Madison East over Sun Prairie

In a mini upset Madison East was able to defeat Sun Prairie. Madison East appears to have gotten even shorter in the past couple weeks as one of the few players over 6 foot on the team, Stephen Williams, is no longer on the team and one of their other taller players DJ Bell has not seen the court or even suited up the three games I have seen East play. East has called up 6'2 sophomore Mile Kietzer to give them at least two players on the roster over 6 foot but, he played maybe 30 seconds in the game so, therefore East's only player over 6 foot that actually plays is 6'3 sophomore Emani Brathwaite. Sun Prairie was missing two of their top scorers in seniors 6'2 Jordan Noskowiak and 6'0 Jaron Schaffner this really hurt Sun Prairie on the offensive end in the scoring area and bringing the ball up the court because these two players handle the ball alot for the Cardinals.

As I alluded to earlier the absence of Noskowiak and Schaffner was obvious early and often. Madison East had the full court press on the entire game and Sun Prairie turned it over and over time and again and led to some easy buckets. When Sun Prairie did break the press there were only two guys that wanted to take shots in their two 6'5 guys in senior Chris Hawkins and sophomore Nick Fuller. Hawkins and Fuller really seemed to wear down as they had to do the balk of the ball handling against the pressure and then had to work very hard to get shots off against the East 3-2 zone which was focused on stopping the two of them. East came out firing with lots of energy with their full court defense and hot outside shooting. East was up 17-8 after one quarter. Normally a great outside shooter Fuller couldn't get anything to fall for him outside of five foot. Nearly a dozen times Fuller got a wide open shot from the corner and just couldn't get the shot to go. Prairie did finally get something going looking to either Hawkins or 6'5 senior Daniel Mifflin in the high post and cutting to an open teammate, usually Fuller for the easy buckets. East's shooting cooled off in the second quarter and Sun Prairie cut the lead to three and were down 27-24 at the half.

Sun Prairie played a 1-3-1 the entire game but, in the second half they really made a conscience effort to pack in the zone and not let East penetrate and dish to open teammates and East had to settle for just passing the ball around the perimeter normally three feet behind the three point line which kept the game low scoring. Both teams only score six points in the third quarter and the lead remained at three after three quarters. Throughout the entire game no one really stood out for East and it really was a team effort but, then in the fourth quarter and overtime they finally had someone step out and assert themselves on the offensive end. For once in wasn't their star though, 6'0 senior Nimrod Hillard. This time it was the #2 man 5'9 junior Rudy Bentley. Bently was able to score in the transition, hit a huge three to tie the game late, and then was money from the line in sealing it. In the fourth Sun Prairie made the adjustment of putting Fuller at the top of the zone which created a lot of problems for East and they turned the ball over and the tie game and sent the game to OT. Throughout the entire second half Sun Prairie's game was give the ball to Hawkins and let him score using his size and strength to score over the smaller defenders. Hawkins was a beast throughout the second half and had the best game I've seen him play this year but, in OT Sun Prairie looked to drive the ball to the hoop inside of looking to Hawkins when they got down and East used their quick hands to knock the ball away on three straigh possessions last in OT. Final score was 61-56.

Top Players
Rudy Bentley 5'9 junior East- Said it all already. Really did step up and carried his team late to victory.
Nimrod Hillard 6'0 senior East- Second game in a row where he struggled scoring but, did a nice job of penetrating and dishing out to his teammates who were hitting from the outside.
Chris Hawkins 6'5 senior Sun Prairie- Despite losing he was the best player in this game. Was a beast on the inside and the only time he seemed he wasn't scoring was when he was getting fouled where he went to the line and made the shots.
Nick Fuller 6'5 sophomore Sun Prairie- Really struggled from the outside shooting but, did get down on himself and still moved well without the ball and got his points.

Box Score
East- Bentley 19 Hillard 14 Jermel McLin 8 Demetrius Durley 6 Speedy Amara 5 Emani Brathwaite 5 Alex Redd 3 Darius Kelly 1 Mile Kietzer 0
Sun Prairie- Hawkins 25 Fuller 19 Mifflin 7 Rapheal Ragland 0 Paris Saffold 1 Martin Cromwell 1 Bryce Opps 0 Jacob Oakley 0 Ryan Yentz 0 Andre Wallace 0

Sun Prairie is a team that always seems to be on the edge of being great but, then they lose a game like this that they never should of lost but, have to give them a bit of a benefit of the doubt because they were missing two of their double digit scorers. Madison East is a team that will give 110% but, as I've said over and over their height will hold them back but, their hustle and intensity will get them some wins against some very good teams.