Robbinsdale Armstrong 67 Osseo 60 – Five Items to Take Home

<p>Seventh ranked Robbinsdale Armstrong improved to 10-1 last night with a 67-60 victory over Osseo. NHR was there to take in the key moments and top performances.</p> <p><strong>One. Deeper Team Than Expected</strong>. The Falcons have a senior trio in Jake Breitbach, Hezekiah Iyawe, and Adam Biewen that commonly brings D3 coaches to their games. Jake, Hezekiah, and Adam are the team’s top performers but team success has as much to do with developing depth (it seems) as it does with the performances of the best players. Backcourt duo D’Sean Larkins (a junior) and Peyton Newbern (a sophomore) are a quick pair that look to be the future of the club. Larkins is a much bigger part of the team’s playmaking than I anticipated aggressively looking for his offense with success. He had a rough start but settled in for a 14 point night. Also, junior 6-foot-4 wing Dylan Inniger and 6-foot-3 senior Benhur Solomon look to be essential role guys filling out the depth. Solomon hit a pair of threes and was a key rebounder while Inniger did fabulous job rotating and pushing the basketball.</p> <p><strong>Two. Hezekiah’s Game</strong>. The aggressive, strong nature of Hezekiah’s game is something I really enjoy. The power to each of his low post pivots is something I really appreciate because it’s consistent, strong, and he’s always on balance to complete a deep post attempt. Last night Osseo had the bigger post but Iyawe’s ability to move to space with that pivot cleared him from danger. Another thing Iyawe does that I really like is sprint the floor both ways beating size up the court and getting to position for an off ball score or a post touch. This is also a reason that the 6-foot-5 power forward rebounds in big numbers (had 16 points on 7 of 11 shooting with 11 boards). Hezekiah is also a very impressive student athlete with high academic marks.</p> <p><strong>Three. Osseo is Missing Bodies. </strong> Coming into the year we expected Osseo to have a big number of sophomores and a couple upperclassmen gelling their talents for a nice season. So far Osseo is 5-6 and senior Tariq Henry has played in only two games. He was in uniform last night but lead guard Bernard Omooria and wing Donald Ferguson were in street clothes and forward Hassan Kamara wasn’t seen (and at this time of year the assumption is he’s sick). It’s tough enough to be young but missing that many guys makes things even tougher against a top ten team.</p> <p><strong>Four</strong>. <strong>Resume of a Champ</strong>. The Falcons opened the season with a 23 pint loss to Hopkins but since then their team chemistry has led to wins over Minnetonka, Champlin Park, Totino-Grace, and Park Center among others. The team has balance but they also have a tough minded unit that really seemed to value ball movement, a quick striking transition high percentage shot, and defensive activity. Senior leaders Jake Breitbach and Adam Biewen are great examples of what we mean. Jake had a rough night shooting but his early threes, quality ball movement, and aggressive on-ball defense make a mark. Biewen only took six shots but that included a pair of makes at the arc (Breitbach scored 15 points, Biewen had 10).</p> <p><strong>Five. Joseph Ola-Joseph</strong>. There is a nice group of 2022 players that have established themselves because of various reasons. Items include early career team success, scholarship offers from college programs, and of course a player ranking locally and nationally that respects their efforts. I believe the next 2022 player that will join that group is Joshua Ola-Joseph of Osseo. He is 6-foot-5 with one of the quickest leaps you will ever see. But it’s not just the quickness of the leap, its how Ola-Joseph uses it. His deep post spin move into a two-hand drop step dunk as well as a bouncy second jump are two plays that will stay with me. Ola-Joseph has extremely long legs that allow him to fly up the floor with comfort with or without the ball. He’s also an aggressive rebounder that collected seven boards last night plus his game high 19 points. Ola-Joseph was a constant at the foul line as Armstrong’s experienced line-up didn’t have the quickness to react to Joshua on or off the ball.</p> <p>Osseo was without three key sophomores but there are several more to speak of. Six-foot-9 center Blessed Barhayiga had a solid game grabbing nine boards and scoring four times plus 6-foot-5 power forward James Spencer got going with a pair of threes pushing him to a dozen point night. Owen Dukowitz scored a couple times and is a strong worker while Tyriece Waits hit double figures helped by a pair of early threes.</p>