Madison Memorial Routes Sun Prairie

I've really been slacking lately and still trying to catch up on my games. Saturday night I went down to check out the Sun Prairie take on Madison Memorial. Sun Prairie had just beaten Madison Lafollette and I wanted to see if Sun Prairie was finally ready to make a jump up in the conference or if Lafollette is actually that bad.

Sun Prairie started the game out very well and I was pretty impressed with them throughout the first five minutes of the game but, then started to go south. Sun Prairie's play started to drop slowly at first but, continued to fall faster and faster as the game wore on and the Memorial defense wore them down. I believe with about three or four minutes left in the half Memorial only had about a seven point lead and that is when their patented press defense came out and Sun Prairie went into a shell shock. Prairie kept turning the ball over right at the end and 6'3 junior Vander Blue knocked down a buzzer three for Memorial. The bright spot though for Sun Prairie with their turnovers, were that they didn't result in easy Memorial baskets. Typically the Cardinals were just throwing the ball out of bounds do to some miscommunication. The press was kept on until midway through the fourth and the final score ended at 70-36.

Sun Prairie played a 2-3 zone throughout the entire game as long as Memorial star 6'6 senior Jeronne Maymon was in. The defense worked in stopping Maymon in that he only scored seven points but, Vander Blue just ate the Cardinals zone up. Blue was able to penetrate to the middle of the zone and knock down the floater. 6'4 freshmen Junior Lomomba also had a strong showing against the zone as he was able to run the baseline and find openings in the defense for easy layups. Once again Memorial dominated the boards offensively and defensively. Tonight Memorial was just the far more athletic team and it showed as they beat Sun Prairie to the loose balls and their hands were also above the outstretched hands of the Cardinals.

Score
Madison Memorial 70
Sun Prairie 36

Box Score (starters in bold and italics)
Memorial- Blue 15 Lomomba 14 Maymon 7 Fred Ringhand 7 Eric Fruhling 7 Ace Davis 6 Tre Creamer 6 Xavier Jones 3 Ed Kluender 3 Russell Henderson 2 Miles Chamberlain 0 Karl Klatt 0 Alvin Olson 0 Mathew Laubmeier 0
Sun Prairie- Sam Marshall 12 Jordan Noskowiak 9 Korey Enstad 4 Michael Boos 3 Tyler Cobb 2 Andrew Peters 2 Jason Davis 2 Jacob Baker 2 Michael Handel 0 William Thiel 0 Anthony Burchette 0 Terrence Porter 0 Chet Pohlman 0 Eric Wilberding 0 Trevor Opps 0

Top Players
Vander Blue 6'3 junior Madison Memorial- This game was Vanders night. He could get to the basket at will, knocked down a couple of threes, and missed a dunk where he tried to go right over a Sun Prairie player.
Junior Lomomba 6'4 freshmen Madison Memorial- Moves extremely well without the ball is also a very good rebounder. Right now may be more of an athlete then anything else.
Sam Marshall 6'4 senior Sun Prairie- One of the few Cardinals that was able to score. Was able to get inside position and get the easy layups.
Jordan Noskowiak 6'3 sophomore Sun Prairie- Looked good early on knocking down some shots and getting to hoop but, was slowed by some foul trouble.

Once again Memorial wins because they are the most athletic team on the court. Right now I don't think they'll play a team from Wisconsin that can compete with them athletically until state where they would see a team from the southeast part of the state. Maybe I just caught Sun Prairie on an off night but, I would say that there still not ready to make the jump to the top half of the conference.