On Wednesday night, we took on the Tommies from St. Thomas over at their new facility. The facility is really nice, just wish their gym would've been a little bigger. I was kind of expecting a little more considering how much money they put into it. This was a really important game for us and for them. With the win, they secured a bye for the first round of the playoffs and with a win, we would have an opportunity to move past them pending the outcome of Saturday's game. It was a big game for their five seniors as it is their last official home game of their career.
Once Nelson started his pre-game speech I knew something was different than the last time we played them. There wasn't a nervous energy like last time. Our guys seemed really loose and not as focused as last time. I'm not saying being loose isn't a good thing but it didn't seem right.
We got onto the floor and there are already issued with one of the rims. The net on the rim they are using first is all messed up and that delayed the start of the game. A couple of times during the first half the shot clock didn't work or restart (probably a glitch of the system), which gave them what seemed like a 45 second possession on one occasion (probably wasn't that long but it seemed that way, especially with their firepower).
It was back and forth for most of the first ten minutes of the half and then UST went on a run to go up 19-11 and we looked lost. We then answered with a little run of our own and had a several opportunities to either tie or take the lead and we just couldn't convert. We dug ourselves a hole and really could never get out of because we kept on turning the ball over and giving up offensive rebounds. We finished with 12 turnovers and gave up 10 offensive boards, not exactly a recipe for success, especially on the road. We were down 41-33 at the half. Not a huge hole but at the same time it's a similar position we've been in numerous games throughout the season.
The second half started off poorly and we never recovered from it. They made a bunch of open shots and really showed their experience while we showed our youth. I don't really want to get into the rest of the half because it wasn't pretty by any stretch of the imagination. We came out to start flat and we finished flat. Final score, Tommies win 82-60.
The game was very similar to our first game with them, it was just a complete role reversal. They wanted it more than we did on Wednesday and we wanted it more than them the first time around. The one thing about the game is that it gave us an opportunity to play them on their home floor and get familiar with their gym which is where we could possibly play in the playoffs.
We play Concordia-Moorhead tomorrow at Hutton at 3pm following the women's game. The women can get into the playoffs with a win, which would be huge for Kerri Stockwell's bunch. Good luck to them. It's Senior Night for Carl Hipp and hopefully we get a "W" and clinch the 3rd seed for the MIAC playoffs.
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