St. John's 12/6

Had another barnburner last night against the Johnnies (terrible nickname, one of many in our league). St. John's has a big time veteran core with three senior starters that have all started essentially their whole career to go along with two junior starters that have started the past three years. Those guys all generally play at least 30 minutes a game. Their 6th man is another senior who has not seen a ton of time over his four years but he is a very skilled 5 man with a body like Joe Burger but not fat and balding.

The first half started off as a back and forth first couple of minutes (seems like every game has been like that for us). He find Carl Hipp for a bunch of scores early as he is getting great position position. St. John's pulls away a little as we didn't find their two best shooters in Sam Blank and Andy Burns. That's one of the things we have talked about over and over and we still do it. Very frustrating, hopefully we'll learn and become better. Aaron Barmore hits three early baskets all off of Aaron Burtzel's passes. That is all he does and we couldn't match up with him after going over that for the past two seasons. We ended up being down by as many as 11 and battled back to within five before Burtzel made his first jumpshot of the season, making the game 34-27 at the half.

We were led by Carl's ten points and Mike Campbell had six to round out our leading scorers. Once again, we struggled again from 3 shooting 0-7 in the first half. We are getting good looks too. Just not knocking them down.

Second half was more of the same as SJU got their lead up to as many as 16 with about 14:30 left to play. After that point, Nelson got a "T" for getting on an official after everyone in the gym heard a slap (you can hear it on the film as well) and it wasn't called (sound familiar). After that point, we revved up our intensity and started chipping away on their lead. We started attacking the basket more and getting to the free throw line. As the game wore on, they looked tired and their main players were getting into foul trouble. Momentum was on our side. We kept on attacking and getting the ball inside. We got the game within four points with about 45 seconds left and missed an open layup which somewhat deflated our sails. We were still battling and got it within three but could get no closer. Final score 80-72.

Here is a couple of things that could've gone our way and didn't (no fault but our own). Two guys dove for a loose ball (second time this season and second time this game) and their guy hit it out to Sam Blank and he hits a huge three with about six minutes to play. Mike Campbell and Andy Voigt battle for a rebound (just communicate, AHHHHHHHH), they lose it and it goes right into Barmore's hands and he scored a layup. Those two plays are a potential ten point swing. On top of those two, we go 25-35 from the line (not an awful percentage) and lose by eight.

Stats of the night.

Hamline
38%FG
1-16 from 3
25-35 from line
14 offensive boards
10 turnovers

St. John's
52%FG
5-12 from 3
21-25
6 offensive boards
17 turnovers

Bottom line, we have to make shots. We didn't do a great job defensively tonight but a ton of those FT's for them were in the last couple of minutes. We were clearly the aggressor late. We need to play like that all the time and to have that urgency to win basketball games.

We were led by Carl's 23 and 9 boards. Mike had 15, while Noah Aguirre rounded out our double figure scorers with 13. Levi Wenrich played a solid game at the point with 7 points, 3 assists, and no turnovers. He also made all five of his free throws.

We have the Augsburg Auggies (terrible, I know) tomorrow night at home again. They lost to St. Thomas 65-61 last night at their place. Hopefully, we can knock down some shots.