Verona over Madison East

In one of the few good matchups in the opening night of playoffs Verona took on Madison East at East. It was my last chance to see Rudy Bentely of Madison East a lighting quick 5'8 senior guard and the first time to see high scorer 6'5 senior Bryan Dalton of Verona. Both teams finished in the bottom half of the Big Eight Conference and as expected the turnout was small but, the gym did feel alive and was very loud as this game went right down to the wire.

East was leading the entire game and in the end foul trouble and fouls that gave up three point plays were their undoing. Throughout much of the game East was faster and quicker and they were hitting their outside shots. Bentely was the leader throughout the game and was really hitting the outside shots early on and hit some clutch shots throughout. In the second half Bentely was able to penetrate and find sharpshooter 6'2 junior Daniel Karlin-Kamin who hit three, three point shots in the second half to give East a big lead of about double digits but, Verona was able to claw back into this game.

Early on the only guy scoring was Dalton, who showed a nice array of scoring ability using his size and shooting touch from the outside. In the second half a pair of 6'1 guards got involved with senior Jason Biddle and junior Andrew Argall. Argall ran the point and in the second half drove the ball right to the hoop and took advantage of Bentely not wanting to pick up cheap fouls and scored most of his points pushing the tempo at the rim. Biddle struggled throughout the game but, came up the biggest late in the game hitting a wild shot in the lane to give Verona their first lead of the game and then hitting the basket to get the lead for good.

Most of the game was fairly lack luster but, the final two minutes were very exciting. East saw itself up by one when Biddle drove to the middle and hit a double pump wild shot in the lay that found the rim and basket. East promptly came down and found Bentely for the open three and. Verona ran the clock down and then Biddle pulled up for a three, which I thought was a bad shot, and nailed it to put Verona up by one, with 12 seconds left in the game. East took the timeout and took the ball down the court and took a bad contested three and it appeared that East gave up thinking the game was over as they stopped playing and Verona got a run out lay up. East inbounded the ball to Bentely who was fouled with 4.4 seconds left in the game hit both free throws and then fouled Verona. Verona missed both free throws but, the battle for a loose ball caused time to run out and Verona got the 57-56 win.

Top Players
Bryan Dalton 6'5 senior Verona - Took a lot of shots but, needs to at times. Has a nice three point shot and uses his size nicely on the inside to score.
Jason Biddle 6'1 senior Verona- Didn't have a great game but, had a great fourth quarter where he scored most of his points including the two biggest buckets of the game.
Rudy Bentely 5'8 senior Madison East- Could tell Bentely didn't want this to be his last game. Was able to hit four threes in the game and did his usual thing penetrating to the inside.
Daniel Karlin-Kamin 6'2 junior Madison East- Doesn't have much to his game but, can really stroke it from three point range as he hit four threes in this game.

Box Score
Verona- Dalton 21 Biddle 13 Argall 12 John Tackett 6 Mitch Flora 3 Kylan Reilly 2 Tavarionte Turner 0 James Gerlach 0 Adam Stiner 0
Madison East- Bentely 22 Karlin Kamin 12 Emani Brathwaite 7 Miles Kietzer 6 De'Shawn Burks 6 Stavon Staples 3 Alex Redd 0 Jermel McLin 0

Well for winning this hard fought battle Verona gets to take on conference champion Madison Memorial. East had every opportunity to win this game but, just didn't take advantage of putting the dagger in. This was one game where I think they could of gone inside more to 6'3 Emani Brathwaite, who had some success, but I just think their so used to not looking inside at all they forgot about him. Also Jermel McLin didn't start and he has been one of their top scorers every time I've seen him but, he just looked totally out of sink coming off the bench for whatever reason.