Gustavus 2/2

Last night we took on the Gusties in a rematch of our overtime game at their place earlier this year. Always difficult to play them because of their motion offense and their physical defense. They tend to create some matchup problems as well because they usually play two bigs, but at the same time it causes a problem for them because our 4 man isn't a traditional 4. So it's a battle of contrasting styles to say the least.

We went back and forth just like any other game that we've had this year with the exception of Concordia. After being down by one with a little nine minutes to play in the first half, we all of a sudden decided to go on a 15-0 run led by Tyler Pannell's three straight 3's. It was an impressive run to watch. We got the lead up to 17 and should've buried them, instead we decided to stop following our offensive principles and let them get back to ten at the half. Not exactly the way we wanted to end the half.

The second half started much like the first with a whole lotta of back and forth action. We never really pulled away like we should have. GAC battled back and got it within five with about 12 minutes to play and then we got our "spurtability" going again and they clearly couldn't recover from it. We got the benefit of the doubt on a questionable call when B Rieg hit a 3. It was close to a shot clock violation and he hit a 3. Coach Mark Hanson was really trying to get one of the ref's attention to get the shot clock violation called. His protests were heard but the call (or lack thereof) wasn't changed. I know it was a really, really close call and it went our way. GAC couldn't bounce back when that 3 got our lead to 12. And it was relative smooth sailing the rest of the way. We got an 86-74 win.

We were led by Carl's big game of 23 and 15. I believe he took a career high 19 shots as well (I could be wrong but I doubt it). Other double figure scorers were Noah with 13, Tyler with 12, and Brandon with 10.

We are currently are 9-5 in the league, a 1/2 game back of the Gusties for 3rd place. I originally thought that we had played the same amount of games but we got the bye last week and they stand at 10-5. We play at an always tough St. Mary's on Saturday as part of a doubleheader in Winona. We have to get off to a good start and hopefully, we can maintain that and put ourselves into a potential playoff berth.