East Troy over Mcfarland

Last night was my first chance to see the overwhelming division three favorite East Troy. This was the closes that they have been to my home all year and they were playing the second place team in the conference. I knew East Troy was very big and wouldn't play much of their bench and honestly didn't have any idea what to expect in regards to Mcfarland.

I came expecting to see 6'8 senior Tanner Plomb and 6'3 junior Nate Dodge put up bigger scoring numbers and 6'9 junior twins Alex and Brett Pahl doing a little scoring, rebounding, and playing solid defense. With these four players I didn't see much else in the scoring column but, it was 6'0 senior Myles Olsen that stole the show early on. Olsen should the ability to run the offense very well and knock down the open shot when given the opportunity, which he should get a lot since the opponent will be focused on stopping his teammates first. Plomb is the guy going to the D1 school but, he didn't have a great night as the shots just weren't falling, but you could tell that he has tremendous skill with the way he plays and moves for a guy that's 6'8. Dodge was every bit the player I expected to see as he could and would take the outside shot at any time and more times then not would knock it down. The Pahl's weren't great offensive threats but, did their thing on the inside both on offense and defense. Alex was limited due to foul trouble.

On the other side Mcfarland looked totally lost against the bigger East Troy defenders. It seemed to take forever for Mcfarland to get a shot off and when the did take a shot it was swatted back in their face. It took about five minutes into the game before Mcfarland actually ran something that appeared to be an offense. Mcfarland had some nice back door cuts and finally got something going when they went through 6'3 senior Adam Schluter. Despite giving up six inches to both of the Pahls, Schluter was able to use his quickness to get around the defenders and caused Alex Pahl to spend a good portion of the game on the bench.  Mcfarland was down 13 points after the first quarter and the game stayed that way for the majority of the time as East Troy got the 75-58 win.

Top Players
Nate Dodge 6'3 junior East Troy- Can get his shot off at any time. Has a very quick release and unlimited range. Moves very well without the ball.
Myles Olsen 6'0 senior East Troy- Considered the fifth best starter in most peoples eyes but, I was really impressed with him. Did a great job controlling the offense and is actually a pretty good shooter but, is over shadowed by by Dodge and Plomb.
Adam Schluter 6'3 senior Mcfarland- Really out played the East Troy big men throughout the entire game and at times was the best player on the court.

Box Score
East Troy- Dodge 25 Olsen 14 B Pahl 11 A Pahl 10 Plomb 10 Will Iloncaie 3 Alex Kaz 2 Zach Davis 0
Mcfarland- Schluter 19 Nik Ewelt 15 Brandon Doll 10 Cory Frank 4 Seth Johnson 4 Chris Wedel 4 Zach Hutson 2 Antwon Washington 0 Ben Jordan 0 Casey Engelhart 0 Ben Miller 0

I came away from this game fairly impressed with East Troy but, I don't think that they are an unbeatable team. Of the teams I have seen in D3 I could only see possibly beating them are Wisconsin Dells, if they were hitting their threes, and Lodi if they can stay out of foul trouble with their big guys. For Mcfarland I think they could possibly win one playoff game but, probably won't get much further in the playoffs.