St. Croix Lutheran at CHOF Thoughts

Cole Piepkorn

Always nice to see a game at the SAL in St. Paul. Vocal and loyal fans. This was also a chance to see St. Croix Lutheran and Chris Breuer after missing out on them vs Minnesota Valley Lutheran last month. Biggest news of the day is that CHOF senior point guard Cole Piepkorn is gone for the year with an injured ankle. He's been a 4 year starter for them and a real leader. A major blow for the Lions.

Nate Fiscus vs Breuer in a nice matchup of post players. St. Croix Lutheran gets the 1st 7 of the night. The post you'll see plenty more of for CHOF over the next 3+ seasons is frosh Tyler Strandlund. He breaks the spurt with a bucket at 13:50 but picks up his 2nd foul moments later. Aaron Hulsebus with 6 points including a jumper and a steal to conclude a spurt that puts St. Croix Lutheran up 18-4 at the 10:30 mark. CHOF fights back as Fiscus gets it going. He gets 12 points in the last 10 minutes of the half. Breuer is cold from the field and the Crusaders can't keep the momentum vs the CHOF 2-3 zone. 31-26 St. Croix Lutheran at the half. Fiscus with 14 and 10. Breuer 5 but 2-8 shooting.

CHOF with the 1st 6 of the second half to take their 1st (and only) lead of the game. Fiscus getting mugged on a defensive rebound swings the arms and gets foul #4 at the 11:55 mark. Strandlund with a jumper for CHOF at 10:05 and CHOF is only down 4, 42-38. Ben Gavin with a triple at 7:45 for SCL and the lead is 9. 51-44 with 6:27 left after 2 Fiscus FTs. CHOF has to press and they have Fiscus back protecting the basket with 4 fouls. He's also playing the middle of the zone and guarding Breuer at the high post. Hulsebus gets 2 and Breuer with back to back hoops. Gavin with 2 more on the press and Fiscus has to let him go. 59-46 Crusaders with 4:45 left and that run puts it away. 67-52 St. Croix Lutheran wins.

For CHOF, Nate Fiscus was a monster with 24 points and 15 rebounds. Tyler Strandlund with 12 and 8. Only 16 points from the rest of the team. They have the bigs to compete in section 4A, but they'll need to figure out the point guard situation with Piepkorn out. Turnovers were a problem today.

For St. Croix Lutheran, Chris Breuer leads the way with 12 of his 17 in the 2nd half. The starting backcourt of Ben Gavin and Aaron Hulsebus with 14 each. With those 2 on the wings and Breuer at the foul line against a zone, that's a zone offense that can cause teams problems. Breuer drove Fiscus nuts all night with ball fakes on the perimeter. Very well executed and made me think of TWolves star Al Jefferson the way he shows the ball. Then at the high post and Fiscus with 4 fouls, he could do whatever he wanted. Poor job of adjusting by CHOF.

Cole Piepkorn picture courtesy of MNPhotoNet.net