Five Takeaways: Grandview versus Rangeview

<p>Friday night brought together the champions from the past two seasons going at it for an early season out of conference battle. It was definitely the game of the night and came down until the final possession to call a winner. In a low scoring slugfest, it was the Rangeview Raiders who came away with the 38-37 victory. Here are my five takeaways from the game.</p> <p><strong>Slow pace early on</strong></p> <p>When you go up against Grandview you know what you are going to get. You will get a hard-fought back and forth chess match that will typically come down until whoever takes it in the fourth quarter and my motto when facing them is, ”the first team to 30 points wins.” This was a slow game from the very beginning offensively where the two teams felt each other out and could not get many shots to fall. Both teams did not want to take chances as they were so committed to defense that the offense was forgotten. The score was 6-5 at the end of the first quarter and 13-12 at the half. <em><strong>IN A BASKETBALL GAME!!</strong></em> If that doesn’t tell you much about the pace here then I am not sure what does.</p> <p><strong>New standout emerges</strong></p> <p>For Grandview sadly there was not a single new name to watch. It was pretty much a two-man show and ended up being the reason for the loss, they will have to have a player emerge if they plan on winning games this year. It cannot only be the same two players doing everything for them.</p> <p>For Rangeview, the player that secured the victory was their man in the middle, Senior forward <strong>Jovaughn Wright</strong>. He was the Rangeview player that calmed things down, every time that Grandview looked as if they would go on a run he hit a big shot and he also banged down low and kept players off of the board. He finished with 10 points, with a couple of mid-range shots, he found holes in the defense and converted. He also had three steals and took a charge. I liked what I saw from him and will be watching him moving forward but he ended up being the X-factor of the game.</p> <p><strong>Rangeview looks the part</strong></p> <p>Rangeview won the championship last season and lost their big man due to graduation. Now with essentially the same team, there was talk of them taking a step back. Not happening. This is a team that is talented and plays with an edge to them. Although their scoring was suppressed due to a defensive gameplan, they still had C<strong>hristopher Speller</strong> get going. He led the team with 15 points. He has come out a bit more aggressive than previous years and it has been a welcomed revelation for the state champs. Wright had 10 and from there it was players impacting the game in various ways. They have a team that is committed defensively and can match up with any team in the state despite not being very big. Grandview is a team that you see just how good your team really is as they have a scheme that they stick to, they got by them and now the fun begins as they will be able to have track meet type of games with big-time scoring. I liked them in their first real test.</p> <p><strong>Grandview has a two-man show</strong></p> <p>Grandview is a team that is still trying to find themselves and a lot of it has to do with not being a deep roster this year. Sadly they are not getting much help from any of the other players and everything is having to go through two of their players, <strong>Caleb McGill</strong> and <strong>Lian Ramiro</strong>. Ramiro must guard the top guard against the opposing team and use his energy there while also having to be the scoring threat offensively. He defends at a high level, bring the ball down the court or the team likely turn it over and also creates in an offense that looks lost right now. For McGill, he has to do it all as well. He is scoring, rebounding in bunches while also patrolling the paint. Luckily for Grandview, he has a great motor and challenges himself or they would really be in trouble. McGill scored half of the team’s points while also grabbing every rebound that went up. He is the source of offensive production and must touch it every time down. If Grandview does not get others to step up very soon they will continue having to squeak out victories. This time the ball did not fall their way and it was due to the lack of help.</p> <p><strong>Last play of the game</strong></p> <p>There is no point in sugarcoating this one, this was a snooze-fest for those who watched this game. It was defense, it was missed shots left and right and there were very few highlight plays as these two teams felt each other out. But the last quarter and final play, in general, was a masterpiece.</p> <p>It started to become a back and forth scoring quarter where both teams hit big shots which only meant one thing – the team with the ball last would have a chance to win it. Rangeview had the momentum as the Speller brother’s started to get going, Christopher on offense and Christian on defense.</p> <p>For Grandview, just as they had done all game long were going through Ramiro and McGill.</p> <p>Although McGill had eight points in the fourth quarter, Grandview elected to go with their point guard to take the final shot.</p> <p>Rangeview put their best perimeter defender in the game, <strong>Isaiah Jamison</strong>(<em>feature photo</em>). Jamison isn’t a player that is put on the scouting report as he did not score as he missed his two shots that he took in the game, he did not play a ton, but what he is going to do is give his all. He entered the game and did what he did best and that makes it extremely difficult for whoever it is that is in front of him, no matter the size. This defensive sequence ended up being the play of the game as it secured the victory. Jamison is a player to watch moving forward and his late-game defense was the game in a nutshell.</p>