Brought in the new MIAC year with a game at Gustavus. They are always a tough team because they are so fundamentally sound and very well coached. We always seem to give a little trouble because we penetrate like crazy and they have a tough time defending against it. I know for a fact that their head coach, Mark Hanson, does not like when their guys penetrate so they don't practice against it very much at all. We have split with them the previous two seasons with them coming out on top in the first game we've played them both times. And now onto the game.
As usual, we got the ball inside the Carl on the first couple of possessions and he scored multiple times to give us an early 11-6 lead. We showed a little more pressure than we have and it looked like they weren't prepared for it at all. We turned them over a bunch of times in the first half and that just doesn't happen against GAC. As the first half wore on, we were going back and forth as we held an eight point lead with about eight minutes to play. The Gusties (once again terrible nickname) then went on an 14-2 run that had them taking the lead. It wasn't a very good good defensively on the game and on top of that we were forcing some early shots during that time. We have to rely on our offense to get us great shots every possession. We ended up making a couple of boneheaded mistakes late in the first a gave up a couple of layups because of it. Halftime score, 40-37 in favor of the Gusties.
Second half opened up with a 3 from Noah Aguirre. We were all tied up. Time was ticking away and it looked like GAC was going to pull away, up as many as seven points on several occassions but we kept on inching and clawing our way back with a couple of guys making some plays especially Brandon Rieg and Noah. For the last ten minutes of the half no lead grew bigger than four points. Just another barnburner for the Pipers. We kept on going back to the pick and roll with Carl at the top of the key. GAC wasn't making any adjustments to it and we were scoring with either Carl or Noah on basically every possession. Problem was, they were hitting every mid-range jumpshot in sight. With a about 1:20 left on the clock, Noah made a great play defensively and looked to have a break-away layup, one of their guys sprinted back as Noah tried to initiate contact and missed the bunny. We got the ball back with about 40 seconds left and Mike Campbell had a great look from the corner and it went in and out as we went to overtime.
Overtime was our time. We really executed down the stretch and put the game away with making some great passed and protecting the ball. We also made our free throws, which is never a bad thing. It was fun to watch us get a good win against a good opponent. Final score 94-89 Pipers.
Carl led us with an impressive 29 points and 15 boards. Noah had a great stat line with 23 points, 6 boards, 5 assists, and 5 steals. Brandon finished with 13 and played some great defense down the stretch. Mike rounded out our double figure scorers with 12 including going 8-10 from line down the stretch. Levi Wenrich also did a great job of controlling tempo and making the right passes at the right time. Andy Voigt also bounced back from a tough Whitewater game with six points and four boards.
This game was a drastic change from the Whitewater game. We didn't panic, we didn't play tight, and we battled all game long. We ended up outrebounding them 46-32. That rarely happens against GAC because they always have a bunch of bruising forwards to deal with. I'm hoping that this game leads to some consistency the rest of the way.
We have to play tough like that the rest of the year in order to be where we want to be. We play Bethel tomorrow night at Hutton Arena at 7:30.
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