St Thomas 62 Byron 47: Five Things to Know

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>St. Thomas Academy won their fourth straight playing a great team game while the Bears from Byron are a hampered bunch and they fell to 5-4. Here are five things to know.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>One. Like the Academy D</strong>. St. Thomas Academy is a team that is not the biggest, not the quickest, and has some limits, but one of those limits does not seem to be effort and defensive education. These guys fight for that extra step as well as anybody I have seen this year and they communicate and do as good of a job working ball screens and screens away from ball as anybody. They battle to get their length on the ball at all times and I was really impressed with the efforts. Guys like senior Jordan Wold who had eight boards, guys like senior Andrew Fahning who scored four times, and a guy like sophomore [player_tooltip player_id='2104470' first='Manny' last='Smith'] who came off the bench and played really hard (6 boards). Seniors [player_tooltip player_id='1221162' first='Michael' last='Thompson'] (seven points on four shots) and Anthony Pickford also did good things. Coach Khalid El-Amin has them playing very hard. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Two. [player_tooltip player_id='1284179' first='Luke' last='Dobbs'] Continues to Emerge</strong>. Dobbs was excellent at the recent Capitol City Classic and he continued that fine play yesterday with 20 points, seven assists, and five rebounds making 9 of 15 shot attempts. STA had 62 points and by my count Dobbs had a hand in 37 of those points either scoring or creating. He took 15 shot attempts and I didn't feel like any of those attempts were rushed or too difficult. Luke is a 6'2 junior averaging 15 points a game and I would call him a combo guard right now based on what I saw. Some may say lead guard, others would say a really good shooter that also has skill and passes the ball well. I will just call [player_tooltip player_id='1284179' first='Luke' last='Dobbs'] good, and he is playing better.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Three. [player_tooltip player_id='1575327' first='Max' last='Dearborn'] Out</strong>. Max is a standout sophomore and a guy that Byron is really going to lean on for point production. He's a good shooter that will also score in the flow of a quality Byron offense that moves the ball well, they just don't have a lot of finishers. [player_tooltip player_id='1297889' first='Tyler' last='Connelly'] will be one of the guys scoring 15-16 a game for the Bears and he started solid but hit a few lulls and finished with 14 points on 14 shot attempts (a decent day). Isaac Dearboard is a wonderful senior passer although he had trouble finishing. WIll Brian hit three threes, [player_tooltip player_id='1448551' first='Zach' last='Vanderpool'] scored four times inside and Dominic McCaartney did some good things, but it will all mix much better when Max is back on the floor. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Four. Kirchner</strong>. I like what I see from [player_tooltip player_id='962306' first='Michael' last='Kirchner'] every game I watch him play. I simply think he is a better shooter than people know, a better shot creator off the ball than people know, better with a dribble move than people know, and at 6'2 as a senior I think he could be a really good player in the MIAC (or something similar to that level). He's scoring over 17 points a game on a team that grinds possessions to get good shots, and yesterday he changed the game with his five threes. There was a bit of a rough patch for about six minutes but overall he shot 7 of 16 from the floor. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Five. Four Game Winning Streak</strong>. STA has now beaten Mound-Westonka, Minneapolis South, Simley, and Byron to bounce back from a four game losing streak. And this coming week we get to see where they really are in the Metro East as they face Mahtomedi and Tartan. I wouldn't call STA a favorite as the Zephyrs are clearly that, but STA is in that next group with Tartan, Simley, and South St. Paul battling for second and hoping to surprise Mahtomedi. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->