge started giving fouls with 6 minutes left and tried to strategically foul guys.  That didn't get them any closer.  Cretin-Derham Hall advances 76-61 to play at top seed Woodbury in the section 4AAAA finals.  Woodbury won 2 close meetings in the regular season.

Post Game
East Ridge finishes a disappointing season at 12-7.  Kendall Blue leads the Raptors with 17 points.  He had Tre Holloman hounding him much of the night.  Ben North and Alex Mattes solid nights from the guard spots.  Both finish with 13 points.  North had the tough task of guarding Holloman for much of the night as well.  East Ridge ran 1 high low all night which was shocking to me.  Not sure if Drew Adams was even looked at for a post touch.  He had 8 points and 7 of them very late.  Defensively do you try the bigger Blue on Holloman with the amount that CDH likes to use Holloman in the post?

Tre Holloman leads Cretin-Derham Hall with 28 points and 11 assists for almost that many.  Steals, posting, distributing and he even knocked down a couple jumpers.  They use him a ton in the post and pinch post and have gotten away from just high ball screens that teams will just go under like Mounds View did at the start of the season.  Very nice adjustment by the CDH staff.  The passing made the role guys look great.  Daniel Montalbano 15 points, Marselio Mendez 13 points coming up big in secondary spots.  Mendez with a couple of big triples in the 1st half.  Jack Plum adds 10.

Four Factors

FACTOR	Cretin-Derham Hall	East Ridge
Effective FG %	52.4%	45.7%
Offensive Rebound %	48.7%	37.1%
Free Throw Rate	25.8%	53.2%
Turnover %	13.9%	20.6%
Points Per Possession	1.17	0.97

Most surprising number here for me is 17 offensive rebounds for CDH, 10 of them in the 1st half.  That's a number that East Ridge should win, if not dominate, in this game.  East Ridge couldn't get stops either.  After a 4-18 start, CDH shoots 26-44 the rest of the way to break open a close game.  They win EFG% which means Czar's Law is now 102-24 (81%) on the season.  That shooting was mostly from 2 as well.  Raiders only 5-14 from 3.  East Ridge still managed to win the FT battle despite giving fouls and putting CDH on the line for a large chunk of the last 6 minutes.  They make 18 to CDH's 16 attempts.  While CDH missed the 1st 2 front ends, they made 7 of the next 8.  Of 8 live ball turnovers for East Ridge, 5 of them became immediate buckets which is a killer.