Preps Game Blog: Henry Sibley vs Tartan

PREGAME

This game is going to be hotly contested as it has become a new rivalry. Henry Sibley has already won the Classic Suburban Conference and they are the two seed in the toughest section out there. Sibley plays White Bear Lake next week while Tartan takes on St. Paul Central and I'm not sure there is a better first round game then that. Tough luck for Central winning 20 games, winning their conference but still getting the five seed and no home game…Sibley has defeated Tartan the last four times they have played…Tartan's JV finished the year undefeated and their B-squad was undefeated in conference play…

FIRST HALF

Marc Sonnen hits his first three-pointer and he's being defended by 6-foot-8 Chris Halvorsen of Sibley…Sam Ryan of Tartan has missed his first three jumpers but it looks like he should be able to get his looks tonight as he's been open consistently early…Aaron Hoverson looks to have added a pull-up jumper to his game as he aggressively put it on the floor…Both teams aggressively defending early and there is a lot of active talk on the floor…5-5…

Its 8-8 seven minutes in and Tartan is really looking to make the Sibley defense work with long possessions….Wisconsin commit Mike Bruesewitz has missed his looks in this game thus far. He's taken an elbow jumper as well as a baby hook and missed them both….Sibley is rebounding tough thus far giving Tartan nothing on the offensive glass and its been Peter Leslie finding the loose caroms with three boards already…Outside of a lob to Sibley's Marcuus Garcia that went for a lay-in the Titans have taken away almost all passing angles thus far and there have been a couple balls thrown away as well as some travels…Sibley has also forced turnovers themselves and they are doing it with their great length getting deflections and taking away passing angles…

Sonnen gets a good screen and sets himself up perfectly off the curl at the top of the key catching and quickly releasing for his third three of the game and its 12-11 Sibley.,..Nice move from Bruesewitz as he catches on the block and turns towards the lane over his right shoulder and hits short jumper shooting across his body. Back the other way 6-foot-3 Tartan power forward James Pritschet scores over Mike….Now its 19-16 as Bruesewitz missed a contested lay-in in the paint and the ball was quickly pushed to the opposite corner where Hoverson hit a three…Sam Ryan is still getting open through the Titan offense and he has two jumpers in a row now and one of them was followed on the other end by a baseline jumper from Bruesewitz…

Tartan up 23-20 and 6-foot-3 sophomore Manani Beavers looked to have a bucket but Bruesewitz snuck to the spot and took a charge…23-22 with Tartan up at the half…The Titans have taken away the offense of Chris Halvorsen and Peter Leslie as both have been limited, Leslie by Hoverson and Halvorsen by Pritschet. Picking up some of the scoring slack for the Warriors has been Noah Kaiser…

SECOND HALF

Shawn Marlowe with two big defensive plays and Hoverson with two offensive plays makes this a 29-22 game. Hoverson made two three-pointers and on the other end the 6-foot-5 Marlowe smashed a Bruesewitz shot against the glass followed on the next possession by a huge deflection that took away a lay-up. Now Sonnen uses a strong Marlowe screen to hit a smooth pull-up at the elbow…

Backdoor cut using the screen on the wing allows Sibley's Halvorsen to rattle the rim with two hands and that looks like a momentum builder there for Sibley…31-24…

Now Halvorsen with a big time tip-dunk and it's a six-point game. That was impressive as Chris mistimed his jump but still got the dunk. Now Halvorsen steals a pass, sends it ahead to Bruesewitz who flips the ball up to Halvorsen for an acrobatic lay-in, 32-28…The run continues with Bruesewitz kissing an eight-footer into the bucket…Two buckets from Kavon Martin and Sibley has grabbed the lead 36-34. Martin is a good story because this young man was a highlight waiting to happen two summers ago with his great vertical but a bad knee injury has taken away some of his explosion. But instead of getting down Kavon has worked hard to become a big role player for Sibley. Martin has become a very intelligent player around the block, he's rebounding, and his defensive abilities have improved…

And just as I get done talking about his lost explosion Martin steals a Sonnen pass at mid-court and goes the other way for a big time two-handed slam. That was impressive and its 40-35. Kavon looked pretty explosive right there and he has also grabbed the last three defensive boards for Sibley…Bruesewitz backs down Beavers to hit a turn-around and this is a 20-4 run from Sibley…42-35 Warriors…

Tartan takes a time-out as they have lost their way. Sonnen threw away that pass and that was uncharachteristic plus he missed on a backside help that allowed a Sibley bucket during the run…After the time-out Sonnen creates a shot for Sam Ryan that goes…Six minutes left…Halvorsen scores inside again and he's had a very good second half…Marlowe backs down Garcia and scores over him. Nice aggressive move from Shawn and its 46-41 with Sibley still up…Halvorsen scores again inside off a pass from Bruesewitz and everything from Sibley is coming from in the paint. A shot chart from the Warriors in the second half would be a huge congestion of marks right in the paint…

Kaiser hits a pair of free throws and it's a ten point game with two minutes left…Sonnen has not produced as much offensively in this half but he has had two very impressive drives to the bucket recently where he weaved his way through traffic to the rim. He makes two free throws and its 51-43…Jumpers really have gone cold from Tartan in this second half. Ryan, Hoverson, and Sonnen can't find the touch late after hitting at times earlier…Sibley is putting the game away from the free throw line as they are up 12 with a minute to go…Tartan's Tim Lubke just hit an NBA three and now Sonnen hits from about that range but its to late as Sibley hits the free tosses and wins 58-49…

POST GAME

Bruesewitz and Sonnen are the stars of these teams and they had some very good moments in the game. Without these guys their team does not have the chance to win this game although they had some down moments as well. Sonnen ended up hitting four three-pointers included in his 19 points while Bruesewitz has 12 points but he was making contributions from all over making the right pass, taking a big charge, and remaining solid on the glass.

But the big difference in the game was Chris Halvorsen. He led Sibley with 13 points and 12 of those were in the second half. From an all around standpoint that was the best half of basketball I have seen Chris play.

Sibley has a real nice mix right now with scorers to go to in Leslie and Bruesewitz, Halvorsen and Maurice Hernandez are specialists who will also create some offense, and then Marcus Garcia, Kavon Martin, and Noah Kaiser are three of the better role players out there. It's a nice mix and Kaiser has really played well coming back from injury. He's a kid I could see playing in the MIAC. Noah finished the game with 11 points while Leslie had eight and they were all from the foul line.