Sun Prairie over Madison Lafollette

This year in the Big Eight every game is a big game because six of the ten teams in the conference currently have between six to eight wins. You could lose a game and drop four or five spots in the standings. Two weeks ago Madison West was sitting at the three spot and now they are seventh in the standings.

In this match up Sun Prairie jumped out early and Lafollette was fighting from behind all night long. Sun Prairie got the transition game going early while Lafollette struggled from the outside but, really dominated the offensive glass despite Prairie having the height advantage. After one quarter Sun Prairie was up 16-10. Lafollette's star 6'1 junior Darold Thomas couldn't make anything in the first half but, that didn't stop him from shooting. The highlight of the night took place in the second quarter as Thomas missed a three but, 6'3 junior Cortez McCree timed in perfectly and threw down a nasty put back dunk, which may of been the best dunk I've seen at the high school level. One thing that really hurt Lafollette was that one of their top players 6'4 senior Maurice Ewing picked up three early fouls and then McCree picked up a third as well before half time. The fouls left Lafollette limited at the guard position and Lafollette focused on stopping Prairie's top player 6'3 junior Nick Noskowiak, which allowed fellow junior guard 6'1 Malik Robinson to have a huge game as he was able to beat his defender off the dribble and get to the hoop. Late in the second quarter one of Sun Prairie's bench players 5'10 Sophomore Sam Kerr landed hard on his side and was force to sit the rest of the game. Loosing a player really hurts Sun Prairie because they only play seven guys and didn't have another guard that could help out off the bench. At halftime Sun Prairie was up 36-26.

In the second half Lafollette really pushed the tempo by applying a full court press and with Sun Prairie's lack of guard depth they tired and the turnovers started to mount. I don't know had much of a game plan at this point other then get the ball and that seemed to work. At times they were double and triple teaming the ball and clawing and scraping for the ball and the ball always seems to go to the more aggressive team. With about two minutes left in the third quarter Noskowiak picked up his fourth foul and had to sit. Noskowiak is really the only true ball handler. After three quarters Lafollette had cut the lead to 53-45. Sun Prairie continued to turn the ball over but, Lafollette couldn't get the game any closer then eight. Noskowiak sat out until five minutes left in the game and when he did come in, he quickly picked up his fifth and final foul. Luckily for Prairie, Lafollette wasn't able to convert on the turnovers and with the fouling and lack of making shots Sun Prairie won 74-58.

Top Players
Darold Thomas 6'1 junior Lafollette- Didn't have a great first half but, kept shooting in the second half and was making his shots and kept Lafollette close. Also got some big steals in the game as well as he always played extremely hard.

Dre Prather 6'1 senior Lafollette- Did have a big scoring night but, did a great job playing defense on Noskowiak and even blocked a couple of his shots.

Cortez McCree 6'3 junior Lafollette- Had the monster dunk in the game and really battled on the glass giving Lafollette second and third opportunities.

Malik Robinson 6'1 junior Sun Prairie- Used his quickness to get to the rim and score and hit his free threws late in the game to clinch things.

Nick Noskowiak 6'3 junior Sun Prairie- Didn't have a great scoring night but, did do a nice job running the point and leading the team.

Box Score
SP 74- Robinson 26 Noskowiak 13 JT Ruffin 12 Shane Waldon 12 Michael Marchese 9 Nate Verstegen 2 Sam Kerr 0 Nate Oehrlein 0 Holden Buie 0
Laf- Thomas 16 McCree 11 M. Ewing 9 Prather 8 Keahn Dunn 8 Quinten Shere 4 Larry Haynes 2 Kian O'Brien 0 Jordan Carlson 0 Travell Ewing 0


Sun Prairie really appears to have hit their stride and haven't lost a game now since early December besides the game to Iowa City West which is one of the top teams in Iowa. Lafollette seems to basically be what we expected and is kind of a middle of the road team.