Orono 77 Delano 53: Five Things to Know

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Orono knocked off 5th ranked Delano in convincing fashion on Saturday and we are here to tell you how it happened and who led the way! </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>One. Defensive game plans</strong>. Both teams picked out an opposing option at the start and did a good job of defending that option right away. For Orono, it was denying [player_tooltip player_id='1560739' first='Max' last='Iversen'] the basketball and I am guessing they both...feared Iversen the most and thought he would be the simpler person to deny considering [player_tooltip player_id='1284231' first='Will' last='Strandemo'] was the lead guard. For Delano, they seemed to put one of their agile 6'5 guys on [player_tooltip player_id='1579885' first='Nolan' last='Groves'] and force everything over the top. Delano's plan worked for a bit. Groves missed his first six shots and had a rough day with turnovers (but Groves eventually got going). Orono's plan worked much longer as Iversen didn't make his first field goal until several minutes into the second half (Iversen had 13 points for the game on 4 of 13 shooting). [player_tooltip player_id='1336696' first='Riley' last='Nelson'], [player_tooltip player_id='2408187' first='Lucas' last='Knudson'] and Owen Hirt did a great job on Iverson.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Two. The Support</strong>. [player_tooltip player_id='2408187' first='Lucas' last='Knudson'] not only did some solid defensive work but he hit two threes and scored inside the arc three times for a dozen points. His dozen and the ten points from [player_tooltip player_id='1391203' first='Mitchell' last='Kauch'] (Kauch's average) which included two threes and four of five shooting overall, was a dozen points each in support of the top Orono options. And with Nelson doing so much defensive work he only took five shots so Orono needed more scoring from others, and they got it. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Meanwhile, Delano's support (players outside their top three scoring options) combined to shoot 4 of 12 scoring a total of 10 points total in support. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Delano also needed that support to rebound some, and they didn't. Orono won the board battle 42-21. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Three. [player_tooltip player_id='1484016' first='Brady' last='Wooley']</strong>. Harvard assistant Mike Stotsky was in town to have a look at Wooley and Brady delivered in a big way for his team. The biggest thing Brady did was offer a constant post presence. He played both in the low post and the high post and was really good at getting position in both spots. Wooley took away shots from Delano rim runners (four blocks), he moved the ball out of the post five assists, and he dominated the game with 19 rebounds. Then you have the scores. Brady scored 23 points on 10 of 14 shooting and that included a three, a pair of catch and finish buckets on the move, a dunk, and then several touch buckets in the post on the shoulder turn. His 23/19/5/4 was massive. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Four. Groves Got Going</strong>. The reason that I believe Nolan is averaging 27 points a game is the many, many ways he can score on a team. If you were to fill out a chart of ten different ways a player can score, Nolan goes after all ten of those ways each game compared to other scorers who don't move off the ball well, others who don't know how to use a fake, others who do not run the floor as hard. When you compare Nolan to another scorer, Nolan will likely score more because he has a greater variety. The variety l liked that he went to often yesterday was the pump fake and pivot. Or pump fake to score. Or using the pivot! Groves used that 6'4/6'5 frame to often get deep inside the defense and when that mid-range didn't finish quite as much, he got deeper. After missing his first six, Nolan made his next five and that is when Orono built their lead to double digits. He scored 23 points on 10 of 22 shooting plus he grabbed ten boards because unlike many other good guards, Nolan boards too. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Five. BSM vs Orono.</strong> Benilde has hammered Orono twice this year: 83-54 and 85-68. Keep in mind Wooley only played in the second of those games but outside of [player_tooltip player_id='1579885' first='Nolan' last='Groves'] the rest of that Orono roster could not handle the athletes and toughness of the Red Knights. [player_tooltip player_id='1284155' first='Jayden' last='Daisy'] beat Orono up and he is coming off of a great game against Richfield. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->