This was a huge game as far as conference goes with Lafollette being 3-2 and Sun Prairie being 2-3. Lafollette came out with a great game plan just simply double teaming Noskowiak any time he touched the ball and even before, when Prairie was trying to in bounds the ball. This caused Noskowiak to really get tired out in the game and never get into his rhythm. Midway through the second quarter though Noskowiak got his outside shooting hitting three three point shots. The emergence of Noskowiak may of been because fellow junior 6'5 JT Ruffin came alive scoring and helping to bring the ball up the court. Ruffin should the ability to help bring the ball up the court and finish at the rim using his size. In the second half Noskowiak kept looking for his shot but, it wasn't falling and he appeared to get frustrated after he was fouled on a pair of shots and it wasn't called. With Noskowiak's jumper not falling, 6'5 freshmen Nate Verstegen came up big scoring at put backs off offensive rebounds. In the end Noskowiak's free throw shooting sealed the game.
The Sun Prairie zone was huge for Lafollette, they just couldn't get the ball inside and just settled for outside shots all game long. Prairie did a nice job of switching between their 1-3-1 zone and 2-3 zone to confuse Lafollette. Lafollette settled for the threes and they weren't falling. I think Lafollette hit maybe three, three point shots in the game. Lafollette came out with a lot of energy and 6'1 junior point guard Darol Thomas hit a three right away but, Thomas didn't hit another three the rest of the game and it wasn't for lack of shooting them on his part. I can really only think of two or three times where Lafollette actually took the ball inside and they did score each time they did it. There wasn't a lot of bright spots for Lafollette. Everyone that played looked to shoot so, they did score some points but, just wasn't enough team play and too much outside shooting.
Top Players
Nick Noskowiak 6'3 junior Sun Prairie- Looked very good from three point range and driving to the hoop but, struggled from mid range. Only had one short period of time where he was forcing things, otherwise he really played within the offense.
JT Ruffin 6'5 junior Sun Prairie- Pretty much said it all earlier. Did a nice job of taking the ball to the rim and scoring and also helping bring the ball up the court to take some of the pressure off Noskowiak.
Paris Vance 5'10 senior La Follette- Yea he's just a gunner coming off the bench but, did really provide scoring punch for a Lafollette team that needed it.
Darol Thomas 6'1 junior La Follette- Always liked his game and thought he should shoot more and he did that tonight but, his shot just wasn't falling tonight.
Box Score
SP 67- Noskowiak 27 Ruffin 18 Verstegen 9 Michael Marshese 6 Malik Robinson 3 Shane Waldon 2 Sam Kerr 2 Conner Stanek 0 Nate Oehrlein 0 Josh Hill 0 Noah Diaz 0 Holden Buie 0
La Follette- Vance 15 Thomas 14 Keahn Dunn 11 Maurice Ewing 7 Cortez McGree 5 JJ Collins 2 Kian O'Brien 0 Joseph Phillips 0 Jordan Carlson 0 Larry Haynes 0 Quinten Shere 0
I really think that this game may of been a turning point for Sun Prairie and they will look like the team everyone expected to see this year. Sun Prairie is missing two seniors from last years team and also two other returners from last years team, so we thought that they would be returning seven of their top nine and they actually only returned five. Lafollette will probably end up being a middle of the road team in the conference
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