St. Cloud Tech 76 Detroit Lakes 70: Five Things to Know

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>St. Cloud Tech knocked off 10th ranked Detroit Lakes 76-70 led by 43 points from [player_tooltip player_id='1284214' first='Tameron' last='Ferguson']. Here are five things to know. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>One. Tameron is Legit</strong>. This is my fourth viewing of a full [player_tooltip player_id='1284214' first='Tameron' last='Ferguson'] game this year and I feel comfortable in saying this is a young man that should land a D1 opportunity this spring. I am fully aware that those opportunities aren't what they used to be with the transfer portal but this young man from St. Cloud Tech is good enough for your low or mid major team. He can play a role for you next year. He scores in big numbers and the shooting percentages are usually quite efficient. Tonight he had 43 on 17 of 33 shooting and I don't think he took one bad shot. At first the Lakers went under screens so he made shots over the top. They stepped hard at him when he tried to attack but his various second moves were too much. They lost Ferguson off the ball and he scored, they lost the ball to him and he went the other way and scored, and Ferguson knocked down two or three big momentum buckets including the steal from Carrier for a dunk and the three that proved to be the game winner in the final minute. Throw in nine rebounds, five steals and three assists and it was a hell of a game from Tameron. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Two. Tech had the Match-Up Edge</strong>. I don't believe Detroit Lakes could move with Tech well enough at nearly every spot to truly slow them down. At guard Jaden Harris got to spots where and when he needed to. He scored three times including late foul shots but it was a late game assist (one of six) that really put them over the edge. Harris also had ten boards. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1293963' first='Mekhi' last='Edwards'] had a really interesting match-up with Brandton Marsh that I thought Edwards won. Marsh is more efficient but I thought Edwards clearly out-worked Marsh and others. Edwards had a pair of And1s at one point that were huge and he had a double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds. I thought he worked harder to get results and in the end it won out. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Three. The Zone</strong>. I really liked that Detroit Lakes put in the 1-3-1 Zone. It slipped Tech up for awhile because the high guy, the guy in the middle and the wing could all converge on Ferguson with every touch. That slowed Ferguson and Tech down for a stretch and helped Detroit Lakes tie the game late. At first I was thinking Detroit Lakes might be angry at themselves for not doing it earlier but then again, I think that 1-3-1 had a shelf life to it and they likely used it at the perfect time. Not to mention, a zone can't do much for a team when Tech is turning them over and getting fast break points as often as they did. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The interesting item is, Tech struggled with this zone and they have Alexandria coming up for a third time and Alex plays zone constantly. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Four. Gopher Football Hooper.</strong> Future Gopher football player Mason Carrier started slow but he made a huge impact on the game. His four threes were crucial to the comeback (DL was down 14 points at one point) as Carrier scored 19 points with nine boards. It kind of felt like touches took a bit too long to come his way but once they did he made a big impact. [player_tooltip player_id='2367924' first='Devon' last='Berg'] also made four threes scoring a team high 23 points. Berg had a four basket run in each half that helped his team stay even.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Five. </strong>Three Year Rubber Match!. To nobody's surprise it will be Tech vs Alex in the section final. Before we shut things down for the night I thought I would give a quick run down of the last three seasons of this rivalry. It's 4-4 these last three years making this one of the best recent rivalries! Good night everybody, see you for Playoff Central in the AM!</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:list --> <ul><!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Alex over Tech 77-54 in February of 2024</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Tech over Alex 68-59 in January of 2024</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Alex over Tech 66-65 in March of 2023</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Tech over Alex 67-57 in February of 2023</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Alex over Tech 81-66 in December of 2022</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Tech over Alex 71-69 in March of 2022</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Tech over Alex 90--62 in February of 2022</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Alex over Tech 90-63 in December of 2021</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --></ul> <!-- /wp:list -->