Madison East over Janesville Craig

In the battle for fourth place in the Big Eight, Madison East outlasted Janesville Craig to take sole advantage of fourth in the conference. East has been a mystery to me all year. They went to state a year ago and return the majority of their players and they've struggled to stay above .500. Every time you think they've righted the ship with some big wins they drop a game they really shouldn't of. Same could be said for Craig who has some great games and then other times laid an egg.

Craig took the first lead in a back and forth game behind the driving of their point guard 5'9 junior SanTrell Payton. Payton used his quickness taking the ball to the rim or moving without the ball to finish at the rim. If was nice to see Payton be aggressive taking the ball to the rim and looking to score. In the two games I have seen Payton he just seems to stand offish and not looking to score and then a light clicks or something and he's able to get to the rim at will and no one can stay with him. I think if he realized that he might be the best player on the court and he has the ability to score at will he's stock and reputation would sky rocket. When Payton wasn't scoring Craig was looking to dump the ball into their two bigs 6'9 junior Adam Anhold and 6'11 senior Riley Jensen. They pretty much switch in for each other and despite Jensen coming off the bench they are both very capable scorers in the post. For East 6'4 senior Deang Deang kept them in the game with his driving and pull up mid range jumper and sprinkling in some sharp shooting from 6'5 sophomore Keshawn Justice. Craig went to a 3-2 zone which allowed Deang and Justice to routinely find open threes. At half Craig led by two.

In the second half Craig continued to play zone which continued to give Justice open threes particularly from the corners and Justice was hitting them. Deang also chipped in with a few threes of his own. In the second half it also seemed that East big man 6'6 junior Steve Wooten figured out that he couldn't use his size against the Craig bigs but, he had the quickness to go around them and used it to score six huge points in the second half. For Craig their offense kind of stalled and it seemed that they all stood around and watch 6'1 junior Jake Negus go one on one and typically get fouled where he would go to the line and make his free throws. Anhold and Payton each hit a three put there wasn't much else from anyone else. In the end Craig just couldn't get the basket they needed and East got the four point win.

Top Players
SanTrell Payton 5'9 junior Janesville Craig- Just flat out quicker then everyone tonight. When he wanted to he could score at will. Also very solid on defense guarding Deang when they weren't in the zone.

Adam Anhold 6'9 junior Janesville Craig- Really solid playing in the post with his back to the basket. Does a great job of getting position on the inside, scoring from the block, and he's a great passer out of the post.

Jake Negus 6'1 junior Janesville Craig- Real solid point guard and could go one on one and get in the lane every time down the court. Think he shot 9-10 from the free throw line.

Deang Deang 6'4 senior Madison East- Used his athleticism and quickness to get to the mid range and knock down the jumpers. Also was able to get to the rim and sore at will.

Keshawn Justice 6'5 sophomore Madison East- Sharpshooter from long range, he can really shoot the three. When he got his shot from the corners it was going to fall.

Steven Wooten 6'6 junior Madison East- Like I had said earlier he used his quickness to go around the bigger slower Craig defenders and had a solid game despite battling foul trouble.

Box Score
East 65- Deang 26 Justice 25 Wooten 10 Cameron Cratic 2 Davion Washington 2 Kenny Jones 0 Tre'vone Irby 0 Chris Warren 0 Courtland Cuevas 0 Oliver Allison 0
Craig 61- Payton 17 Negus 15 Anhold 13 Jensen 10 Nick Cramer 2 Robby Hoppe 2 Connor Wright 2 Nick Lynch 0 Zach Gestrich 0

This was really a very well played game over all and both teams went back and forth at each other having their own strong moments. Craig did a nice job of working inside out and East ran everything through Deang. Both of these teams could make some noise come tournament time and I wouldn't be surprised to see either one go deep.