Madison Memorial over Madison East

For my first game of the year I decided take in a contest between two of the top teams in the Big Eight conference. Nearly anyone that follows high school ball has one of these two teams picked as the favorite to win the Big Eight. Memorial has won the conference title 12 years in a row now and a win in this game would give them a great start to 13. East is coming off a state run a year ago and bring back four starters from that state game. With East having the majority of the players back Memorial is nearly completely turning over with one starter and one significant bench player back. Memorial also has a new star in De Forest transfer 6'8 junior Chris Knight who leads fives juniors in the starting lineup. East has their returning star in 6'4 senior Deang Deang but, the also have an emerging star in 6'5 sophomore Keshawn Justice.

The game started out pretty rough for both teams offensively and it was pretty obvious that this was both teams first game of the year. Memorial starts a big front line of 6'8, 6'6, and 6'5 along with a pair of smaller guards at 5'11 and 6'0. To take advantage of that front court height  and possibly to allow their bigs not to have to guard on the perimeter Memorial played a 2-3 zone which nearly switched into a switching man to man defense. At times the Memorial defenders would stay with the East player across the zone and other times they would stay in their position. Early on it seemed that East was clearly the better team and it was just fouls and the Memorial height that were keeping them in the game. The East guards just seemed too quick for the Memorial guards early on and Memorial had a tough time even getting into their offense. Despite that fact East was just never able to take a big lead early on and Memorial hung around. The game could pretty much be summarized in one play where Deang picked the pocket of the Memorial guard and drove towards a wide open hoop. As Deang put the lay up, up 6'5 Memorial junior Jake Ferguson chased him down and pinned the lay up against the back board which would be the first of four of those types of blocks by Ferguson. Every Memorial turn over seemed to be followed up by an East turnover. Foul trouble by the East bigs lead to Memorial being able to take advantage in the post in particular 6'6 junior Matt Caropreso who was Memorial's leading scorer in the first half on mostly garbage buckets. At half time Memorial led 25-21.

In the second half things got going as Knight found his game as he seemed lost at times in the first half. Knight really has a strong back to the basket game and seems pretty comfortable going over either shoulder. Knight had a huge run making three straight bucks in a row finalized by a jumper from just inside the free throw line. Knight also had the momentum dagger as he caught the ball on a fast break just past half court and took the ball to the rim and threw it down which got a the crowd into the game and made it feel like I was watching the old Memorial teams that would run and press and get electrifying break away dunks. For East no one could really get it going as even Deang seemed to struggle putting the ball in the hoop and late in the second half is when Justice started getting him self going hitting big three after big three any time he was open. There didn't seem to be much scoring outside of the threes by Justice but, that was all the needed to hang around in this one. Unfortunately the game was pretty much sealed when Deang was injured with just under two minutes left and Memorial made the free throws to seal the game 61 to 53.

Top Players 
Chris Knight 6'8 junior Madison Memorial- Knight gives this team a go to player in a group of very good players. Knight is a true post player that seems to love to play with his back to the basket. I'd like to see a little more emotion out of him but, maybe that isn't his style. Knight completely dominated the glass and wouldn't be surprised if he had 20 rebounds and I'm sure he had a double double.

Jake Ferguson 6'5 junior Madison Memorial- The lone returning starter and probably the biggest key to their success. He is going to take the place of Henry Houden on last years team as the glue guy that holds the team and just does everything well, from scoring, ball handling, rebounding, moving his feet, and of course blocking shots as he had a handful of those, four of witched pinned to the glass.

Keshawn Justice 6'5 sophomore Madison East- Really is more of a guard and really shot the three extremely well in this game. Deang is probably the better player right now but, Justice could very well lead them in scoring. Plays with a ton of confidence.

Box Score (starters in italics)
Memorial- Knight 19 Caropreso 11 Billy Wilson 11 Ferguson 9 Logan Knecht 8 Chase Danielson 2 Jason Weah 1 Terrel Goodwan 0
East- Justice 20 Deang 12 Oliver Allison 8 Tre'vone Irby 4 Courtland Cuevas 4 Cameron Cratic 4 Davion Washington 1 Chris Warren 0 Ali Saffold 0

Yes this game was pretty rough and wasn't great basketball but, this game was the first of the year for both teams so that is to be expected. With Knight Memorial has a game changer and with East, Middleton, and possibly Sun Prairie should battle for a league title. East was missing two of the top players in 6'0 junior Kenny Jones who started at times last year and 6'6 sophomore Steven Wooten who I've heard a lot about as being a top player for his class. If and when those two returned with give East a huge boast he next time around. Should be a fun season and this was a nice start.