Mustangs trample the Beacons

Prologue
To Maranatha where the concessions are great (pepperoni tonight) and they still have MCAA Conference in the lane. Smallest crowd I think I've ever seen at a MCA game.  Used to be one of the great home court advantages in the metro when the Hanson clan was there.  The opponent is Concordia Academy in a matchup of teams trying to keep up with St. Croix Prep in the Skyline Conference.  Coach Eric Schutte sporting a fantastic basketball tie (note to self, must find) to go with his usual restaurant quality suit.

Season Ticker:

• Number of Games: 102
• In Person: 71
• Online: 31
• Number of Teams: 141
• 4A: 50
• 3A: 32
• 2A: 22
• 1A: 19
• Non-Minnesota: 10 (6 Wisconsin)
• Girls: 48
• Number of Buildings: 35
• Number of Bands: 1

Beverage Ticker: 592.5 ounces (6610 calories)

• Coke: 92.9 ounces (1100 calories) 
• Dr. Pepper: 32 ounces (390 calories)
• Pepsi: 211.6 ounces (2650 calories)
• 7-Up: 12 ounces (140 calories)
• Sprite: 76 ounces (880 calories) 
• Mug Root Beer: 12 ounces (160 calories)
• A&W Root Beer: 24 ounces (340 calories) 
• Killebrew Root Beer: 16 ounces (250 calories)
• Fruit Punch Gatorade: 72 ounces (480 calories) 
• Berry Gatorade Zero: 12 ounces (0 calories)

Food Ticker:

• Hot Dogs: 16
• Pizza: 8
• Walking Tacos: 1
• Extras
• Reese's Peanut Butter Cups: 3 (630 calories)
• Lays Potato Chips: 3 (480 calories) 
• Doritos: 1 (150 calories)

Game Time:
Maranatha making the choice to go zone all game.  That contributes to an early barrage of 3s from both sides.  Hakim Daniels with a pair of bombs for MCA.  Aaron TerHaar with a midrange jumper and 4 triples vs the zone for Concordia.  19-17 Concordia at the 8:10 mark.  Its all Maranatha from there.  Daniels with a bucket sandwiched between 2 Maciah Harut hoops.  Benji Bruce with 3 back breaking triples in the last 2:25.  MCA ends the half on a 15-5 run.  39-27 Mustangs at the break.

Maranatha clamps down on the shooting and Concordia gets careless with the ball in the 2nd half.  On offensive end for MCA the 3s keep coming.  MCA knocks down a pair of them.  Daniels a putback followed by a Jeremiah LaVelle 3 and a Daniels layup.  52-30 Maranatha leading with 12:45 left.  Then a great sequence for Daniels with a drive for 2, a block on 1 end that leads to a putback on the offensive end.  Harut 2 layups and Daniels puts back another miss for a 63-35 lead with 8:35 left.  We don't get running time but the outcome is never in doubt either.  Maranatha wins 75-54.

Post Game:
For Concordia, not the start they wanted to a very tough week.  Aaron TerHaar leads the Beacons with 19 points and 5 triples.  14 of those points and 4 triples in the 1st 10 minutes though.  After that Maranatha did a much better job of finding him and closing gaps in the zone.  Essay Hagos with only 7 points and 5 of those in the final 5 minutes.  He had good looks but couldn't buy a shot all night.  Freshman AJ Greene with another productive outing of 11 points and 3 triples.  Concordia falls to 4-1 in the Skyline, 11-4 overall.  They host league leader #5AA St. Croix Prep on Friday.

Hakim Daniels leads Maranatha with 22 points.  He knocked in a couple of 3s to go with his usual pounding the boards and running the floor.  Benji Bruce 12 points.  Miciah Harut a solid night at the point with 14 points and harassing defense on top of the MCA zones.  Tough to beat MCA when they hit double digit 3s like they did tonight.  The Mustangs improve to 7-6 overall and 3-2 in the Skyline.  4 of those losses are to ranked teams including 3 of the top 6 in class AA.  They stay home to play St. Agnes on Friday before playing #7AAA Waconia at Burnsville in the South Metro Showcase on Saturday night.