White Bear Lake 73 Cretin-Derham Hall 64 – The Rundown

<p>White Bear Lake picked up an important victory 73-64 over Cretin-Derham Hall on Tuesday night. Today The Rundown takes a lot at the top performers.</p> <p>White Bear Lake made a statement immediately that things were going to be different. <strong>Max Steiner</strong>, <u>a 6-foot-6 senior power forward from White Bear Lake</u>, blocked a [player_tooltip player_id="850701" first="Tre" last="Holloman"] shot at the rim on the first possession and the ball was sent ahead to <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="962200" first="Jack" last="Janicki"]</strong>, <u>a 6-foot-3 sophomore shooting guard from White Bear Lake</u>, for an open floor slam. The Bears were up for this challenge.</p> <p>The best point guard in the state of Minnesota is <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="850701" first="Tre" last="Holloman"]</strong>, <u>a 6-foot-2 junior point guard from Cretin-Derham Hall</u>. Tre’s vision immediately made life easier for teammates with the lob to Daniel Montalbano, with the snap ball reversal for a Marselio Mendez three, and the attacking creation to a cutting [player_tooltip player_id="532602" first="Jack" last="Tauer"]. Anybody that defended Holloman was immediately on their heels. Tre also hounded the opposing WBL point guard into an early pocket pick and CDH lay-up. Tre’s ball pressure defense ranks with the best in the nation.</p> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="962200" first="Jack" last="Janicki"] </strong>became the consistent ball handler for the Bears and he did a fine job handling the duel role of initial offense starter and point producer. After he used a ball screen to open a possession with a three point make, Holloman switched to Janicki. About this time <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="962255" first="Jack" last="Misgen"]</strong>, <u>a 6-foot-1 sophomore guard from White Bear Lake</u>, found his stroke. Misgen hit a one dribble pull-up at the elbow, he faded out of the post and scored, and knocked out a corner triple off a skip pass from Janicki.</p> <p>Jack of course wasn’t done scoring. He stole a pass from Holloman and went coast to coast for the kiss off the window while on the move. A few possessions later Janicki was able clear a smaller defender with a screen forcing the switch. With a big on him (likely what Janicki was hoping for when he called for the certain screener) Jack dribbled between his legs into a comfortable step-back three and the CDH big didn’t have quick enough feet to move with the Janicki separation. Jacks’s step through into a runner just before half gave his team a 38-31 lead.</p> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="532602" first="Jack" last="Tauer"]</strong>, <u>a 6-foot-4 senior wing from Cretin-Derham Hall</u>, is known for his defense but Tuesday night we saw some of Jack’s offensive capabilities as well. He moved off the ball for sharp cuts into scores at the rim twice. Also, with feet set, Tauer knocked out a three off a reversal pace in comfortable fashion in half one, and late in the game made a trail three comfortably. Tauer added an attack And1 touching in a score in the second half giving him a 14 point outing.</p> <p><strong>Marselio Mendez</strong>, <u>a 5-foot-9 senior guard from Cretin-Derham Hall</u>, seemed to match every jumper made by the Bears in the first half, with one of his own. Mendez hit the set three off the Holloman pass, he caught one on the curl from Tauer, and Mendez set his feet early anticipating a pass out of the post from Montalbano which Marselio nailed. Mendez is hitting a couple threes each game for CDH this year.</p> <p>To open the second half, <strong>Alex Lockwood</strong>, <u>a 6-foot-3 junior guard from White Bear Lake</u>, set a bone crushing screen on Holloman stopping the CDH guard immediately. Milgren timed the pass with the screen and Janicki made about a 24 foot three pointer to open his second half scoring account.</p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="850701" first="Tre" last="Holloman"] is one of the fiercest competitors you will ever see and we saw five jumpers made in half two. WBL stuck hard with a screen so Tre came back the other way and attacked hard right into a 12 foot baseline pull-up jumper. Moments later, Tauer stole the ball from a Bear and sent the outlet to Holloman. Tre scored a one-handed soft touching runner in the middle of the lane. Tre’s third jumper of the game also came in the middle of the floor as Holloman attacked middle and swished a jumper from about the foul line. Later in the second half Holloman made a three from the left wing after he dribbled a couple times crossing halfcourt. Tre scored 23 points on 7 of 16 shooting plus he made all six foul shot attempts.</p> <p>How would Janicki counter? Like he was a veteran. CDH ramped up their pressure on Jack but he stayed the cool headed type dribble separating from Holloman twice to create <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="774889" first="Will" last="Forsythe"]</strong>, <u>a 6-foot-6 senior power forward from White Bear Lake</u>, lay-ups.</p> <p>Will had three scores early in the second half when CDH was sending so much attention at the WBL guards higher in their defense (WBL ball movement found the open man, Will, cutting in space to the rim). Then Janicki walked up the floor and hit another NBA triple leaving defenders in purple frustrated. This score put WBL up 55-38. [player_tooltip player_id="774889" first="Will" last="Forsythe"] also offered several excellent ball screens clearing Janicki for his 35 point game.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/z3pEFREh2l0" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>