Lions, darn Lions and a few statistics

Prologue
Give me a break, give me a break ... break me off a piece of that Kit Kat bar.  To The Sal in St. Paul for what could be a potential matchup at state. Its Lions vs Lions.  CHOF taking on #8A Spring Grove in a matchup of teams that are currently amongst the favorites in their sections come playoff time.  We get a martial arts display with swords at halftime.  Nice Spring Grove crowd making the trip north.  They're coming off a loss at Mayer Lutheran last night as part of the metro area tour.

Song of the Day: White Lion - When the Children Cry

Number of Teams I've Seen: 145 (112 games, 46 buildings, 17 online)

Beverage Ticker: 831.2 ounces (9140 calories)

• A&W Root Beer: 12 ounces (170 calories)
• Barq's Root Beer: 12 ounces (160 calories)
• Coke: 129.8 ounces (1540 calories)
• Dr. Pepper: 44 ounces (550 calories)
• Fruit Punch Gatorade: 205.8 ounces (1440 calories) 
• Mug Root Beer: 12 ounces (170 calories)
• Pepsi: 310.7 ounces (3880 calories)
• Sprite: 104.9 ounces (1230 calories) 

Food Ticker:

• Hot Dogs: 24
• Pizza: 8
• Walking Tacos: 3
• Extras
• French Onion Sun Chips (210 calories)
• 5 Lays Chips (800 calories)
• 1 Ruffles Sour Cream and Cheddar chips (230 calories)
• 2 Kit Kat (420 calories)
• 4 Snickers (1000 calories)

Game Time:
Spring Grove's offense struggling early as it takes almost 6 minutes before a 2nd field goal.  But they're within 9-7 at the 12 minute mark.  Then a 10-2 CHOF run thanks to a pair of 3s and 2-3 free throws being fouled on a 3.  Isaac Collins runs for a layup to end the run and that forces a Spring Grove timeout at the 9:30 mark.  19-9 CHOF on top.  Alex Folz already on the bench for Spring Grove with 3 fouls.  Then at the 7:23 CHOF star McCaleb Alleman will sit with his 3rd.  Soph Caden Grinde cuts to 2 and converts a steal for 2 more and the CHOF lead is down to 5.  But a 7-0 CHOF runs pushes the lead back to 12.  Preston Alleman converts a turnover.  Erik Strandlund on the offensive board for a 3 point play and converting another turnover.  Very sloppy half for Spring Grove in terms of turnovers.  CHOF leads 31-19 at the break.

Spring Grove with 9 of the 1st 13 points of the 2nd half.  Preston Alleman breaks that run to keep the lead at 37-28 with 13:43 left.  Folz starting to produce after the 1st half foul trouble.  He adds a couple of hoops to cut the lead to 7.  McCaleb Alleman with a 3 point play at the 7:04 mark and that is the 4th on Spring Grove star Ethan Matzke.  Matzke stays in and buries a 3 and makes a free throw.  Noah Elton adds 2 free throws with 3:07 left and the CHOF lead is down to 49-45.

McCaleb Alleman with 2 free throw to break the momentum.  Then, after the teams trade turnovers, he'll swat an attempt away at the basket.  CHOF can't convert it and Matzke buries another 3 with 1:15 left to make it a 1 possession game.  Its Erik Strandlund back the other way for a layup.  Then another CHOF layup off a turnover and Spring Grove is fuming at no whistle.  Spring Grove with a steal to cut it to 5 with 24.6 left.  But after a layup with 12 seconds left, there's no timeout and the ball rolls away and tick tick tick goes the clock.  CHOF wins 58-52.

Post Game:
For Spring Grove, they lose their 3rd straight after a 12 game winning streak.  Spring Grove is now 14-4 overall, 11-0 in the Southeast Conference.  It doesn't get any easier as they have a tough trip to Grand Meadow on Monday.  A win would have been really big in the QRF (CHOF currently #2 there) as they continue to battle Hayfield for the top seed in section 1A.  Forward Ethan Matzke leads the way with 18 points.  Soph Caden Grinde with 12 and Noah Elton with 12.

CHOF improves to 13-4 with the win. They've won 8 of 9 and 5 in a row since a tough 2 point OT loss to St. Paul Academy.  4 of the 5 starters end up in double figures.  Preston Alleman with 16, McCaleb Alleman with 12 despite foul trouble in the 1st half.  Erik Strandlund with 11, Isaac Collins with 10.  The Lions host St. Agnes on Tuesday before 5 in a row against the current and former MCAA.  They still have a couple of important section 4A games on the schedule as they have trips to West Lutheran and Minnesota Transitions.  Both of those teams are looking at top 5 seeds in the section.