More NW Suburban battles

Prologue
Its another night in the rugged Northwest Suburban Conference.  Armstrong visits Park Center in a battle of 2 top scoring wings.  Its my 1st chance to see Armstrong with Dylan Inniger.  Minot St commit Jalen Cook leading the PC offense.  Both teams coming in as part of the logjam of teams with 3 league losses.  Its also the 1st of a back to back as these teams play again on Thursday.  But its this 1st meeting that counts in the league standings.  That's contrary to my initial belief that non-conference games were sprinkled throughout the schedule.  The 1st meeting is the one that counts in the single round-robin schedule.

Game Time
Good start for Armstrong behind their leader Dylan Inniger.  He attacks twice for scores and then a nice backcut for 2 more.  16-7 Falcons.  Fouls mounting for Armstrong as 3 starters sit with fouls including guard D'Sean Larkins.  JJ Ware for 3 to cut the lead to 4.  Then its Jalen Cook off the handoff for 3.  Cook then lost on a cut for another hoop.  But the Armstrong lead is still 5 thanks to 2 Inniger assists on triples.  PC gets 2 FTs from Ayouba Berthe for a 32-31 lead.  Inniger cutting but not looking for the pass.  It finds a teammate who then finds Inniger for a bunny to reclaim the lead.  That starts a 10-1 Falcons run to end the half as they'll add a pair of 3s after.  40-32 Armstrong at the break.

Larkins back in the lineup to start the 2nd half and his impact is immediately felt.  He knocks down a 3, a steal for 2 and then repeats that sequence.  Dylan Inniger with a triple and a post up bucket in the spurt as well.  55-38 Armstrong just over 6 minutes into the 2nd half.  Park Center with a couple of quick triples to to get the lead down to 11.  Inniger stops that momentum with 2 more triples sandwiched around an assist for a layup.  66-50 Armstrong with 7:45 left.  Jalen Cook with a nice cut for a bucket and then an Armstrong turnover.  Park Center misses 2 good chances inside with 5:35 left and they're still down 68-56.  James Parker finds Cook on a nice inside out look for a left corner 3 with 4:30 left.  That cuts the lead to 11 but the Pirates get no closer.  Armstrong wins 80-67.

Post Game
Park Center falls to 8-4 overall, 7-4 in the league for 6th place.  Jalen Cook 19 points with a pair of 3s to be the top scorer for the Pirates.  Ayouba Berthe with 13, Dawson Rudolph with 11.  Lots of work from the elbow in the Pirates offense.  Using big James Parker there with Cook coming off handoffs is good action for them.  After the rematch with Armstrong this week, its 2 winnable league games at Blaine and home vs Centennial.  A home rematch with Totino-Grace who they lost to by 6 on the road at the beginning of this month looms in between.  They'll then get tough playoff tuneups in non-conference games at Maple Grove and at Champlin Park to end the regular season.

Armstrong improves to 9-3 overall and 7-3 in conference play.  That's a tie for 4th with 8-4 Maple Grove (MG has the head-head tiebreaker).  Only 2 games left in league play for the Falcons as they won't play Elk River.  That was why they were able to add the Minnetonka game that I wrote about a couple weeks ago.  A matchup with the surprise 8-3 Andover at the end of the season is still on the schedule.  In addition to the rematch at home with Park Center this week, they'll get playoff tuneups at Spring Lake Park. and Osseo.  Dylan Inniger with 27 points, 5 assists and a bunch of boards on my sheet.  16 of those points in the 1st half with the rest of the starting lineup all in foul trouble.  5 3s for him but more than just shooting to his game on this night.  D'Sean Larkins sat the last 7 minutes of the 1st half with the previously mentioned fouls.  He scores 16 points of his 22 points in the 2nd half.  10 of those in the run that pushed the lead to 17.  The Falcons also got 23 points and 5 triples out of their bench.

Four Factors

FACTOR	Park Center	Robbinsdale Armstrong
Effective FG %	53.6%	75%
Offensive Rebound %	40.5%	18.2%
Free Throw Rate	29.1%	16%
Turnover %	19.1%	20.3%
Points Per Possession	1.06	1.25

Czar's law in full effect here as that's the only factor Armstrong wins.  But they win it big thanks to 13-25 from the 3 point line.  Only non-green area (< 50% EFG) on the shot chart was 5-8 FTs.  Ball movement very good for Armstrong with 19 assists on 31 field goals.    Park Center with the perfect analytics shot chart with all 3s and paint shots, not a single mid-range 2 taken.  Park Center with double the free throw attempts but only made 3 more.  Offensive rebounds help Park Center in the 1st half but went away in the 2nd half.