Dec
Recap: Grantsburg @ Pine City
Posted in Athletes, Boy's Basketball, Coaches, Posted by Bob | No Comments »It was a nice night for the Pirate boys. Not great, just nice. The Pirates won the game by 11, 55-44 and stayed unbeaten on the year raising their record to 6-0. They were led in scoring by Tyler Myers whom I had down for 18 points. I was also impressed by the Trent Bonneville/Jason Jensen duo defensively and rebounding-wise.
Bonneville, who had scored at least twenty in the past two games was pretty much shut out offensively the entire game, he maybe had four points which was mainly due to the defensive scheme of the Pine City Dragons. The Dragons played a good portion of the night in a 2-3 defense which is meant to shut down the opponent’s inside game.
Grantsburg was relegated to jump shots, and they didn’t make a lot of them, especially in the first half. They were 11-32 from the floor in the first half mainly due to having to shoot from the outside and they came out cold. That changed a bit in the second half when they started canning some of those jumpers they missed in the first.
This was the first time I had seen the Pirates this year and they looked like they really knew what they were doing and they played very well together. Coach Danny Judd rotated eight players in the entire night and all played well, including Thane Larson who was, at least for me, a pleasant surprise coming off the bench canning a couple threes early in the second half and giving Grantsburg a nice lead.
Grantsburg has some good shooters, a good inside presence, and an aggressive defense. I also believe they can play a little better than they did tonight. The game tonight could’ve been a 20+ point win had they come out hot in the first half.
NOTES:
Did anyone notice the night and day difference between the roads in Minnesota compared to Wisconsin? It was like driving on a skating rink and then once you crossed the bridge it was like Lightning McQueen had just finished paving the new road! I could not believe the difference.
I interviewed Byron Higgin during halftime of the game and he seemed very upbeat about his situation of being let go at the Sentinel last week. It must have been an adjustment sitting in the stands just enjoying a game without thinking about story lines or deadlines.
Tonight was my last broadcast of the year. There will be more programming on WXCX, but I won’t be back behind the mic until Grantsburg plays Webster on January 6th.
We’re heading to Iowa tomorrow to celebrate Christmas with Renae’s family. I’m so excited to drive through a blizzard.
I would appreciate prayers for my family, especially my dad, who lost his brother today. I found out about my uncle’s death about half an hour before the broadcast. I was not close to my uncle mainly because of proximity, but it is still a bit stunning and of course losing a brother would be very difficult. Thanks.