Madison Memorial gains sole possession of Big Eight lead

In a battle of first place in the Big Eight, Madison Memorial took on Middleton. All year Middleton has been a surprise to me that they were undefeated in the conference and were neck and neck with Memorial throughout the year. I figured Middleton was playing a lot of players and were very fundamentally sound. For the most part  I was spot on with the exception of the first three quarters or so.
Middleton did play eight players big minutes, to the fact that after about two minutes in the game I could no longer tell who the starters were and in fact the top two scorers in the game came off the bench. Looking at the scoring Middleton's three bench players out scored the starters 32 to 20. Middleton didn't really play fundamental tell the fourth quarter when they finally made a huge comeback.

Early on Memorial started like normal dominating the boards with their two big leapers 6'6 senior Jamar Morris and 6'5 junior Jester Weah. Morris finally had a game I expected to see all year long as he was scoring in the post and hitting the 15 foot jumpers from the outside. Morris pair with 6'1 junior Brendan Ortiz were huge in this game because their star and leading scorer 6'5 senior Junior Lomomba didn't really show up in this game. Morris was huge in the first and Ortiz took over in the second hitting three, three point shot in about a five minute time each of which came with a defender in his face. I've said all year Ortiz has been a pass first point guard but, this was the first time he was looking for his shot and looking to score. On the Middleton end it really was a group effort as it seemed everyone that played scored. Almost all of the baskets were scored within two feet of the hoop and typically usually on second attempts at the hoop as their threes just weren't falling and many times they just out hustled Memorial on that end. Middleton's other big struggle was turning the ball over which they did time and again and in the end I think that was the biggest reason that Middleton lost this game.

Memorial led 29-20 at half and extended the lead to 41-28 after three quarters before Middleton made their huge comeback. Middleton was able to climb back into this game and lost 56-52 in the end. The biggest reason Middleton got back in this game was Memorial fouling and allowing the Cardinals to score with the clock stopped. When the game ended Ortiz had fouled out, Lomomba, Weah, Ngijol Songolo had four fouls and Morris had three fouls. Combined with the free throw shooting and then the ability of 6'3 sophomore Derek Rongstad getting himself going driving to the hoop and hitting threes Middleton won the fourth quarter 24-14.

Top Players
Brendan Ortiz 6'1 junior Madison Memorial- Finally broke out of the pass first point guard mold and did some scoring. Shoewed off his superior three point shooting. Didn't have a ton of assists but, still did a good job running the offense.
Jamar Morris 6'6 senior Madison Memorial- Finally appeared to be the player that I thought he would be all year long as he was scoring with his back to the basket, on put backs, and mid range jump shots.
Derek Rongstad 6'3 sophomore Middleton- Honestly didn't do a lot tell late in the game. Did a nice job penetrating to the of the Memorial defense and scoring, hit the three point shot, and was money from the free throw line late in the game.

Box Score
Madison Memorial- Morris 16 Ortiz 14 Weah 11 Lomomba 8 Songolo 3 Joe Ferguson 2 Tyler Lindquist 2 Julian Walters 0 Donnel Thomspon 0
Middleton- Rongstad 16 Eric Hagstrom 10 Sam Everson 7 Nick Schmidt 6 Antoine Buchanon 5 Jake Raffel 3 Bryan Machmeier 3 Robby Williams 2

This game just furthered my belief that Memorial is head and shoulders above every other team in the Big Eight. It may of only been a four point game but, in reality Memorial didn't play very good the entire game but, still had a thirteen point lead after three quarters and if not for a ton of free throw shots would of won by double digits. I just feel as a whole the Big Eight is down with the exception of Memorial who has really dominated and may only drop a game in a second time around match up with Middleton or Sun Prairie.