What's more important a milestone or a victory?
Last Sunday we watched the Patriots come back from nearly impossible odds to give Tom Brady a record fifth Super Bowl ring. Which is more important, the milestone or the victory?
Each one has it's own intrinsic value and I'm not hear to answer the question but it parallels to what happened on Thursday night in Glyndon, Minnesota.
The Dilworth - Glyndon - Felton Rebels hosted the Barnesville Trojans in a boys basketball game that lead to the same questions being asked.
For the winning team, the victory matters more because of what it may mean for the rest of their season. For the person who got the individual achievement, that is what matters in the long run. To be able to have his place in the high school record book for as long as records continue to be kept.
When the first 18 minutes had expired the Rebels held a one point edge and I was looking forward to seeing another nail biter. The game didn't play out as I thought it would over the final 18 minutes and finished with winner up 19 points.
The teams got to half time in similar ways, with one player from each team leading the way on offense while the several players chipped in. For the Rebels it was Senior Ethan Edeen who lead the way. The Trojans were lead in first half scoring by Junior Jaden Peterson. After the game, Barnesville probably would have liked to have not taken the time off but those are the breaks that happen.
During intermission the DGF coaching staff either completely adjusted their defense approach or at least made some small changes on that end. I didn't notice if they were in a zone defense before halftime but afterward they were from practically the first inbounds and Barnesville had no answers for it. The Trojans tried to shoot over the top of the zone but barely managed double digits in the second half.
And for each stop that the Rebels generated out of the zone, they ran something on offense that worked. It was all working so well that for the first 7 minutes of the latter half DGF was on a 9 - 1 run. Then again between the 10 and 9 minute marks they put in a 5 - 0 run. 14 - 1 and the game was done. Most of the points that Barnesville did manage to score came after the Rebel reserves were put in the game.
But what about that individual accomplishment that I was referring to?
It came late in the game, from the free throw line. On the second of a pair of shots from the stripe, Senior Kyle Rothschadl hit quadruple digits. 1,000 points. It seems like more and more high school players are notching the accomplishment but frequency shouldn't diminish the significance of it. I like that he got into the club from the free throw line because it's not as attractive as hitting a big three pointer or flushing a dunk. It's much more fundamental then that and can be more helpful to the team because it happens with the clock stopped and no one being able to defend the shot.
It was another game of halftime adjustments and a milestone. If it had come in a loss then a team player would have felt the pressure to say something about rather getting a win. So it's fortunate that it came at home and in a convincing win. It doesn't have the magnitude of the Super Bowl but there definite similarities. As a personal note, it was a treat to be in attendance for another mile stone moment!
Player of the Game
Congratulations to Kyle Rothschadl for achieving the milestone. So while Ethan Edeen played like he wanted to steal some of the thunder, & necessarily so, any time a player is able to get a significant accomplishment like that they deserve a little more recognition.
