Jaguars sprint falls short

Prologue
Original plan on this quiet Saturday was to take in the afternoon at Minneapolis North's Above the Rim Classic.  But since I've already seen 3 of the 4 Minnesota teams there and this was a chance to see 2 new AAAA teams (bringing me to 32 for the season), I figured I'd venture south to Bloomington Jefferson instead for their game with Duluth East.  Nothing like making a point of hitting the JV game, only to find out that its the B game instead.  Kit Kat on the menu with Red Gatorade as the concession stand opened late.

Song of the Day: You ain't nothing but a hound dog - Elvis Presley

Number of Teams I've Seen: 70 (45 games, 24 days, 19 buildings, 6 online)

Beverage Ticker: 309.8 ounces (3370 calories)

• A&W Root Beer: 12 ounces (170 calories)
• Dr. Pepper: 12 ounces (150 calories)
• Fruit Punch Gatorade: 88.9 ounces (620 calories)
• Pepsi: 148 ounces (1850 calories)
• Sprite: 48.9 ounces (580 calories) 

Food Ticker:

• Hot Dogs: 7
• Pizza: 2
• Walking Tacos: 2 
• Extras
• French Onion Sun Chips (210 calories)
• Lays Chips (160 calories)
• Kit Kat (210 calories)
• 3 Snickers (750 calories)

Game Time:
Solid start for Duluth East's big 6'8" sophomore center Noah Paulson.  He scores in the post and with a putback to extend the Greyhounds lead to 16-11 at 8:14.  Lanky lefty Manny Montgomery getting to his left hand off the bounce for 7 early points to drive the Jaguars offense.  Then a hectic sequence with East soph Mattie Thompson scoring 2 hoops and the scorers table missing a Spencer Kendall hoop in the middle.  East book had that bucket and removed it so they couldn't rectify the mistake at half.  East run is 12-2 over 4:30 as the lead grows to 11.  After a Jefferson 3 point play, East misses 2 front ends but still scores the last 7 of the half for a 31-18 (actually 20) halftime lead.

Coach Jeff Evens not happy with his starters so he takes a timeout and yanks all 5 of them just 70 seconds into the 2nd half.  We don't see a starter for Jefferson again until the 11:19 mark.  Jags down 37-24 at that point with the bench being dead even over that almost 5:41 stretch.  Thompson takes the extra pass and buries a 3 followed by a Niikan Buffalo cut for 2 at the 8 minute mark.  49-31 Duluth East in control.  Problem is that it might have been cruise control. 

Evan Lind 2 post free throws, an Isaiah Watts triple and Jacob Bechtold with a putback in a 9-0 run while East misses all 3 front end opportunities of the half.  49-40 inside 4:30 to play.  Bechtold for 3 and Montgomery with a drive for a bucket plus 2 free throws on an offensive board.  But East still up 7 under 2 minutes left.

East misses 2 freebies and Watts buries a 3 to cut the margin to 4 with 1:40 left.  Montgomery scores after an East missed freebie and its a 1 possession game under 90 seconds left.  East will go 5 out and run clock.  Jefferson chooses not to foul or trap until a foul with 18 seconds left.  1 free throw is good to make it a 4 point game.  Jefferson comes down and can't get anything on offense so there's a timeout with 8.7 seconds left.  Looked like some confusion on whether coach Evens wanted the timeout or not.  Its important because its the last Jags timeout.  That means that a Watts 3 just before the buzzer is pointless because Jefferson can't take that timeout to stop the clock.  Duluth East hangs on 56-55 despite going the last 8 minutes without a field goal.  7-12 FTs in that time was all the Hounds scoring in that stretch.


Post Game
Isaiah Watts leads Jefferson with 16 points and 4 3s.  That included 3 late triples in the rally from 18 down.  Junior forward Manny Montgomery adds 14 points off the Jags bench. Also good bench minutes with 9 points for junior forward Evan Lind.  Not the standard precision execution that I've seen from other Jefferson teams that would just pick you apart.  Jags fall to 3-3 with the loss.  They'll play Robbinsdale Armstrong and Centennial next week at Bethel.

Duluth East improves to 5-2 with the win.  Nice day for the youngsters used by coach Rhett McDonald.  Frosh guard Will Van Scoy leads the way with 18 points including 5 late free throws to seal the game.  Soph post Noah Paulson with all 9 points early.  Fellow soph Mattie Thompson also adds 9 points off the bench.  Isiah Hendrickson in double figures with 10.  I've mentioned it before but worth noting again how fun it is to see the enthusiasm from the East bench guys.  Every team would love to have that.  They still have 5 games left against the top of section 7AAAA.  Its a very wide open section so anything is still possible there.