Aquinas Dominates On Way To State

In the Baraboo Division three sectional final Lacrosse Aquinas defeated Cuba City 64-35, in a game in which Aquinas dominated from the jump on. This game was essentially over mid way through the first quarter. At about the four minute mark with Aquinas already in a comfortable lead, Cuba City star Evan Richard penetrate to the hoop and lost his footing causing him to fall and smoke his head on the ground. Blood was everywhere and Richard laid on the floor for about five minutes and then was helped off the court, never to be seen near the court again. From what I heard after the game, it appeared that Richard was taken to the nearby hospital for further examination. Despite the injury occurring in the first quarter, it seemed that Cuba City could never recover from that point on.

Throughout the entire game Aquinas was able to play some high pressure defense to force Cuba City into turnovers and were able to deny the ball from the post, which seemed to be where Cuba was looking to get the ball early on. In the first half Aquinas was carried offensively by the three point shooting of forwards Lucas Morrissey and Michael Hanson, teamed with some back door cuts by Sam Pederson, which gave him some wide open layups. In the second half that same pressure defense continued and Cuba gave up trying to get the ball to the inside. Cuba City came out in a 1-3-1 zone defense that seemed to confuse Aquinas for about two possessions until the were able to find Hanson on a back door cut that resulted in an ally oop dunk and Cuba City went back to man to man defense for the remained of the game. Jimmy Whitehead was able to do most of his scoring in the second half by getting inside and scoring.

For Cuba City it didn't seem that they could do anything right. Threes weren't dropping, they couldn't get by the Aquinas defenders, and when they tried to pass the ball inside, it was stolen the majority of the time. Aquinas was far more athletic and quicker in every aspect of the game. Cuba's best offense seem to be either Tranel just putting their head down and just driving to the hoop. For the second half of the game Cuba City was just throwing up wild shots that weren't even coming close.

Scoring Breakdown
Lacrosse Aquinas 64- Morrissey 14 Whitehead 13 Pederson 10 Hanson 8 Zach Rickaway 8 Kirk Nicklaus 5 John Ruff 4 Tony Favre 2 Nick Thimis 0 Michael Balduzzi 0 Barrett Hebel 0 Andrew Schroeder 0 Booby Kachel 0
Cuba City 35- J Tranel 12 Ben Pickel 7 D Tranel 6 Jake Meckstroth 6 Joe Schweigert 4 Shane Morrissey 0 Kyle Kaiser 0 Richard 0 Wells Kaiser 0 Justin Alt 0 Brandon Stecklein 0

In tonight's game I was extremely impressed with Aquinas. This team may be even better then last years team that everyone thought couldn't be beaten. The run the court just as well as last year and they look to get the ball inside a lot more then last years team, which may be a plus because last year when Aquinas wasn't able to get out and run, they would look lost in the half court offense at times. Division three should really be a fun state tournament to watch, with Whitefish Bay Dominican, Iola Scandenavia, and Eau Claire Regis joining Aquinas at state.