Madison East Over Janesville Craig

Last night got to go down to Madison East and get my first chance to see the Marquis Mason and the Eastsiders play. Before the season I thought East would be a pretty tall team that would focus on getting the ball inside but, their success would hinder on their guard play. After seeing them last night it appears their guards are pretty solid and they are a pretty good team.

Madison East jumped out to an early lead over Janesville Craig behind the strong play of senior guard 5'11 Yamil Bacallao who was able to knock down the first two shots of the game and then was able to get some offensive rebounds and get some put back buckets. For Craig their sharpshooter 6'3 senior Kyle Goike knocked down the first three he took but, then quickley picked up three fouls three minutes into the game which really hindered Craig offensively. Craig really didn't look to get the ball inside like the last time I saw them play and it seemed they spent a lot of time just standing around watching 6'3 senior AJ Fredricks trying to penetrate and score by throwing up some wild shots. After the first barrage of baskets by Bacallao East settled into their offense and looked to get the ball inside to their star 6'4 junior Marquis Mason. Mason was able to score at will on the inside. Mason was able to jump up in the air and use his strength to score over and around the Craig defenders, which led to 18 first half points for Mason.

In the second half Janesville Craig continued to get into foul trouble to the dismay of the Craig fans who seemed to be upset with every call the referees made. I can't say I don't completely blame them as it seemed that every time I looked at the score board in both halfs Craig had eight fouls while East had only three. Nearly all night Craig had twice as many fouls. Second half Craig finally was able to get the ball inside and 6'6 senior Jojo Pregont got things going a bit and Craig clawed back into the game but, midway through the fourth quarter Madison East went to a clock managing offensive that really drained the time down. With the slow down offense or stalling 5'10 sophomore Nimrod Hilliard took over. Craig was forced to come out and guard Hilliard and Hilliard was just able to go around the defender or get fouled which led to 12 fourth quarter points for Hilliard. In the end Craig was unable to come back and lost 61-53.

As I mentioned early East has some pretty good height as they start two 6'4 guys, a 6'7, and a 6'4 guy off the bench. Their guards were also very impressive as Hilliard is a very good pass first point guard and Bacallao does a little bit of everything and is a great rebounder for a guard. They've beaten Verona one of the top teams in the conference and appear to be playing very good right now.

Right now Janesville Craig appears to be on the decline and don't look anywhere near the team that I saw the first game of the year. They have gone away from the high low game that was so impressive the first time I saw them. It never appeared that they used that offense ever throughout the game. AJ Fredricks who looked so good off the bench is now starting and still forcing too many shots. Fredricks is a good player but, needs to play within the offense and not force so many bad shots. They still only have three scorers in Fredricks, Pregont, and Goike and when one of them isn't scoring then that really hurts the team.

Top Players
Marquis Mason 6'4 junior Madison East- Great all around athlete that can score at will. When he gets the ball on the inside he can jump over or muscle his way past defenders.
Yamil Bacallao 5'11 senior Madison East- Great rebounder for a guard that can jump out of the gym. Very solid roll player that does all the little things.
Nimrod Hilliard 5'10 sophomore Madison East- Great pass first point guard that can get to the rim at will and finish.
AJ Fredricks 6'3 senior Janesville Craig- Can score in a variety of ways but, probably shoots too much.
JoJo Pregont 6'6 senior Janesville Craig- Very good passing big man but, needs to look to post up more. Went he did get in the post he was finally scoring.

Box Score
Madison East 61
Janesville Craig 53

Box Score (starters in bold and italics)
Madison East- Mason 21 Bacallao 14 Hilliard 12 Bartelt 8 Jeff Hull 4 Stafford Park 2 Walt Hetzel 0 Drew McAdams 0 Marcel Terry 0
Janesville Craig- Fredricks 16 Pregont 13 Joe Kennedy 7 Goike 6 Brad Cagney 5 Keith Wright 2 Jared Johnson 2 Will Clanfield 2 Alex Lowe 0

If Madison East continues to play this way they will find themselves towards the top of the conferences and if Craig continues playing this way they'll find themselves towards the bottom of the conference.