Sun Prairie over Burlington

Friday night I took in the Sun Prairie verse Burlington game. It was the closes game to me that was actually good. Sun Prairie was the seventh seed and took fourth in the Big Eight conference and Burlington was the tenth seed and took second in their conference. I was interested to see how Burlington would compete with a Big Eight team. Typically the Big Eight is one of the better conferences in the state but, this year I felt like the Big Eight was a little weaker then past years. This also gave me the chance to see 6'3 senior Nick Noskowiak back in action after missing half the season dealing with some personal issues, which I won't get into on here.

Early on Sun Prairie had a tough time getting the bunnies to go and Burlington was knocking down the outside shots led by 6'0 junior Cal Tully who hit some big corner threes early on. On the inside 6'3 senior Frankie Hozeska was doing his damaged using his quickness to get to the rim and rebounding for second chance buckets. Sun Prairie weathered the storm behind big man 6'5 senior JT Ruffin. Ruffin was able to post up deep in the post and his team mates were able to find him. Ruffin showed a couple nice up and under moves in the post and if he hadn't struggled so much from the free throw line Sun Prairie may of led at half, instead they were down 23-21 at the half. Noskowiak didn't start and game in with about 30 seconds left in the first. Noskowiak went right to the rim on his first possession and scored and then had a mid range jumper from the baseline mid way through the second, for four points in the first half.

Second half Sun Prairie got things going forcing turnovers led by 6'1 senior Malik Robinson and Noskowiak. Sun Prairie's starting point guard 6'0 junior Sam Kerr got hurt early in the third quarter which forced Noskowiak into the starting rotation and big minutes. Noskowiak took full advantage and really turned the tide on an end one break away where he hit the free throw for the three point play. Throughout the game Sun Prairie dominated on the glass all game long and Burlington never really figured out the 1-3-1 zone defense. The two bright spots for Burlington in the second half was Hozeska hitting a couple threes and then 5'10 freshmen Nick Klug hit a pair of threes himself. In the end Robinson had back to back break away layups off steals that really sealed the game. Final score was 57-42.

Top Players
Nick Noskowiak 6'3 senior Sun Prairie- Was a nice spark off the bench and was able to get to the rim and score. 5-6 from the free throw line late and had an end one three and layup.

Malik Robinson 6'1 senior Sun Prairie- Really made his presence felt on the defensive end. Had at least five lay ups that led to some easy buckets and used his quickness to drive the lane and score in the half court.

JT Ruffin 6'5 senior Sun Prairie- Really did a great job of posting up deep in the post and using some nice moves with his back to the basket. Also dominated the glass all night on both ends.

Cal Tully 6'0 junior Burlington- Was the sharp shooter from the outside and was the one guy consistantly hitting the outside shot.

Nick Klug 5'10 freshmen Burlington- Had a real nice outside shot as well hitting three threes and really showed off his ball handling skills at times.

Frankie Hozeska 6'3 senior Burlington- Was real aggressive getting to the hoop and scoring and hit a couple of threes as well.

Box Score
SP- Noskowiak 14 Robinson 13 Ruffin 13 Kerr 5 Deshawn Black 4 Nate Vergstegen 4 Rod Johnson 3 Ben Hauser 0 Malick Ceesay 0 Sean Schomel 0 Nate Oehrlein 0 DJ Jones 0 Darian Grant 0
B- Klug 14 Tully 13 Hozeska 13 James Tully 2 Mitch Klug 0 Nathaniel Sibley 0 Bryan Sturdevant 0 Andrew Ohm 0 Jacob Weidert 0 Aaron Mutter 0

Well I was a little late on this game since Sun Prairie has since lost to Madison Memorial which I will be doing a write up on tomorrow.