Waunakee over Randolph

The matchup of the top D2 team and the top D5 team was an appealing matchup that never really lived up to the hype. Randolph came out extremely flat and never really got into the game. Waunakee rely on there tough defense whether they use their 1-3-1 zone or man to man defense and strong rebounding. that was never more evident in this game. Randolph struggled to penetrate the defense and never really could get the ball near the hoop and Waunakee's size and strength were just too much for them on both ends. The finally score was 51-31 so there wasn't much to talk about but, just a few key factors to look at.

This years Randolph team really doesn't have a guy that they go to that can score at will but, rely on ball movement to score. Last time I saw Randolph play was against a zone defense and they were able to get the ball to the middle of the zone and find wide open teammates cutting to the the hoop. Against Waunakee they weren't able to find those openings against the man to man defense and had to settle for outside shots that just weren't falling for them until late in the game, when the game was already over. Randolph's top scorer is 6'4 senior TJ Huizenga who appeared very exhausted in the game and it really showed in his play and his limited time on the court. I'm not sure if he was sick or what but, normally he seems to have great endurance and rarely comes out of the game but, in this game he appeared to be pulling on his shorts all night long and even saw him take a puff from an inhaler. As far as the outside shooting 6'2 senior Brian Kampstra is normally their top shooter but, he was way off in the game as he air balled a shot and had a shot that hit the backboard and didn't even catch rim. The lone bright stop was 6'7 junior Cody Reuter who actually showed some offensive game outside of put backs on rebounds. Twice Reuter got the ball in the post and made some nice moves and score with his back to the basket.

For Waunakee they were the same as always like I said earlier. They had their usual strong play from their two stars 6'2 seniors Jared Staege and Beau Murray. Staege was his normal stuff running the point and finding open teammates and Murray was able to penetrate and score or get fouled. The one difference in this game was the play of 6'5 senior Austin Maly. Maly really looked good on the offensive end with the ball in his hand especially with his back to the basket where he made some nice moves to score.

Honestly not much to say more I already mentioned all the top players of the game so not much else to say. Both these teams will make a push for state and despite losing Randolph is still the odds on favorite to win D5 and they probably won't see a team with Waunakee's size and strength in the D5 playoffs.

Box Score
Waunakee- Murray 16 Staege 10 A Maly 9 Jacob Soper 4 Zak Hougland 3 Ben Cable 3 Justin Block 3 Andrew Dorscheid 2 Joe Tagarelli 1 Ross Maly 0 Dylan DesRochers 0 Will Decorah 0 Brett Richgels 0 Jake Heitland 0 Tim Keenan 0
Randolph- Huizenga 6 Jay Peters 6 Mike Thoreson 5 Aaron Retzlaff 4 Cody Reuter 4 Brandon Zimmerman 3 Brian Kampstra 3 Miles Taylor 0 Jacob Brandt 0 Jaspreet Singh 0 Jon Roberts 0 Hunter Verhulst 0 Cody Katsma 0