Size Kills Madison East Again

On Tuesday night I was originally going to go to the Oshkosh West verse Verona game because it would give me a change to see Oshkosh West's star Brandon Marquardt and knew that Verona had a high scorer in Bryan Dalton. When I looked at the game a little more I found a better choice as Verona has only won one game this year and Oshkosh West is only a .500 team. I found a better game a little closer to home and took in the Madison East verse Waunakee game. I knew what to expect in this game being that East would be vastly undersized and Waunakee would control the boards which would give them the easy win.

For the most part the game started and went as expected. Waunakee had their star back in 6'6 senior Joe Tagarelli back, who didn't start but, did play a vast majority of the game. Waunakee really struggled from the outside which kept the game close but, as I expected they were able to get second and third opportunities at the rim and that's all they needed to score. Tagarelli was unstoppable once he got the ball within 10 feet of the rim as East had no one over 6'3 to put on him. Waunakee's number two man 6'4 junior Will Decorah had a pretty solid game despite the fact that he couldn't buy a jumper or even a free throw throughout the entire game.

For Madison East it was all penetration that they relied on with their lack of height. They had some success drive to the hoop and finding open teammates around the rim but, they were unable to get those easy shots to fall. I'm not sure if it was the fear of getting blocked, since their always vastly undersized, or that they were just so excited that they actually were open but, they just didn't have the touch around the rim. East was able to get passed the initial defender but, there was always a long armed defender that would come over to help out and stop the penetration. This defense really seemed to frustrate East top player 5'8 senior Rudy Bentley. Bentley was the primary player doing the driving but, just couldn't find himself an opening the defense and just further frustrated him when his teammates were missing easy shots. The one bright spot for East was Jermel McLin a 6'0 junior who hit four threes in the game and really kept his team somewhat in the game before the final result was obvious. The final score was Waunakee 68 and Madison East 50.

Top Players
Joe Tagarelli 6'6 senior Waunakee- Heard he was just offered a walk on spot with UW Milwaukee which surprised me a little but, the kid is a very solid player in the post. Very smooth touch around the rim and almost impossible to stop when he gets in the lane.
Will Decorah 6'4 junior Waunakee- Moves very well without the ball and when one aspect of his game isn't working goes to another part of his game to get the job done. Did a nice job getting second chance buckets and just finding openings on the inside against the East defense.
Tim Keenan 6'3 senior Waunakee- I think he really gets over looked because of the two guys I just listed ahead of him but, he just does everything well. Tonight he wasn't hitting the threes but, did a great job rebounding and scoring in the paint.
Jermel McLin 6'0 junior Madison East- Very good scorer shooting the three or going to the hoop. Took some wild shots going to the rim but, overall played a solid game finding opening teammates and getting his own in the scoring column.

Box Score
Waunakee- Tagarelli 26 Decorah 16 Keenan 10 Ben Cable 6 Max Chamberlin 3 Dylan DesRochers 2  Ryan Kruser 2 Jakub Bollant-Ulvilden 2 Alex Cole 1 Justin Block 0  Patrick O'Connell 0 Michael Meffert 0 Brett Richgels 0
Madison East- McLin 17 Emani Brathwaite 9 Bentley 7 De'Shawn Burks 6 Eric Aikens 3 Daniel Karlin-Kamin 3 Miles Kietzer 2 Alex Redd 1 Treveon Wright 0 Tim Moses 0 Stavon Staples 0

I came away just reaffirming to me that Waunakee is just a solid team overall, have some great coaching, and the players are really a product of their system. Madison East the story continues to be the same, NO HEIGHT. East will be able to beat the less talented teams but, in the end their height is going to hurt them.