Hope started Overway, Seiler, DeMaagd, Snuggerud, VanArendonk. Second time Hope's used this starting 5. Alex Eidson was first off the bench, followed by Byers and Gardner. For the most part Hope used 10 players, its the first time its felt like there was any stability to the rotations and substitutions. Steve Whittenbach dressed but did not participate, I would doubt he plays Saturday vs Wheaton, still a target return of next weekend for me.
Game Recap:
Well that went well.
I don't how else to describe it but Hope's first half was a torrid one, so much so I had to do an efficiency calculation just out of curiosity, it was an insane 139 and change. Yes please, more of that and thank you. Hope really didn't establish a controlling lead until late in the half, it was really pretty back and forth throughout. Of greatest concern was Nate Snuggerud picking up his 2nd foul around the 14 minute mark, predictably Hope didn't risk a third foul this time and left him on the bench. Lessons are hard sometimes but fruitful.
Hope outscored Carthage 17-6 in the final 5 minutes of the half taking a pretty nice 13 point lead into the break. Interesting to me is that the Fr. Gardner and Eidson were on the floor for part of this little run.
The second half was nowhere near as offensively spectacular as the first, by the 10 minute mark Hope had built a nice comfortable 20+ point lead. It stayed around there for much of the remaining time until Carthage outscored Hope 10-3 over the final two minutes to close the gap to 12. I'm not sure this was really that close.
Carthage picked up a couple key injuries in this one, enough to maybe think twice about this being the dominant Hope win it looks like. Marlon Senior their 6-5 F and Steve Jaskulske a 6-7 F left the game with injuries late in the first half, that's two of their top 7 or 8 players. It was 33-30 or so around the time this happened and I don't think its surprising that's about when Hope started to control this one. Nobody is very good when you lose 2 of your top 7 or 8, even more so in the middle a game.
I also thought it interesting Carthage's most dangerous sounding player was 6-2 G Reese Herth. He scored 15 first half points, his last first half FG made it 33-30 and he didn't make another FG until there was only just under 7 minutes to play. About 20 minutes of game time, by then Hope had built a 25 point lead. Despite finishing with 23, only about 15 of those were really relevant and Carthage seemed to spend a lot of the game without much offensive punch.
So Hope wins comfortably on a night Nate Snuggerud scores 6 points and plays only 20 minutes, I'll take it. Amazingly, Hope becomes the first team in this little get-together to win a game on the road on Friday night.
depth chart stuff
Very interesting to have Alex Eidson be the first off the bench in this one. Before we tipped the season it kind of looked like Eidson would be the odd man out in the 2-3 guard competition but Whittenbach's injury kept Eidson practicing with the varsity and now he's out there playing a lot in game 4. I'd say at this point the 2-3 spot (other than Seiler/Whittenbach) is still in flux and will be for awhile but at the moment it looks like Eidson has moved ahead of Parisi and McMahon, and since starting the first game McMahon really hasn't seen the floor much.
Chase DeMaagd has really stepped up his game thus far, a guy I had tabbed for spotty minutes has started two in a row and is starting to fill his scoreline with good stuff. Easy kid to root for and simply works and plays harder than most on the floor. Plus at 21 he's more of an adult than me, which is another story all-together. If he keeps this up its going to be hard to not play him.
Josh Holwerda and Chris Ray played a little again, I still think its the injury recovery for both. Brock Benson only played 9 tonight due to foul troubles, another reminder that being a Fr. isn't easy sometimes.
Scoring and Interesting Stats:
Not much difference in the stats between the two teams or anything glaringly obvious other than the FG%. When you shoot 60% in one half you should have a nice lead....check. When you shoot 53% to 37% you should win.....check. Really, the 16-6 run to end the first half was pretty much the margin.
Nate Van Arendonk: 12 points, 5 rebounds........a couple moves that wow'd the radio guys and my imagination. Once again asked to keep himself on the floor with foul trouble to Snuggerud, and did so.
Coltan Overway: 11 points, 8 assists.....not sure you can ask for more from your PG. Great to get him a little extra rest with the big score and Gardner's good play
Caleb Byers: 11 points, 8 rebounds......I believe this is Caleb's first big rebounding day. Nice bounce-back after a rough Hall of Fame classic.
Ben Gardner: 11 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists.......really seemed to be aggressive getting to the basket tonight.
Alex Eidson: 11 points....given an opportunity and seized on it
Efficiency:
Estimated Possessions: Hope 73 Carthage 72
Healthy pace, believe it or not the second half had one more possession than the first.
Offensive Efficiency: 112.44
I'd take this all year. Obviously Hope came way down from their first half 139 efficiency. There were a couple two or three minute stretches of not so good ball in the 2nd half. I think this is 3 times now Hope's shot well over 55% in one half of basketball.
Deffensive Efficiency: 96.69
So far this appears to be right in the range Hope will play at this season which is fine as long as the offense comes through like tonight. I'd prefer it lower though and it will get lower as soon as they stop playing CCIW teams or really good offensive teams. Both teams might have tightened the defensive screw a little in the second half.
Rebounding Efficiency:
Hope: 44.4% of available offensive rebounds
Carthage: 42.8% of available offensive rebounds
Even steven except I think this one might lie
Moment or Play of the game:
I'm not sure any one single play did it, but the last 5 minutes of the first half and first 10 of the second seemed to be Hope's best stretch of basketball.My game ball goes to:
I finally settled on Van Arendonk, 11 points, 5 rebounds and I think a tough ask to defend Luke Johnson who likes to play outside more than inside (at least I think he did, damn you no internet video). This is really one I think I needed to see to be sure but its just for fun so lets role with it.
Standings
Snuggerud - 1
Byers - 1
Overway - 1
DeMaagd - 1
VanArendonk - 1
I don't mind seeing 5 different guys through 4 games, I might have to rescind Snuggerud's because I'm not counting the Faith game.
Going Forward:
Hope got by this one and it sure sounded like their best performance of the year in several areas. The Hope/Carthage boxscore looks a lot like the Whitewater/Carthage boxscore. I'm pretty ok with this as long as its remembered Carthage lost a couple pretty important guys midway through this game and it went pretty far South for them soon after.
Early season games are so difficult to diagnose because you just can't be certain what kind of team you're playing. Carthage could finish 6th in the CCIW or 2nd, we just don't know how this win will look in February.
After Wheaton defensively manhandled Calvin Friday night Hope's facing a totally different animal Saturday afternoon than they've face thus far. I'd say a combination between North Central and Cornerstone's offense with the ability to play some very good defense. Defense I'm not sure Hope has really faced so far. This is going to be a really tough game to win.
But its nice to have a confidence boosting win going in and feeling good about yourselves versus the alternative. Its a good positive step tonight for a still relatively young and inexperienced team that tonight saw a couple Fr. step up and play their best games.
Up Next: Saturday Dec 1. @ Wheaton
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