Five takeaways: Lakewood versus Grand Junction Central
The Bear Creek Invitational got underway for their 2ndannual tourney on Thursday with a game of two tales between Grand Junction Central and Lakewood. Lakewood used their defense to shake things up and their opening made it extremely difficult to…
Access all of Prep Hoops
Continue reading this article and more.
Continue ReadingThe Bear Creek Invitational got underway for their 2ndannual tourney on Thursday with a game of two tales between Grand Junction Central and Lakewood. Lakewood used their defense to shake things up and their opening made it extremely difficult to overcome. Here are my five takeaways from my first time seeing both teams this season.
Lakewood’s defense sets the tone
Lakewood’s defense did not allow a single point in the whole first quarter. That was not a typo. Grand Junction got shot after shot at the rim but could not et anything to fall. Maybe it was early season jitters, just being anxious to play against a Denver team or attribute it to good on-ball defense but whatever the case was, Lakewood was able to get out and run and Grand Junction could not get anything to fall which called for a tough game to try and overcome. They finally settled down a moment but the defense that Lakewood implemented in the opening quarter was the story of the game.
Grand Junction gets on the board
Grand Junction could not score in the opening frame, but one thing that you cannot say is they were discouraged. They surely did not hang their heads or get down on themselves, they stuck with it and remained aggressive until something clicked. Luckily for them, things started to fall. They got into a bit of the rhythm as Railin Manchester knocked down a couple of three-pointers to give the Warriors some life. When he hit a 3-pointer, it seemed to calm down the rest of the team and they started playing a bit more comfortable and more 3’s started to rain down. Grand Junction was still down big and had a big hole to overcome heading into the second half, but Manchester gave them a chance in that second quarter.
New Names to look at
This was my first time looking at either team so it was great to see who it was that would emerge, Addison Reddinger is an unranked player that stood out but we will get to him in a second. A player that caught me by surprise was junior forward, Tommy Landmark. Landmark is not too big but played above his size. He grabbed a couple of boards, he used his size and ran the floor and made his impact on defense.
Another player who I enjoyed watching was Isaac Lacy. He was the biggest player on the court and maybe largest in the tournament and he showed that his size truly mattered. The play that stands out for me most was him backing down a helpless defender with another player wanting to play in help-side defense but him not being enough and him backing both down for the easy lay-up. He moves well for a kid his size, he finished easily at the rim (13 points on the night) and he also grabbed every board. He stood out.
Lastly, Dre Beauty for Lakewood. He is a quick and crafty guard that is strong, uses his speed and strength to get around defenders and also showed off great vision. He continued to find the open man, he was aggressive defensively and is a player to watch.
Micheal Bennett and Reddinger
Two players that I made sure to get out and see were Lakewood’s duo guard combination of Addison Reddinger and Michael Bennett. Both players are putting up big numbers and allowing their teams to get a couple of victories early including an early-season upset over Mullen. Through four games, both are dead-locked at 15.8 points a game which is a bit shocking because neither had explosive games against Grand Junction Central in the scoring department but still was enough to win the game. Bennett only finished with two points in the game but it was clear who Lakewood wanted to run the offense through. They got the ball to him and let him create and although he was not scoring the ball in his usual ways he did make sure to find the open man. He had six rebounds and started the break and got others involved he had four assists which all were smart passes that ended in easy baskets at the rim.
Reddinger got his scoring going early as he had the first seven points of the game and looked as if he was going to have a high scoring explosive game but slowed down after that. He finished with 11 points on the night but showed flashes. I am excited to see those two both get going at the same time, especially in a high scoring back and forth affair.
Next for both teams
Lakewood advanced to the winner’s bracket but faced up against a pretty good Arapahoe team that are guard-heavy and want to guard your two best players which did not bode well for them. Moving forward, they will have to find a way to get more from the others and also turn more baskets into scoring opportunities. Plenty of times they turned them over and slowed it down, I would like to see them continue to attack and get the ball to the hot man more.
For Grand Junction, they have not won a game and plenty of it has to do with the way that they begin games, I am not sure if it is a lineup change, running plays that get a few baskets at the rim first or passing it around until they find the open shot but something has to change. They do not have the size so every shot that they take has to be with great purpose and efficiency. If they are able to begin games, not in huge holes, maybe they have a better chance.