Final

A bit of a surprise, can someone provide some commentary please?

Woww. Nice win for LexCath, as LCA is highly ranked and LexCath was not at all. I know this is a rivalry and anything can happen.

This game was a three-fest, were around 20 made three-pointers. Will Hacker made 6 of 9 for LCA, Luke Wedding made 5 of 7 for LexCath. Kyle Rode also made a couple, he dominated the boards but was relatively quiet in the game offensively and missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer to win in regulation. LexCath's leading scorer Ben Johnson didn't get his first bucket until late in the 4th Quarter, but then he hit the tying basket in regulation and scored all but two of the OT points.

 

LexCath led 23-21 at halftime, they stretched it to 29-22 to start the 2nd half with LCA playing mostly zone. After a timeout, LCA extended pressure and started trapping, went on a 13-0 run and led 35-32 going into the 4th. LCA spread the floor with a 5-point lead with 4 minutes to go, got a couple of easy baskets off back cuts; LexCath eventually had to foul but LCA went 2-6 from the FT line down the stretch and LexCath capitalized.

 

Both teams gave up a lot of open three's for the same reasons - extending pressure and slanting the half-court defenses to curtail the leading scorers (Rode/Johnson). Rode stayed on the perimeter most of the night, LexCath has some beef inside that seemed to negate the post-up portion of his game, so he was more of a perimeter distributor than a scorer. He did that well, he may have had 10+ assists, has great vision and delivers accurate passes every time.

 

LCA executed better in half-court offense - ball movement, back cuts, etc. But when Rode didn't have the ball in his hands, LexCath pressure forced enough turnovers from the other players to get them some easy buckets and keep them in the game, and when LCA couldn't put the game away on the FT line in the final minutes LexCath got big plays from Johnson, Geoghagen and Wedding to get it to OT.

 

Packed house, great game.

Thanks @TDC.

Not surprised by this outcome. LexCath has clearly been better than their record.