Sun Prairie over Madison West

In a big Big Eight match up Sun Prairie claimed a huge victory of Madison West. Coming into the game West was second in the conference while Sun Prairie was fourth. Afterwards they were tied in third and only a half game behind second place Beloit. Sun Prairie really should be a lot better then what their record has shown and it seems that their season is starting to turn around.

The first two times that I have watched Sun Prairie play their big man 6'5 senior Shane Waldon has gotten into foul trouble early and was a non factor but, in this game Waldon was huge and was probably the reason that Sun Prairie won. Early on West was getting open threes and knocking them down led by their senior guard trio of 5'8 Marquise Pollard, 6'1 Terrell McFadden, and 6'3 Malik Clements. West took the early first quarter lead 20 to 12. McFadden did a pretty solid job on Sun Prairie's star 6'3 junior Nick Noskowiak. When Noskowiak was able to get free his shots just weren't falling tonight and West had some good help defense as 6'5 senior Harold Russell blocked multiple shots of Noskowiak's. Sun Prairie's defense and the offensive rebounding of Waldon kept them close and cut the lead to four at half.

In the second half Sun Prairie really took over outscoring West 24 to 11 in the third quarter. Noskowiak was able to get things going to the rim, Waldon continued his strong play on the glass, and 6'5 junior JT Ruffin used his ball handling and quickness to get by the West big men and score at the rim. Clements and McFadden continued to look for their shots and those shots weren't falling in the second half. I believe Clements and McFadden each hit one three a piece in the second half. In the fourth Sun Prairie looked to run time out spreading the floor which allowed Noskowiak, Ruffin, and also 6'1 Malik Robinson to get to the rim and score. It really was a four headed monster for Sun Prairie while West's only consistent scorer was Clements. SP won 74-63.

Top Players
Nick Noskowiak 6'3 junior Sun Prairie- Did a nice job of running the offense and not forcing things when McFadden was doing a good job defending him. Late in the game did a nice job driving to the rim and forcing the contact.

Shane Waldon 6'5 senior Sun Prairie- As I said early was the reason that Prairie won the game. Really was a beast on the offensive glass and blocked a couple shots. Had a nice put back dunk as well.

JT Ruffin 6'5 junior Sun Prairie- Really a smooth big man that is next to impossible to stop when he goes to his left.

Terrell McFadden 6'1 senior Madison West- Did a great job against Noskowiak keeping him out of the lane and limiting his outside looks. Also hit some big three point shots in the game.

Malik Clements 6'3 senior Madison West- Unstoppable in the first half. Was hitting threes and slicing into the Sun Prairie zone and scoring. Struggled a bit in the second half but, still had a huge game.

Box Score  (starters in italics) 
SP 74- Noskowiak 18 Waldon 17 Ruffin 17 Robinson 12 Michael Marchese 4 Sam Kerr 2 Nate Oehrlein 2 Nate Verstegen 2 Josh Hill 0 Holden Buie 0
West 63- Clements 24 McFadden 13 Semaj Graham 10 Russell 6 Pollard 5 Juwun Pettigrew 2 Sam Meyer 2 Aubrey Johnson 1 Ari Davis 0 Mario Scott 0

As I said Sun Prairie seems to be turning things around and may be able to make a run in the playoffs and are capable of beating any team in the conference or in the regional. On the other side Madison West is a team that could beat some good teams because they have the high scoring Clements along with McFadden and Pollard. When you have great guards and a big scorer you can beat anyone.