Waconia 59 BSM 51: Five Things to Know

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Waconia handed Benilde-St. Margaret's their first league loss of the season last night with a 59-51 victory. Here are five things to know.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>One. Jackson Got Em Again</strong>. When Waconia and BSM played the first time, the Cats lost but [player_tooltip player_id='1434056' first='Jackson' last='Hayes'] had 31 points. Last night Hayes dominated the glass with 13 boards, and he scored on 10 of 15 shot attempts to put 20 points on the board. His back to the basket game was too strong for BSM size and Waconia did a great job getting Hayes strong touches. Jackson was the catalyst for a big Waconia win and he did it against one of the best juniors in Minnesota. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Two. The Paint</strong>. [player_tooltip player_id='1572689' first='Jalen' last='Wilson'] had a game high 23 points and as the game moved deeper his impact was stronger and stronger. Wilson scored 23 points on 8 of 15 shooting and he showed off the perimeter touch some as well with two threes. However, he had just six rebounds while Hayes had the ten, [player_tooltip player_id='1969343' first='Gavin' last='Olson'] had 11 of them, and then Christian Fulford scored four times in the paint plus grabbed five boards. Waconia just had more bodies battling in the paint defensively and on the glass. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Three. Speedy Lee</strong>. Wilson did the scoring to help BSM keep pace but Ron Lee did everything else. It seemed every time Waconia didn't score it was Red Knight senior Ron Lee flying the other way: with a rebound or after he forced a turnover. Lee was all over [player_tooltip player_id='1560741' first='Will' last='Kirsch'] with a big hand in the Kirsch 4 of 15 shooting day (and Kirsch has been playing so well) plus Lee had five steals. Lee scored a dozen points, grabbed six boards, and dished out six assists. In the loss it was a very strong performance for Ron Lee.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Four. Waconia Balance</strong>. The thing that really stood out to me was that when Waconia leading scorers [player_tooltip player_id='1560741' first='Will' last='Kirsch'] and [player_tooltip player_id='1969343' first='Gavin' last='Olson'] had tough shooting days against BSM defenders who did a good job, they had another option to lean on in Hayes. The team was also able to move the ball and find open space for Fullford to hit. And Kirch and Olson did score just enough to support the team. I also thought Soren Marker and Simon Meath did a good job with their role off the bench. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Five. BSM's First League Loss</strong>. One thing that I really looked past was the actual teams that BSM lost to earlier in the year. The six game losing streak was Park Center, Maple Grove, DeLaSalle, Minnetonka, Totino-Grace, and Hopkins. Don't get me wrong they should have won one or two of those but at the same time that is a high caliber opponent. And I think many of us (myself included) cast them aside for a time without realizing that they were dominating their league (until last night). BSM still has a two game lead in the Metro West with three games to go even after last night's loss. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->