Totino-Grace vs Park Center 1-30-18

Made my way over to Park Center High School on this Tuesday evening to take in this Northwest Suburban Conference clash between visiting Totino-Grace which made the short hop across the River to take on host Park Center.  The Eagles were coming into this contest in the midst of a so-so season at 9-9 overall while the Pirates were coming in with a solid enough 12-6 record.  On paper anyway this looked to be a relatively easy win for Park Center but, as we've seen before this season, you simply cannot take any game for granted and especially with a tilt with arch-rival Champlin Park coming up later on in the week, the Pirates could ill-afford to take anyone lightly. 

Park Center did get off to a good start in this one as senior guard Sommer Blakemore connected with a lay-up in transition at the 17:26 mark and fellow senior point guard Meghan DuBois drained a "3" from the right top area at the 16:57 mark to give the Pirates a 5-0 lead.  Totino-Grace Head Coach Patrick Bowlin called a thirty-second timeout at this juncture to keep from getting in too big of a hole early on.  That short stoppage in play seemed to give the Eagles new life as senior guard Madison Doran connected with a lay-up at the 16:33 mark and a "3" from the top of the key by sophomore guard Carla Meyer at the 16:07 mark trimmed the deficit to two points at 7-5.  Park Center would get its lead back to six points as freshman guard/forward Adalia McKenzie snared an offensive rebound for a putback at the 15:46 mark and DuBois was able to grab a steal and dash the other way for a lay-up at the 15:32 mark to give the Pirates an 11-5 advantage.  Totino-Grace sophomore guard Arianna LaPanta would make a hard drive for a finish at the 14:52 mark but the Pirates would embark on an 8-0 push to stretch their lead.  DuBois connected with a lay-up at the 14:33 mark and another McKenzie offensive rebound and putback at the 14:08 mark made it a 15-7 ballgame.  Sophomore guard Lauren Frost knocked down a jumper from the left wing at the 13:29 mark and lanky freshman reserve forward T'Naye Griffin connected with a lay-up at the 12:36 mark to get Park Center in good shape up 19-7.

Realizing that it was not a good idea to try and cover the Pirates quick players with "man-to-man" defense, the Eagles' Bowlin had his squad switch to a 2-3 zone defense and that seemed to slow the Park Center drive somewhat and allowed Totino-Grace to gradually climb back into the thick of things.  And the Eagles did a good job of getting Doran free on "back door" lay-ups.  She connected with the first of these at the 11:06 mark and an offensive rebound and putback by junior forward Idara Etuko at the 10:39 mark had Totino-Grace back in single-digit range traling 19-11.  Another one of those Doran "back door" lay-ups took place at the 9:29 mark that kept the Eagles in that eight-point range at 21-13.  Park Center got their lead back to double-digits as diminutive sophomore reserve guard Aaliyah Ragulen connected with a lay-up after a steal at the 9:02 mark and a jumper from the left wing area by senior forward Charo Nickens with 8:39 left increased the Pirate safety net at 25-13.  But Totino-Grace would not give up its comeback effort as Doran connected with her third "back door" lay-up with 7:58 left and a "3" from the right wing area by sophomore reserve guard Shay Lodermeier with 6:08 left helped the Eagles get back to within single-digit range again trailing 25-18.  With 5:17 left, Totino-Grace got another big boost as senior reserve guard Abigail Schroeder banged home a "3" from the top of the key that suddenly cut the deficit down to five points at 26-21.  An Etuko lay-up with 3:50 left kept the Eagles in that five-point range down 28-23 and another Doran lay-up with 3:22 left kept Totino-Grace reasonably close down 31-25.  Both teams hit a bit of a dry patch in the last couple of minutes although the Pirates' Frost was able to help extend Park Center's lead to eight points with her drive and finish with just :02 left that made it a 33-25 game at the halftime buzzer. 

Totino-Grace still held out some hope that it could stay close in the second half as junior forward Brianna Glynn got one free throw to go down at the 17:50 mark and a score in the paint by Etuko at the 16:36 mark kept the Eagles in single-digit range trailing 37-28.  But Park Center had no intention of letting its opponent hang around and quickly went to work to build an insurmountable cushion.  Nickens got into the paint for a score off of an inbounds pass at the 16:09 mark and a Frost "3" from the left wing area at the 15:55 mark pushed the Pirate lead to fourteen points at 42-28 and Totino-Grace's Bowlin had to take a match to a timeout.  But this was just the start of a 14-0 Park Center run.  DuBois uncorked a "3" from the left wing area at the 14:38 mark and a lay-up in transition by McKenzie at the 14:06 mark made it a 47-28 ballgame.  Griffin was able to knock down a short jumper in the lane at the 13:32 mark and a Ragulen lay-up in transition at the 11:30 mark now had the Pirates up 51-28.  LaPanta would finally end the Eagles' dry streak with her jumper from the right wing area at the 9:34 mark but any hope of a Totino-Grace comeback was now officially out the window.

A 4-0 Park Center push thanks to a short jumper by Ragulen at the 9:22 mark and a jumper from the right wing by Frost with 7:33 left got the Pirate lead to 55-30 before LaPanta could get Totino-Grace on the board again with her pretty coast-to-coast lay-up with 6:46 left.  At this point, however, the Eagles were incredibly fortunate not to be in the "running time" mode" and Park Center responded with another 6-0 push.  McKenzie knocked down a short jumper in the lane with 6:30 left and two McKenzie free throws with 6:04 left got the lead to 59-32.  Frost connected with a jumper along the left baseline with 5:40 left to make it a 61-32 ballgame before Totino-Grace's Doran was able to knock down a jumper from the right elbow area with 5:21 left.  But the Eagles were simply unable to string together a series of scores that would have significantly cut into the deficit.  Park Center's McKenzie connected with a lay-up with 5:10 left and a short jumper in the lane by Blakemore with 4:43 left gave the Pirates a 65-34 lead.  Still not willing to give up the fight, the Eagles did put together a 7-0 push.  Doran connected with a lay-up with 4:33 left and then knocked down a short jumper from the left side with 4:09 left.  LaPanta would also drain a "3" from the top of the key with 2:16 left that trimmed the deficit down to twenty-four points at 65-41.  By this point though, both Totino-Grace's Bowlin and Park Center Head Coach Barb Metcalf were content to gradually send in their reserves.  Eagle sophomore reserve post Allison Wilson knocked down pairs of free throws with 1:34 and 1:10 left.  Pirate junior reserve guard Asia Smith drained a "3" from the right corner with 1:03 left and Pirate sophomore reserve guard Abbie Whittemore connected with a short jumper off the glass with :02.1 left as Park Center got the easy win by a 74-45 count. 

The Pirates had three scorers in double-figures on this night.  McKenzie's 16 points led all scorers while Frost had an impressive night with her 15 points and DuBois added 12 points.  Doran was the only scorer in double-figures for Totino-Grace with her 14 points.