Park Center 97 Andover 91: Five Things to Know

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Top ranked Park Center received a strong challenge from top ten Andover but earned a 97-91 win on a balanced team effort. Here are five things to know!</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>One. Second Half CJ</strong>. This might occur only in the games I watch but this is the fourth time I went into the half thinking "man, CJ really didn't do anything" and then he comes out and takes over the second half. O'Hara had two points and three rebounds at the break (believe there was some foul trouble in half one) and then the 6'5 wing scored nine times in the second half scoring 20 points for the game on 10 of 17 shooting. O'Hara has to be defended by a wing and he's just too strong, too quick, and too explosive for the majority of players that he sees. Park Center opened the lead to double digits in half two and it was about the time O'Hara went on his run. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Two. Jackson the Prospect</strong>. Last June I believe it was I spent a lot of time talking about 6'5 [player_tooltip player_id='1549538' first='Jackson' last='Fowlkes'] as a rapid rising prospect. He's a 2024 with agility, with a handle, and with a nice shooting stroke. He's had a nice season but the last 5-6 weeks Jackson has really played well. Tonight he hit four threes and scored 19 points making half of his 14 shot attempts. What I really like about Jackson is that he is the type of player that is comfortable pushing the ball in quick transition, he is good with the attack, and he can knock out feet set jumpers. Add in agility and size and you have a nice prospect. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Three. [player_tooltip player_id='962227' first='Samuel' last='Musungu']</strong>. After the first four minutes when [player_tooltip player_id='962246' first='Ben' last='Kopetzki'] scored three times I thought Park Center did a great job on him. Ben missed 12 of his final 16 shots so even though he scored 27 (got to the foul line a lot and made all of his free throws) I still think the Pirates did just enough. That said Musungu likely gave the Pirates more trouble than any guard I have seen them play this year and he kept his team in the game. Sam is a physical and quick attacking guard that the Pirates weren't consistently able to transition back and get a body on. Musungu had 29 points on 9 of 24 shooting and 9 of 10 foul shooting. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Four. Pirate Depth</strong>. When you play seven guys and they score 97 points you must have some fire power. I mentioned Jackson and CJ but [player_tooltip player_id='962202' first='JJ' last='Ware'] was the player that had the good first half. Ware scored 17 of his 21 in the first half and missed a double-double by one board. [player_tooltip player_id='1491758' first='Joe' last='Burgess'] had an active game scoring 14 points with 8 rebounds and [player_tooltip player_id='1172835' first='Casmir' last='Chavis'] had a tougher shooting night but he still had a dozen points with seven assists, and of course he did a nice job with the ball pressure. Throw in the seven blocks from [player_tooltip player_id='1284106' first='Chiang' last='Ring'] and that's a great all around effort. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Five. Andover, Deeper Than Expected</strong>. There is more to Andover than the senior pair of Ben and Sam. [player_tooltip player_id='1446222' first='Landyn' last='Nelson'] is a nice third scoring option as a 6'5 senior. He had ten points tonight missing his average by a lay-up. I loved the effort 6'5 senior forward Baraka Tarleton put forth with a 10 point, 10 rebound double-double. Baraka looks to be a hard working player that plays his role willingly on both ends. With [player_tooltip player_id='1441798' first='Chase' last='Pemberton'] and [player_tooltip player_id='2361394' first='Luke' last='Dehnicke'] both being 6'4 juniors that are a key piece to this team I don't think Andover will just fall off. Pemberton is nearly a double figure averaging scoring option and nice fourth option this year. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->