Middleton over Madison Memorial

I was really interested to see how both teams would come out after some disappointing games on Thursday with Middleton losing to Sun Prairie and Memorial to West. It was Middleton that came out and just completely outplayed Memorial for about two thirds of the game and showed they are the team to beat in the Big Eight.

In the first half Middleton came out firing and they were hitting their outside shots unlike Thursday night where they couldn't make a thing. 5'11 junior Storm Murphy was doing his thing hitting the jumpers, 6'4 junior Tyree Eady was scoring off slashes to the rim, and 6'1 junior Myron Ashford Jr got the start and hit a pair of early threes. For Memorial they just couldn't buy a basket as the missed easy lay up after easy layup. I swear nearly every started missed at least two layups in the first half and Middleton stormed out to a 12 point halftime lead. Most of the game was a 12-15 point lead for Middleton.

In the second half Memorial finally came out to play as they really increased the pressure both in the full court and the half court and the shots started falling. 6'8 junior Chris Knight finally got things going on the side and 6'0 junior Billy Wilson had the best game I've seen this year from him as he was hitting threes and driving to the rim and scoring. The real key was Memorial going to a 1-3-1 zone which they extended out to a 3/4 court press at times and putting 6'5 junior Jake Ferguson out top. Ferguson's length and quick hands forced some turnovers and really interrupted the Middleton offense when either Murphy or fellow back court mate 6'0 CJ Fermanich were out of the game. Memorial did cut the lead to six at one point but, three three point field goals from Eady carried Middleton and allowed them to maintain the lead. In the end the free throw shooting of Eady and Murphy sealed the deal and Middleton won 77-63.

Top Players 
Storm Murphy 5'11 junior Middleton- Murphy is always going to take a lot of shots some good and some bad but, he's a flat out scorer with a ton of confidence. Murphy was hitting those step back shots and was money from the free throw line.

Tyree Eady 6'4 junior Middleton- Did a great job of cutting to the rim and scoring in the post. When he can set his feet on the outside shot the three is going to fall.

Billy Wilson 6'0 junior Memorial- Hitting the threes which is normal but, showed the ability to drive to the rim and finish which I hadn't seen all year.

Chris Knight 6'8 junior Memorial- Struggled in the first half but, in the second half he was tough to stop around the rim and was using his size to just shot over the Middleton defenders.

Matt Caropreso 6'6 junior Memorial- Didn't score a ton and actually struggled on the offensive end but, was so big rebounding and blocking shots I had to at least give him a mention.

Box Score
Memorial 63- Knight 18 Wilson 17 Logan Knecht 10 Ferguson 9 Caropreso 9 Chase Danielson 0 Jason Weah 0 Terrel Goodwan 0
Middleton 77- Murphy 26 Eady 25 Ashford Jr 6 Brogan Brunker 6 Kevin Ripp 5 Fermanich 3 Cody Markel 2 Travis Raffel 2 Brady Thomas 2 Mitch Bacon 0 Jack Smith 0 Cam Maly 0 Daydrian Spears 0

After watching this game I'm going to stand with my midseason thoughts that Middleton will be a state team and their two biggest road blocks are Muskego and Sun Prairie but, of course can't count out Madison East or Memorial. My personal thoughts though are that Memorial will probably end up getting knocked out rather early by one of the previous mentioned teams.