With the Winter weather now having arrived and unlikely to fade off again until March or beyond it's fitting that all the Winter sports are also under way. To kick-off the latest season of seasons a drive across town to see a show down of the schools that boasted two of the best Football teams this year. Football success doesn't mean that there will be a clear translation into Basketball but having talented players helps & both the Bruins and Bulls can boast players of that ilk.
There were only two key crossoverer's from the field to the court but both were key to their team's efforts. They being Joe Pistorius for West Fargo & Dawson Weisenberger for Fargo South. Pistol Pistorius was the cylinder driving the engine for his squad as he poured in 17 first half points while also playing part time distributor so that his fellows could contribute to a very comfortable half time lead.
On the Bruins side, the first half was mostly dominated by Kiir Mabor who matched Pistorius' production but in a much less team friendly fashion as none of his teammates topped five points over the first 18 minutes. Mabor's performance kept the game close for about half of the first half but teams > individuals and that was true once again.
In contrast to the Bruins attack, Pistorius was joined in the scoring column by Brett Liebl (8), Luke Lennon (7), and Tanner Zepeda (6).
So the first half creeped it's way through with a noticeable lack of pace but eventually concluded and I spent the break wondering how long it would take for the hosts to take it from a comfortable lead and probable victory to a certainty. Due to some very effective second half adjustments, it would take all the way to the last minute of the game for West Fargo to have it locked up.
The first of those adjustments was a more equal distribution on the offensive end. Mabor chipped in another 8 points but Weisenberger knocked in 11 and Sam O'Keeffe contributed with eight points.
The second adjustment was a torqued up defense that included a switch to a full court press a few minutes into the second half. The trapping effort by the Bruins worked very effectively in creating turnovers, converting those turnovers into points and generating fouls against several of West Fargo's core players. When the Bulls managed to break the press they managed to get points but the momentum steadily moved to the side of the Fargo school as the second half rolled.
It was never more true then as those fouls forced three West Fargo starters to the bench for the duration. The Bruins continued to push and pressure for extra chance's to close the gap. But even as his fellows had to take a seat, other's stepped up. Most notable for WF was Abdi Sufi with a flurry of defensive and offensive plays to keep his teams lead intact. So as the clock became a villain to South Fargo's effort they played the oh so common foul game. The primary recipient of those fouls was Matt Miller who had been a non factor up to that point.
They chose poorly because with every step up to the charity stripe he went through his progression and nailed the freebies to preserve his team's plan for victory. As I sat in proximity to some of the local school's scouts I wondered what they might be thinking about the contest, all the while I was just impressed with the young man's ability to come in cold and maintain his team's lead! So it wasn't an unprecedented way for things to unfold but turned out to be much more interesting then I would have guessed after 18 minutes of play and was a great first taste of the Winter sports season!