Middleton over Bay View in OT

This really should of been a good game to watch being that the game went into overtime with Middleton winning 89-81 and Bay View made a furious comeback to send it to overtime. This game left a bad taste in my mouth because of some strange coaching on Bay Views part. The Bay View coach Donald Chapman took out his starting back court of Charles Lee, a very good freshmen, and Johnnie Lacy, #2 junior in the state, with two minutes remaining in the third quarter and they never returned to the game throughout the fourth and overtime quarters. This bothered me not because these guys are starters and stars on the team but, because they are really fun to watch. Along with this fact starters Elgin Cook and Darnell Harris were benched with about four minutes left in the fourth quarter and never returned either. The lone starter to play the final eight minutes of the game was Demetrius Turner who played great. So Bay View benched all the players that I went to see when the game was on the line, teamed with the fact that Middleton doesn't have a true star or at least a well known player throughout the state, and that there was a very small crowd all added to the game not being as exciting as I had anticipated. Thinking back the last 30 seconds of regulation and overtime the fans got into it a bit and made the game a bit more exciting but, the benching of the Bay View Starters just really bothered me.

The benching of the starters could be looked at two ways. One if they would of played the starters throughout, Bay View would of for sure won because if their backups could send it to OT then the starters would of won. The second thought is that at the start of the fourth Bay View was down by 10, which I forgot to mention earlier, therefore the starters weren't getting it done so the bench players came in and played better. My thought process is with the first option that is Bay View would of won with the starters in but, then again I'm not a high school coach and have no idea what the reasoning was. This could of just been a case disciplining the starters for not doing what the coach wanted or being lazy or selfish I really have no idea. Now that I've gotten that out of my system I can talk about how each of the teams played in the game.

As I had mentioned the last time I saw Milwaukee Bay View play they are a very young but, talented team that is gonna look really good at times and is really gonna struggle at times. This game had both sides of that. Bay View looked good to start the game then towards the end of second quarter things went a little rough and continued to about the midway point of the fourth, when the starters were benched, then in OT went back to looking really rough again.

What cost Bay View the game was that the just turned the ball over too much and gave up to many three point shots. In the first half Middleton was pressing and it looked like that was playing into Bay View's as they were able to break the press and get open layups. As the game wore on though Bay View wore down and began turning the ball over. Speaking of wearing down Middleton never seemed to get tired as their primary rotation consists of 12 players, with all 12 players seeming to play and even amount of minutes. It seemed like every two minutes two new players were coming in and each player took a turn doing the scoring as all 12 players scored, seven of which scored at least five points. Bay View played a zone the majority of the game which seemed to allow Middleton to get wide open three point shots in the corners, which they seemed to drop with ease.

The most impressive player of the day was 6'4 160 pound sophomore forward Demetrius Turner for Bay View, who played much bigger then his weight suggests. Turner was able to control the boards on both ends and was able to score against the thicker Middleton defenders. 5'11 junior Johnnie Lacy once again had a big first half scoring 15 points in the half and then disappeared in the third quarter and then was benched for the fourth. Freshmen 6'3 Elgin Cook was limited by foul trouble but, was able to go to the hoop strong and finished, as he was able to score 15 points as well. Freshmen guards 5'7 Charles Lee and 5'6 Samar Powell both did a great job of distributing the ball and breaking the press by just dribbling around the Middleton defenders. 6'6 freshmen Darnell Harris played very good on the defensive end as he had probably handful of blocks as well as taking two or three charges. Harris really did a good job of knowing when to contest the shot or when to stay on the ground. Two players that came off the bench to play big where 6'2 junior D-Angelo Johnson who scored 10 points but, just out hustling his defenders and 6'0 freshmen Haki Stampely who had 12 points including a banked in three that cut the lead to two with 30 seconds remainng in the fourth. #52 who I wasn't on the roster and couldn't catch his name was able to come for the first time with two minutes remaining in the game and was able to get five points and a pair of steals to help Bay View send the game to OT.

Middleton benefited from always having well rested players on the court and getting open looks from three point range. Jon Stubbe a 6'4 senior benefited the most from the open three as he was able to net 22 points with the balk of them coming from behind the arc. As expected with the subbing Middleton's bench came up big. Two guys came off the bench and scored 13 points in 6'2 senior Brett Semenas and 6'3 senior Justin Mertes-Mistretta, Semenas scoring almost all his points on three point shots or outside jumpers while JMM (easier to type that) nailed two three point shots and was then able to penetrate inside once the Bay View defenders began over playing him. 6'1 senior guard Dan Lochner was also impressive even though he didn't reach double figures scoring. Lochner was able to come down the court three times in a row and use his strength to penetrate and score.

Box Score
Middleton 89- Bay View 81
Middleton- Stubbe 22 Semenas 13 Mertes-Mistretta 13 Lochner 8 Jay Nunnery 7 Kevin Kruckenberg 6 Dan Trautman 5 Brooks Braga 4 Andrew Hudson 4 Keegan Nesvacil 3 Taylor Diem 2 Joe Dean 2 Travis Martin 0 Lavert Mathews 0
Bay View- Lacy 15 Cook 15 Turner 13 Stampley 12 Johnson 10 #52 5 Powell 4 Lee 4 Harris 4 Larell Noble 0

Well this is one prediction that I got wrong for the weekend. Tomorrow I'll discuss how I did on the rest of my weekend predictions and talk a little bit about the Badger game which I'm watching on DVR right now.