MAPLE GROVE TAKING ON ST. ANTHONY IN THE FIRST GAME OF THE BETHEL UNIVERSITY HOLIDAY TOURNAMENT SPONSERED BY OLIVE GARDEN

This is the first time that I have seen ether of these teams. As this game gets underway both of these teams are getting it up the court. Neither of these teams has been able to hit a shot here in the early goings. Maple Grove has started pressing here to start this game off. They have applied full court pressure here to start this game off. Both of these teams have been diving after balls as there have been a few loose balls here in the early goings. This game is being played on a college basketball court. In the college game this year they have moved the 3 point line back about a foot for shooting so on the court there are two three point lines. Some of the players are getting confused on what line they are supposed to be shooting at. Maple Grove has been able to get a lead here early here this game. With 12:00 left to go in the first half the score is Maple Grove 12 and St. Anthony 4. Andrew Frost has played well here so far in this game for Maple Grove; he has had some really nice moves around the basket. He has been able to find his shot and he also has had some nice stops on the defensive end.

Both of these teams are looking to get the ball up the court. Maple Grove has just been able to get off more shots here in this game. St Anthony has had trouble getting shots off here in this game.

Brent Torrence has played well here. He is Maple Grove’s big man he has been able to go after loose balls and he goes up strong for the rebound. He really fights hard to go after the ball on the defensive end. There have been discussions between the officials and the coaches from both teams on which three point line they are using. As I have mentioned before they has been some confusion on what line they are using in this tournament because there are two lines on the court. Maple Grove has really been flying up and down the court here in this game. They are really pushing the ball up the court. They are on a run here as they have been able to come and hit shots and they have been able to stop St Anthony from making shots. With 5:51 left to go in the first half the score is Maple Grove 36 and St Anthony 13.

St Anthony has switch up the defense and they are playing a little zone defense. They are playing 2-3 zone. With St Anthony playing zone defense that has slowed down. St Anthony wanted to try to keep the pace of the zone at their tempo but they have not been able to do that much here in the first half of this game. This game has been back and forth both of the teams have been getting it up the court. He have reached half time and at the half in which Maple Grove has basically dominated the score is Maple Grove 47 and St Anthony 21. At half time the stat that really sticks out to me is the shooting percentage Maple Grove is shooting 57.6% from the field and St Anthony is shooting 26.9 % from the field. Alex Geisenhoff is Maple Grove’s leading scorer with 16 points and for St Anthony Tyler Hagen is there leading scorer with 9 points.

As the second half gets underway here Maple Grove is continuing playing tough man to man defense. St Anthony has dropped back and playing half court man to man defense here to start the second half out. St Anthony is still fighting hard here in this game. The Huskies know that they have a lot of work to do this second half if they want to come back and with this game here today. Maple Grove also has to keep playing hard here in this second half here if they want to come away with this victory here today. Maple Grove’s Josh Pedretti has just come down and made a nice two handed slam dunk here that has gotten this crowd in to this game here. As this second half continues on both teams have been able to get the ball up the court and this game has really gotten sloppy. Maple Grove has been able to do what they wanted mostly here in this game as they have really took it to this St Anthony team here this afternoon.

With 4:12 left to go in the game and the score Maple Grove 67 and St Anthony 41 both of these teams have decided to go deep into their benches and bring in players that usually don’t see much playing time during the close varsity games. Both teams have played hard this whole entire game. They have given it there all. Maple Grove was much more physical teams here today and they came down with the victory. In the end of this contest the final was Maple Grove 70 and St Anthony 45. The leading scores for Maple Grove were Alex Geisenhoff with 16 points, Josh Pedretti with 12 points and Brett Torrence with 10 points. Derek Jahner was St Anthony’s leading scorer. He scored 15 points today.

The Czar from Twin Cities Boys Hoops was also in the building today. Read his account of the game here.