Sun Prairie over La Follette

Got my first Wisconsin high school basketball game under my belt last night watching Sun Prairie survive a scare from Madison La Follette. Sun Prairie s a legitimate top five to ten team and looking at preseason status appear to be the team to finally knock Madison Memorial off the mountain in the Big Eight and make the run to state. In the past Madison Memorial has always been my go to team to watch but, this year will more then likely be Sun Prairie. SP has one of the top players in the state in 6'3 senior Nick Noskowiak who is going to have a monster year and is averaging 33 points a game through the first two games right now. Outside of Noskowiak they have 6'5 senior JT Ruffin and 6'1 senior Malik Robinson who are both three year varsity players and will both play college basketball at some level. The question for the Cardinals all year is what they can get for scoring outside of their big three.

Early on it was very evident that Sun Prairie had a huge height advantage and that will probably be a problem for La Follette all year long. Their only real size is in a pair of 6'4 seniors Tom Bartz and Tommy Green. Guessing on the heights because La Follette didn't have them listed. Bartz is a bruiser and plays hard but, his game is fairly limited and Green appeared to prefer playing outside shooting threes. The only other help they had rebounding was 6'2 senior Cortz McCree who can sky but, is  really a guard. The game throughout was Noskowiak's and he could hardly miss outside of some quick questionable shots. Not sure how many free throws Noskowiak took but, he didn't miss. Purely guessing I think he had to be close to 20 for 20. Sun Prairie played their typical 1-3-1 zone defense and seemed to play a 2-3 but, this may of just been their 1-3-1 being extended. The zone defense led to La Follette taking a lot of threes and no one seemed to get real hot for La Follete and just seemed everyone just hit one and when they missed they weren't getting a second chance at the bucket. Outside of Noskowiak, Ruffin had a nice first half hitting a three and going strong to the left using his dominate hand. The Cardinals went up 16-8 after the first and 27-22 at half after some late threes by La Follette and a big tip in by McCree. Big first half story was the poor shooting of La Follette's star 6'1 senior Darold Thomas who had only two points in the first half both coming from the line.

Third quarter Thomas continued to struggle but fellow back court mate 6'0 senior Quinten Shere came out big finding the middle of the Sun Prairie zone and knocking down a barrage of floaters in the lane. Despite Shere's efforts Noskowiak was there time and again hitting big three after big three and just totally controlled the game. La Follette threw four different defenders at Noskowiak and nothing really seemed to slow him down. In the fourth quarter La Follette did slow him a bit as the started trapping him and forcing the ball out of his hands which caused a little chaos at times and Sun Prairie out of their comfort zone. This smart defensive move combined with the hot shooting of Thomas allowed La Follette to get right back in the game and pushed Sun Prairie to the end but, the free throw shooting of Noskowiak closed things out and Sun Prairie won 66-61.

One thing I did forget to mention is that this was a bit of a family affair as Curtrel Robinson is the current coach for La Follette and two years ago was the JV coach at Sun Prairie and is also the brother of Malik Robinson.

Top Players
Darold Thomas 6'1 senior La Follette- Kid looks like a running back on the court and is so solid. Plays really hard and always love watching him play. Sometimes over shoots and takes some bad shots but, when he's on and hot may be the best shooter in the state. That being said when he's off might be one of the worst shooters in the state.

Quentin Shere 6'0 senior La Follette- Has a bit of a street ball game with the penetrate and the hop step and the floater in the lane but, the shot was falling. Fearless driver and can just finish at the rim. When the three is there he knocked it down.

Nick Noskowiak 6'3 senior Sun Prairie- He is the best shooter off the dribble in the state. Has the ball in his hands so much just don't get to see his spot up shooting much. Really controls the game and controls the whole team through his play.

JT Ruffin 6'5 senior Sun Prairie- Really great going to his dominate left hand and can step back and hit the three. Has a really good face up game in the post and runs the court well.

Box Score (starters itralics)
MF 61- Shere 19 Thomas 15 McCree 13 Green 9 Kian O'Brien 3 Tom Bartz 2 Elias Sobah 0 Montrell Hannah 0 Travell Ewing 0

SP 66- Noskowiak 37 Ruffin 15 Robsinson 9 Nate Verstegen 3 Deshawn Black 2 Ben Hauser 0 Rod Johnson 0 Nate Oehrlein 0

Madison La Follette is going to be a tough out every night because they play so hard and with the freedom that will allow them to beat some teams they shouldn't but, they may also have nights where they get blown out. Sun Prairie has an extremely talented top three but, will really need some help to make that run at state. I don't know that there is anyone to challenge Sun Prairie in the conference as a few of the top teams of the past are down a bit this year so they could very well go undefeated in conference. Was a good game to start the year and hopefully the rest of the year should be the same.