One of these teams was in its 11th game, including 3 in the last 4 days, while the other was playing its 5th game after having been in quarantine for 10 days.  And it definitely showed.  Having said all that, I walked away thinking the better team won the game.

The story of the game was the consistent ability of Holy Cross to get to the rim against whatever kind of defense South employed.  McClendon (finished with 32 points) especially, and also Meyer (12 points) got close shot after close shot.  Even when South played zone, those 2 were simply quick enough, and physical enough, to go around and through whatever was between them and the basket.  South has had trouble this year defending without fouling - I think the average number of fouls committed per game is around 25.  Holy Cross is a team that hit only 2 three pointers in this whole game, and didn't attempt many more, and scored consistently at the rim.  All of which means you'd figure South Oldham to have 50 fouls.  At halftime, South had committed 4 fouls.  Which says something about aggressiveness and willingness to tussle.  Maybe on that end, the 10 day layoff played some factor, but as I said, I suspect this is just a bad matchup for the Dragons.

On the other end.....sometimes you think South Oldham could collectively enter into a coma for 6 months, and come right out of it and hit 10 threes in a game.  And sure enough, the Dragons had 6 threes in the 1st quarter, and 13 for the game.  Zach Dolan got the start on Senior Night, and took advantage of it, hitting 4 threes in the 1st quarter alone and ending the evening with 19 points.  Michel and Davis, the 2 junior starters, each had 16.

Despite all my talk of the better team winning, the game was close, closer than the score indicates.  It was 68-65 with less than 2 minutes remaining - then McClendon got an 'and-one', fouling out South's point guard Davis in the process, and that was basically it.  South was forced to foul, Holy Cross hit its free throws, and what was really a 5 point game for most of the night ended up a little lopsided.

 

26 minutes ago, Mojocat said:

One of these teams was in its 11th game, including 3 in the last 4 days, while the other was playing its 5th game after having been in quarantine for 10 days.  And it definitely showed.  Having said all that, I walked away thinking the better team won the game.

The story of the game was the consistent ability of Holy Cross to get to the rim against whatever kind of defense South employed.  McClendon (finished with 32 points) especially, and also Meyer (12 points) got close shot after close shot.  Even when South played zone, those 2 were simply quick enough, and physical enough, to go around and through whatever was between them and the basket.  South has had trouble this year defending without fouling - I think the average number of fouls committed per game is around 25.  Holy Cross is a team that hit only 2 three pointers in this whole game, and didn't attempt many more, and scored consistently at the rim.  All of which means you'd figure South Oldham to have 50 fouls.  At halftime, South had committed 4 fouls.  Which says something about aggressiveness and willingness to tussle.  Maybe on that end, the 10 day layoff played some factor, but as I said, I suspect this is just a bad matchup for the Dragons.

On the other end.....sometimes you think South Oldham could collectively enter into a coma for 6 months, and come right out of it and hit 10 threes in a game.  And sure enough, the Dragons had 6 threes in the 1st quarter, and 13 for the game.  Zach Dolan got the start on Senior Night, and took advantage of it, hitting 4 threes in the 1st quarter alone and ending the evening with 19 points.  Michel and Davis, the 2 junior starters, each had 16.

Despite all my talk of the better team winning, the game was close, closer than the score indicates.  It was 68-65 with less than 2 minutes remaining - then McClendon got an 'and-one', fouling out South's point guard Davis in the process, and that was basically it.  South was forced to foul, Holy Cross hit its free throws, and what was really a 5 point game for most of the night ended up a little lopsided.

 

Yeah, I'm guessing the South will rise.

Holy Cross was the better team last night and probably would’ve won by a larger margin, but Meyer didn’t play like half the third and sat the entire fourth. As was mentioned earlier, South had no answer for him or for McClendon getting to the hoop. It pays to have a couple of really quick, strong guards. Very hard to guard and trouble for most teams.