East Ridge 62 CDH 60: Five Things to Know

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The Raptors earned a season split with the Raiders on Tuesday picking up a 62-60 victory. Here are the things we picked up from this contest. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>One. Raptors Too Big</strong>. My final rebounding count was East Ridge 39, Cretin-Derham Hall 22. This does not count the odd team rebounds that they tack on the total for things that only the true specialists now. The rebounding numbers were a part of it but it was also a representation of how the Raptors size gave them an edge. [player_tooltip player_id='1284105' first='Charlie' last='Theis'] had 15 points and 15 rebounds, and when he had the ball on balance around the basket there was little CDH could do. [player_tooltip player_id='1284104' first='Charlie' last='Bern'] contributed 13 points mostly in the paint and [player_tooltip player_id='2104513' first='Kyle' last='Frendt'] had nine boards. Also, this trio did a great job setting screens. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Two. The Defense</strong>. [player_tooltip player_id='1560868' first='Joseph' last='Mitchell III'] of Cretin-Derham Hall and [player_tooltip player_id='1560882' first='Cedric' last='Tomes'] of East Ridge are the top options for their teams and they are standout sophomores. Both teams had a game plan to slow production. At times CHD threw a Box and One at Tomes while Mitchell was often denied heavily. I also thought East Ridge did a good job of switching to Mitchell early in the contest. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Miles Bollinger was the player often chasing and denying Tomes and I thought he did a very nice job. Between that effort and the two threes he hit, Miles played his role well. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1284203' first='Parker' last='Wellmann'] was the player denying and chasing Mitchell and for the first part of the game he was excellent. Parker not only defended hard, he scored four times, grabbed seven rebounds and dished out four assists. I would say when it comes to all around performance, Wellmann was the Raptors MVP. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Three. Tomes and Mitchell</strong>. [player_tooltip player_id='1560882' first='Cedric' last='Tomes'] and [player_tooltip player_id='1560868' first='Joseph' last='Mitchell III'] are in that unique position of being very good players at a young age and they often get the positive attention that goes with it. That said, the spotlight is also shined on them brighter. Defenses are catered to what they do. People like myself go into a game like this with a big curiosity of what will happen. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The one game result is in the grand scheme of things, really not that big of a deal. Especially for sophomores. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Defensively I really liked watching the pair. Tomes and Mitchell - who I am guessing aren't driving cars much at this age - so this part of the article is less about picking their defense apart and noticing more about what they can do. I thought Tomes was really good with his first lateral step in defending, and I thought he jumped to his switches quite well. When it comes to Mitchell, I saw many plays were he sprinted to his closeout, where he hustled to his spot, and it looks like Mitchell has the potential to be a nice ball pressure player. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Offensively both started off quite rough in completion. The jumpers are one thing but these guys - and many others in the game - were missing attempts at the rim. Overall for Tomes it was an 11 point, rough shooting game of 4 of 15. Mitchell also started slow but finished making six of his last nine attempts for a 22 point game. His ability to finish on the move through contact and to make shots late gave his team a chance. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Four. Underclassmen Report</strong>. We already spoke about Tomes and Mitchell but there were several others to comment quickly on. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>CDH</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1560840' first='Jason' last='Johnson'] (soph). Quick guard that came off the bench to dish out three assists, grab three boards, and score once. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1548694' first='Keishion' last='Jarmon'] (soph). Jarmon scored twice including a three.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2120499' first='Isaiah' last='Thom'] (soph). Thom is a 6'4 guard that also played off of the bench. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>East Ridge</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1950404' first='Bennett' last='Skinner'] (soph). Skinner is having a wonderful shooting year scoring 12 a game. Last night was a rough shooting night though but Skinner did make all of his foul shots including a pair late with a three down the stretch. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Five. Raptors Rolling</strong>. East Ridge started the season with [player_tooltip player_id='1284104' first='Charlie' last='Bern'] missing a handful of games and [player_tooltip player_id='1547645' first='Grant' last='Miley'] missing nearly two months. It was a rough start to the year dropping seven of their first eleven. They lost five games to ranked teams but also a pair to teams with losing records. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Since then East Ridge has won eight straight games including last night's win over their nemesis. Roseville, Mounds View, Onalaska, Woodbury, and Forest Lake, these were all good wins too and East Ridge is back on track at 12-7. There is a very realistic scenario for them to win 20 games overall and have a chance at state as they just beat the team tied for the best record in the section (along with Tartan and St. Paul Central) and has been considered the favorite for the section recently. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->