St. Olaf

We had St. Olaf last night looking for a little revenge from our loss earlier in the year at their place. Remember, we were up two with 1:51 to play with the ball and lost by 7. It certainly was a tough one to handle and our guys remembered that game well. Olaf (as they will be referred to for now on) now had their leading scorer from last season back in the lineup, Bobby Fong. He missed the first game with an injury.

The game got off to a rough start for both teams. Shooting percentages were very low and it looked like it was going to be a barnburner. Bobby Fong was leading the way for the Oles, making a bunch of tough shots around the rim. He finished with 17 in the first half on 7-10 shooting. Not exactly the way we planned. We were led by Carl Hipp's first half double-double. We were up 35-30 at the half and I felt that we didn't play very well at all. A bunch of stupid turnovers and a lot of early 3's (4-13 in 1st half).

Second half got off to a good start for us but Olaf wouldn't go away. Everytime we got a 6 or 7 point lead they would answer with a score. A lot of it had to do with our 13 2nd half turnovers. That just isn't acceptable playing against a team that doesn't pressure. We probably had 7 or 8 turnovers trying to pass into the post. Just making bad decisions with the basketball or trying to make passes to guys that can't do anything with the ball at that particular place. The game ended up being tied due to us just watching the ball and the Oles getting two offensive boards and their 3rd 3 was the charm. The clock was stopped at 13.5 seconds left and you can see those last seconds of the game on the video below.

Ray Brown led our charge with another 20-10 night with 24 points and 11 boards to go along with five assists. Carl Hipp also had his second 20-10 night in three games with 20 points on 7-8 shooting with 14 boards. We didn't have any other double figure scorers but Nick Carroll is a great job covering Mark Torell, their leading scorer. Nick held Torrell to five points on 2-8 shooting, after he had 27 on us the first time.

We have a huge game on the road on Saturday vs. a red hot Carleton team that has just smacked both St. John's and Concordia.

Here is the video...