Week in Review Including Border Battle

Once again I have procrastinated my blogging and have two games and a tournament that I haven't written about so will include them all in this blog with just short write ups of each game. Friday night I watched Madison Memorial vs Sun Prairie, Tuesday night Wisconsin Dells vs Larcosse Aquinas, and then the big one on Saturday was the Border Battle.
Madison Memorial 60 Sun Prairie 50

This wouldn't of been a shock had it not been the fact that Memorial was without their top two scorers in seniors 6'5 Junior Lomomba and 6'6 Jamar Morris. After seeing that I thought for sure that Sun Prairie was going to win but, the rest of Memorial's starters really picked up their game and took over. The star of the night was 6'4 senior Ngijol Songolo. Songolo really locked up Sun Prairie's star 6'6 junior Nick Fuller. In their first match up Fuller could do whatever he wanted but, in this game Songolo was right up in his face and didn't let Fuller get a good look all night and most of Fuller's points came late in the game. Much of the game Memorial was up by 15 to 20 points until both benches were cleared. Songolo did it on the offensive end as well as he was able to penetrate and score and find open teammates. 6'5 junior Jester Weah also had a huge game scoring and rebounding. Weah is just a physical beast and may be on the level of former Big Eight players Marquis Mason and Chris Hawkins who could just jump out of the gym. Brendan Ortiz 6'1 junior also teamed with Songolo to do most of the ball handling and did a nice job leading the team.

Border Battle
Match up of some of the best teams from Minnesota verse the best of Wisconsin.

Wisconsin Dells 61 Maple River 47
From the get go Dells was the better team. Dells junior star 5'10 MJ Delmore got off to a quick start and never looked back as he finished with 27 points. Dells other top player 6'4 junior Shane Wimann was in foul trouble which hurt him but, he still managed 17 points in the game. The biggest story was Maple River's inability to get the ball inside against the Dells zone defense. The Eagles settled for three after three and some dropped but, for the most part they weren't falling for them. Dells two man team just took the game over the game and Maple River had no answer.

GET 71 Maranatha Christian 54
Another Minnesota team that was just over matched early on and really struggled against the zone defense. 6'4 senior Riley Bambenek was the guy I was excited to see and he didn't disappoint early on. Bambenek is very smooth and hit the mid range jumper and used his size against small guards to score on the inside. Late in the game Maranatha had no answer for 6'5 senior Chris Johnson on the inside, who just seemed to be able to score at will. Turnovers killed Maranatha all game long as well as their interior defense.

Grand Rapids 71 Beaver Dam 65
Easily the best game of the day as it took three overtimes before this game was decided. Rapids had a huge height advantage with two 6'8 players but, didn't use them. Beaver Dam's top player 6'4 senior Jake Heuer struggled greatly for the first three and a half quarters on the game. With these two things going on the game turned into a one on one battle between the two point guards 6'0 junior RJ Shelton for Beaver Dam and 6'1 senior Austin Pohlen for Grand Rapids. I'm not sure if anyone besides Pohlen took a shot in overtime but, that's all Rapids needed. Rapids always had the lead and missed some free throws that allowed BD to tie the game back up but, in the end BD just tired out and Shelton fouled out late.

Madison Edgewood 70 North St Paul 59
Early on NSP was able to hang with Edgewood but, in the end the more disciplined team was able to pull this game out. For a time it this game Edgewood's best offense was to just take off when the ball was out of bounds and beat their defender down the court for an easy layup. Edgewood is always a fun team to watch because they play so hard and are just so fundamentally sound. NSP seemed to really on their skills and not their execution and that just wasn't enough.

Waunakee 66 Tartan 65
Another great game that Waunakee was able to win when 6'6 senior Joe Tagarelli was able to knock down a pair of free throws with two seconds left in the game. Tartan had the best player on the court in 6'0 junior Darrion Strong but, Waunakee was the better team. 6'4 junior Will Decorah also had a huge game as he was able to score in the paint and from mid range. Honestly wasn't feeling to great at this time so don't remember much else.

Sun Prairie 61 Minneapolis DeLasalle 35
This game was over before it began. Delasalle just couldn't do anything and Fuller just absolutely took over and could do no wrong. I left at half time once I could see their was no was DeLasalle was going to be able to take over.

Wisconsin Dells 74 Lacrosse Aquinas 52
Another game that was over early. Delmore continued his torrid scoring run and the rest of the team seemed to pick up his hot outside shooting as well. Wimann

Well another great week of basketball under my belt and will be doing my updated rankings some time this weekend as I will actually have some time this weekend.