Rebels still yelling from the mountain top

Prologue
Its a top notch non-conference battle in the NW Suburban as #1AAAA Champlin Park visits #2AAA Totino-Grace.  Champlin Park won the 1st meeting by 10 and ran the table at 13-0 in the single round robin edition of 2021 conference play.

Game Time
Close game early when Demarion Watson sits with 2 fouls at the 12:37 mark.  Taison Chatman to CJ O'Hara as the teams are out running.  11-10 Champlin Park at 11:45.  Josh Strong 2 buckets, Francis Nwaokorie and Dylan Gichaba for 3.  Rebels expand the lead to 24-14.  Nwaokorie 2 buckets as he's taking over inside.  33-21 Champlin Park at 6:45.  He adds a 3 point play to stretch the lead to 41-27.  Chatman with the last 7 TG points of the half via a drive and nice lefty finish.  A straight away triple and 2 freebies finish that spurt.  43-32 Champlin Park leads at half.

The Eagles storm back with top 2 sophs.  O'Hara backdoor for 2 to start the half.  Chatman and O'Hara for 3.  Chatman converts a turnover and O'Hara adds 2 free throws.  DJ Akpati with the 1st of 2 triples to flip the scoreboard.  Its a 16-4 TG run to start the half.  48-47 Eagles take the lead with 13:30 to play.  Akpati and Devin Burger from deep for a 58-56 TG lead with 8:20 left.  Strong with 2 triples countered by 2 Watson buckets.  62 all with 6:18 to play.

Once again late in the half the pace slows dramatically.  Nwaokorie in the post for 2 free throws with 2 minutes left.  Then in the post for a dunk with 1 minute left and the Rebels go up by 4.  Burger quickly counters for 3 with 45.8 left.  Rebels get a layup.  TG down 3 has a chance.  Chatman on the iso gets a good straight away look and its in and out with 15 seconds left.  Rebels make 1 FT before an Akpati hoop with 1.5 left.  Rebels miss a front end, TG takes the quick timeout with 0.5 left down 2.  But their full court attempt doesn't yield anything.  Champlin Park wins 71-69.

Post Game
Totino-Grace falls to 13-4 overall with the loss.  They get 4 players in double figures.  Taison Chatman with 16 points, CJ O'Hara 14.  Devin Burger with 11 and DJ Akpati with 13 points off the bench.  Both of them made 3 treys.  Never really saw an offensive rhythm for the Eagles.   Lots of 1 on 1 play.  The Eagles are still looking at the 2 seed in the ridiculousness known as section 4AAA where the top 3 teams in the current AAA poll reside.  TG finishes the regular season on Thursday at Anoka.

Champlin Park continues their impressive season as they remain undefeated at 17-0.  I'll see their finale vs Park Center on Thursday as well.  Francis Nwaokorie did whatever he wanted on the way to 32 points.  But it wasn't just the post play.  He hit a 3 and had more than 1 scenario where he faced up and made a scoring play off the dribble.  Josh Strong 15 points and 3 triples including a couple big ones in the 2nd half as TG threatened to build a lead.  Dylan Gichaba adds 12 points.  The Rebels are looking at the top seed in the deep section 5AAAA playoffs.

Four Factors

FACTOR	Totino-Grace	Champlin Park
Effective FG %	50.9%	56.5%
Offensive Rebound %	24.4%	26.7%
Free Throw Rate	27.1%	24.1%
Turnover %	13%	23.5%
Points Per Possession	1.00	1.04

Czar's Law now 89-20 as Champlin Park wins the EFG battle.  The Rebels get the perfect analytics shot chart.  They go 20-35 in the paint thanks to Nwaokorie going nuts.  That's compared to 13-24 for TG along with their 2-9 on mid-range 2s.  Champlin Park loses the turnover battle 16-9 but for live ball buckets going the other way, I actually had a 2-1 Rebels edge.