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Highlands 84 St. Xavier 68


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Coming off of a disappointing loss to the Beechwood Tigers last night, Highlands in less than 24 hours later had to shake it off and regroup to take a drive down to Oldham County to take on the Tigers of St. Xavier in the Ronald McDonald House Classic. 

William Herald paced the Bluebirds in the first half by knocking down 5 3’s, but all around Highlands crashed the boards, had great ball movement, and were better at snagging most of the loose balls which will always increase your chances of victory. 

At the end of 1 the Birds were up 17-10, and 36-23 at the half. 

The 2nd half saw Sam Vinson and Luke Muller begin to join Herald in the scoring party with Muller knocking down about 4 or 5 3’s of his own, with Herald connecting on 6 3’s for the game.

Highlands was up 57-43 at the end of 3 

Ben Varga for St. X did his best in trying to keep the Tigers in the game because he was lights out and had a steller shooting performance of his own netting 32 points on the day with 6 3’s

Herald ended the day with 26, Vinson and Muller 21 apiece, and Harris with 12. 

Final score Highlands 84-68


 

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Very impressive victory by Higlands; turned the screws in the first quarter and kept tightening them on X throughout the game.   The Bluebirds were very aggressive on offense, and hit their shots.

Three players with 20+ points was very impressive.

Ben Varga was the only real bright spot for St. X, scoring 32 points.   Highlands never seemed to be able to find Varga, who seemed to get an open look on almost every possession.

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1 hour ago, Tigers20-22 said:

Ben is great. We run way too many set plays; our offense is so mechanical! Hard to watch sometimes. 

I'm not sure what you want to do on offense??  I would bet, without seeing X play, that none of the guards can consistently beat their man off the dribble to create offense so screening, cutting, and ball movement would appear to be the best way to get shooters open and score. 

The reality is X just doesn't have many elite level basketball players so they cannot compete with top teams and they really haven't been able to for the past decade. 

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44 minutes ago, loubballfan said:

I'm not sure what you want to do on offense??  I would bet, without seeing X play, that none of the guards can consistently beat their man off the dribble to create offense so screening, cutting, and ball movement would appear to be the best way to get shooters open and score. 

The reality is X just doesn't have many elite level basketball players so they cannot compete with top teams and they really haven't been able to for the past decade. 

You’re not wrong but there’s a difference between running plays to get a person a shot in specific place  vs running a team offense. I realize that you have to do both but we seem to do the first too often and in my opinion.  That is why I say it looks mechanical.

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  • theguru changed the title to Highlands 84 St. Xavier 68

It seemed early on the St.X players were trying to match the 3s Highlands was hitting. Highlands rattled off maybe 3 or 4 straight threes and X came down and missed 3 or 4 forced threes. Other than Varga there’s just not another scorer for the Tigers. Smith is too inconsistent, Carroll does a good job of getting to the paint but against long teams will struggle to finish at the rim. Mudd can be a good option but right now he doesn’t look very comfortable with his ankle right now. If St.X can get Micah Carter ready, then that would allow Mudd to play the 4 and open up the floor more. 

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2 hours ago, LongTimeReader said:

It seemed early on the St.X players were trying to match the 3s Highlands was hitting. Highlands rattled off maybe 3 or 4 straight threes and X came down and missed 3 or 4 forced threes. Other than Varga there’s just not another scorer for the Tigers. Smith is too inconsistent, Carroll does a good job of getting to the paint but against long teams will struggle to finish at the rim. Mudd can be a good option but right now he doesn’t look very comfortable with his ankle right now. If St.X can get Micah Carter ready, then that would allow Mudd to play the 4 and open up the floor more. 

X tried a little of that at the end of the second period in this game, but we didn't see that lineup long enough to get a feel for its success or lack thereof.

Kind of expected to see it more in the second half, but St. X didn't really go back to it.

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Although Highlands dominated this game, this really was an entertaining game.   Highlands put on an offensive showcase....but St. X's Ben Varga put on a one-may show that had everyone in the stands waiting for the next time he touched the ball.

The only thing the game lacked was the pregame expectations of the matchup between Mudd and Vinson.    Not only did Highlands do a good job defending Mudd and mostly taking him out of the game (figuratively), the Tigers' coaching staff took him out of it some (literally) as it appeared obvious (to us, at least) that Mudd is still not 100%.

As the announcer who had "no dog in the fight", I got to sit back and enjoy the game.    Hope I was able to do justice to the two teams and didn't butcher too many names....

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2 hours ago, ColonelMike said:

Although Highlands dominated this game, this really was an entertaining game.   Highlands put on an offensive showcase....but St. X's Ben Varga put on a one-may show that had everyone in the stands waiting for the next time he touched the ball.

The only thing the game lacked was the pregame expectations of the matchup between Mudd and Vinson.    Not only did Highlands do a good job defending Mudd and mostly taking him out of the game (figuratively), the Tigers' coaching staff took him out of it some (literally) as it appeared obvious (to us, at least) that Mudd is still not 100%.

As the announcer who had "no dog in the fight", I got to sit back and enjoy the game.    Hope I was able to do justice to the two teams and didn't butcher too many names....

I thought you guys did goof job announcing. Only name pronounced wrong was Mekhi Smith but easy to do. 

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 goof job announcing

OK, is that a Freudian slip???   Should I read "good" - or "goof"?   LOL    😅

We mispronounced "Mekhi Smith"?   ooops!   It's not "MEK-ee"?   How should we have pronounced it?   I didn't even check on that one - I've only heard "Mekhi" pronounced the one way....   (sorry)

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