Five Things to Know: St. Croix Lutheran 59 Fridley 57

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>In a sneaky fun match-up on Wednesday, St. Croix Lutheran was able to sneak out a one score win to get their tenth win of the season. Here is what we saw. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>One. Growth of Crusader Juniors</strong>. St. Croix Lutheran is 10-4 on the season now and a big reason for that is the growth of their junior class. They came into the year a bit of an after thought but the development of juniors [player_tooltip player_id='2445213' first='Riccardo' last='Marzetti'] (6'5), [player_tooltip player_id='2445211' first='Ole' last='Skrien'] (6'5), and [player_tooltip player_id='2392477' first='Miguel' last='Rafael'] (6'1) has made them a good team. Guards Mateo Garcia (6'2) and Matthew Beekman (6'1) are also solid contributors from that class as well. This was a 12-15 team last year with this group getting some experience but still playing roles or on JV. Marzetti now leads the team at 16 points a game followed by the 11 a contest from Skrien and Rafael. Quite a nice little hoops story going on. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Two. Fridley Earned the L</strong>. I am going to cut straight to the point, I'm not sure I have ever seen a team having a good year all of a sudden miss this many shots from five feet and in. Fridley didn't make a three and they didn't need to. They were at the front of the rim all game long and while the Crusaders were there to contest often, Fridley missed a ton of makeable shots at the cup. They shot 25 of 75 for the game and missed a massive amount of three footers. The game was right there for the Tigers as they forced a number of turnovers and had a ton of second chance looks but again, they shot 25 of 75. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Three. The Game Changer.</strong> I thought [player_tooltip player_id='2392477' first='Miguel' last='Rafael'] was the game changer. The junior stepped off the Crusader bench and instantly offered energy, a scoring punch, and an active player in all regards. He chased down nine rebounds, scored his 15 points on only seven field goal attempts and four foul shots, and hit a couple key threes. When Rafael entered the game off the bench his team's level of play went up and that is what you want from a 6th Man. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Four. Antwan's Surge</strong>. Fridley guard [player_tooltip player_id='1296151' first='Antwan' last='Smith'] had four steals and double figure points rapidly setting a tone for the night. He was in passing lanes all game and he was starting the Fridley fast break often. Smith had a game high 21 points with five steals and I would say the vast majority of his 18 attempts were right at the cup. He would likely want to get a few of those attempts back as he went to the rim at great speed but overall it was a very nice game for the Fridley senior. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Speaking of Fridley, third leading scorer Trenton Woodall-Jones did not play and leading scorer [player_tooltip player_id='2365722' first='Gideon' last='Cooper'] had a rough outing. Cooper is scoring 18 a game and he is a long, long and agile 6'5/6'6 forward with good potential. He grabbed ten boards but unfortunately had a rough night finishing. [player_tooltip player_id='1309707' first='Bryson' last='Buggs'] really stepped up to score 22 with no Woodall-Jones and Cooper struggling but they came up a basket short. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Five. The Closer.</strong> I keep seeing [player_tooltip player_id='2445213' first='Riccardo' last='Marzetti'] and then I think about how he closed this game out. He is the Crusader leading scorer at 16 a night so it makes sense that he knocked out five of six second half foul shots including two game clinchers, and it makes sense that he hit a key three (two for the game) and scored at the rim late in the game. Marzetti is a skilled 6'5 face-up player with some range and Fridley had a tough time getting a good hand in his face. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->