Lodi Regional Win

Playoffs have started which means I'm going to do my best to get to a game each round of the playoffs. Since the five divisions have started its tough to find a good game the opening round because so many teams have byes. Usually I end up going to a smaller school game as D1 typically only has the bottom two seeds play each other in each sectional. I took in the River Valley verse Lodi game as this was a match up of the eight and nine seed and also two teams that played a week ago and Lodi won by six.

The game started off a little rough for River Valley as some how they got their starters marked wrong and ended up with their star 6'4 junior Josh Maier on the bench. Maier checked in after the first dead ball. The game did start out pretty good as both teams were scoring back and forth hitting their outside shots. 5'10 senior Sammy Rosenberg was leading the way for River Valley scoring from the outside including hitting a three just inside the half court line to bring River Valley within five at the half. For Lodi 5'11 senior Jackson Furniss came out hot early hitting three threes in the first half but, it was Lodi's size on the inside that was the difference. 6'5 senior Cole Steinhoff was just too wide and strong on the inside all night. The starting bigs for River Valley were just too skinny to keep Steinhoff away from the hoop. If they fronted him, he was just seal them off if they played behind him he was simply go through them.

In the second off Steinhoff really completely took over. Partially I think this was a poor coaching decision. River Valley kept Maier on Steinhoff who just wasn't strong enough or thick enough to stop Steinhoff while they kept 6'6 senior Connor Mickelson on the bench. Now I know Michelson didn't bring much offensively he was a big body that seemed to give Steinhoff some issues. So I guess it comes down to do you think the defense can counter the lack of offense. Lodi was able to get there lead up to 21 before River Valley finally started to come back. Lodi seemed to forget that they could run the clock and Maier got things going on the offensive end. In the end though River Valley just couldn't hit the three point shot and Lodi shot just good enough from the free throw line.

Top Players
Sammy Rosenberg 5'10 senior River Valley- Used his quickness to get open and was able to knock down the outside shot. Was hindered in the second half as he went down with what appeared to be an ankle injury.
Josh Maier 6'4 junior River Valley- Was so tough to stop in the paint specifically in the second half. Was able to use his quickness and athleticism to score.
Jackson Furniss 5'11 senior Lodi- Really an elite outside shooter that didn't need a lot of room to elevate and get his shot off which was falling early.
Cole Steinhoff 6'5 senior Lodi- Pretty much said it already but, really a big body in the paint that was just too quick and strong to stop.

Box Score 
Lodi 64- Steinhoff 24 Furniss 14 Jack Persike 8 Quinn Faust 5 Logan Richards 5 Riley Faust 4 Max Hamilton 2 Dylan Streeter 2 Owen Jelinek 0
River Valley 54- Maier 16 Rosenberg 12 Taylor Knutson 8 Will Jewel 6 Will Bailey 6 Mickelson 4 Taylor Nachreiner 2 Joe Ryan 0 Ben Fortney 0 

Was a nice game to start the playoffs with. Lodi will probably be taken out by Prairie du Chien the one seed in the next round but, he it's playoffs anything can happen.