Racine Park outruns Baraboo

In my first games of the year I headed over to Baraboo to catch their very first Thanksgiving tournament. The first game was Rhinelander against West DePere which I got to a little late so I wasn't able to keep track of the scoring and never really got into the game and actually didn't even get the final score of the game but, West DePere easily defeated Rhinelander who was over matched in this game.

Some of the players that did stand out to me where 6'3 junior Dylan Smith for Rhinelander who despite being very undersized both in height and thickness did a very good job of battling on the inside. For West DePere it really was a team effort and they didn't seem to have any huge stars but, 6'4 senior Justin Hackl was very solid in the paint on the offensive end while 5'10 junior Shane Gulseth was dropping the threes from the outside.

In the marquee game Racine Park took on host Baraboo. Park had the advantage in nearly every aspect of the game but, the biggest thing that gave Park their victory was their team speed and pressing in your face defense. Park used their speed and athleticism to get a 78-54 victory over Baraboo. Numerous turnovers doomed Baraboo from the start and Park jumped out to the early lead and never looked back. Baraboo was able to climb back into the game and cut the lead to 43-31 at half but, in the third quarter Park turned up the pressure and after three where up 61-39 and midway through the fourth both teams cleared their benches. In the third quarter the game was pretty much sealed when Park 6'1 senior Tre Edwards had three straight steals and scored each time and then a fourth steal minutes later led to an ally oop dunk from Edwards to 6'5 senior JD Magruder. Only thing that kept the game within 20 points for much of the game was Park's fouling and Baraboo scoring with the clock stopped. Racine Park senior 6'1 Josh Cameron had lots of hype surrounding him prior to the season starting after averaging 22 points a game a year ago and then being dismissed from his previous school before the start of the season and ending up at Park. Cameron seemed to be out of it today as he only finished with nine points but, did a nice job of distributing the ball.

Top Players
Tre Edwards 6'1 senior Racine Park- Very quick hands which led to a ton of steals and easy buckets. Also did a great job of finishing at the rim around defenders outstretched arms.
Taron Edwards 5'10 sophomore Racine Park- Probably much taller then the listed height of 5'10 but, was a great shooter, that seemed to knock down every shoot where he was open.
Sean McGann 6'3 sophomore Baraboo- Very nice job of helping bringing the ball up the court and did a nice job of knifing through the Park defenders to score.

Box Score (as always starters are in italics)
Racine Park - Tr. Edwards 22 Ta. Edwards 13 Issaih Bridges 11 Cameron 9 Stan MacKenzie 9 Isaiah Scott 5 David Campbell 4 Shane St. Pierre 2 JD Magruder 2 Josh Beaton 2 Finest Marshall 0 John Harris 0 Frank Gutierrez 0 James Orth 0 Bryan Kelly 0
Baraboo- McGann 13 Josh Statz 12 Mark Kowalke 8 Jed Traxler 5 Ton Brandt 4 Tyler Fish 4 Emerson Halbach 2 Mike Weinke 2 Jake Meiller 2 Caleb Leonhardt 2 Ryan Baxter 0 Joe Becraft 0 Erik Anderson 0

Well it was an exciting first day of high school basketball, getting a chance to see the #10 ranked team in the state. Racine Park was a pretty impressive team but, I think I may of put them just outside of the top 10.