Chiefs handle Eagles

I nearly prediction this one exactly right. I predicted the Chiefs to win by 15 and they ended up winning by 14. Wisconsin Dells was able to jump out to a 10 point lead and held it at 10 until the third quarter when they were able to extend it to 15. In the fourth Sauk Praire was able to cut the lead to nine but, in the end the Chiefs were able to get the lead back to a 14 point margin by hitting their free throws. Dells was the more talented team but, Sauk is one of those teams that are very scrappy and make games ugly and just seem to hang around, remaining within striking distance.

Wisconsin Dells is pretty much a two man team as I expected as 6'0 junior guard Jade Royston led the Chiefs with 21 points while 5'11 senior guard Ryan Wenkman netted 19. Its not that either of these guys are ball hogs by any means but, no one else on the team really looks to shoot so the two guards are really counted on to score. Wenkman did the majority of his scoring right out of the gate early in the game, while Royston carried the team late in the game, hitting some clutch free throws. Wenkman is a very hard nosed player that is not afraid to mix it up inside and crash the boards, which does lead to some foul trouble. The senior also has the ability to knock down the three point shot, as well as get into the lane and take the ball strong to the hoop. Royston is a very smooth guard who shys away from contact alittle more then Wenkman. Royston is a guy that scores the majority of his points from the outside but, when the opportunity arises to score inside he takes it.

I stated in my prediction that I was interested in seeing the the two Dells guards and also seeing the 6'9 sophomore Nate Gibson. Gibson is a very big kid probably about 250 pounds but, needs to get stronger. When Sauk brought in their 6'8 senior Alec Rilling, who was probably around the same weight if not slightly bigger, he was able to push Gibson around a bit. You could really see the difference between a sophomore and senior. Another thing I noticed was that when Gibson he brought it down right away and when your that tall you have to keep the ball up high were no one else can get to it. The kid is raw but, I have to remember that he is only a sophomore and in his first year on varsity. Gibson did make one real nice move with his back to the basket, which appears he prefers over facing up to the hoop. One thing that the Chiefs need to work on, which was pointed out by the Deforest coaches behind me, is that they need to box out. With their lack of size they really need to box out strong or they will get killed against taller teams.

Sauk Praire is a team with not a lot of talent and will probably struggle a lot this year but, with there hard scrappy play they should be able to keep games close and low scoring. The Eagles did a pretty good job of attacking the offensive glass and got a lot of second chance points. (this may of just been because of the Dells poor boxing out) The only real player I saw for Sauk for 6'0 junior guard Garret Schwarz who settled for outside shots that weren't dropping and finished with only seven. The other big player for Sauk I had talked about was 6'0 junior Chad Pings who did score 14 points but, most of those were second chance garbage points.

Top Scores
Royston 21 Wenkman 19 Laddie Lucke 6
Pings 14 Schwarz 7 Tyler Halverson 5

After watching this game I've concluded the Wisconsin Dells probably won't run through the South Central Conference as easily as I had previously thought but, I still think they will be right there towards the top at the end of the year. Meanwhile Sauk Praire will probably end up towards the bottom of the Badger North Conference but, will probably keep most games close.